Catholic priest Fr Clyde Harvey yesterday expressed alarm at the 38 police killings for the year, labelling them as “extra-judicial killings” as he delivered the homily at the inter-faith service for the ceremonial opening of the 2014/2015 law term. Admitting at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, Port-of-Spain, he was “steping out of his crease” Harvey said the matter was cause for concern. “Over 30 of our citizens have been killed by police officers,” Harvey told the congregation.
He added: “These have been extra-judicial killings. Let’s name it for what it is. I think all of us have to feel something about that. “I feel a tremendous sympathy, even empathy for the police officers and one of the frightening nightmarish thoughts I had the other night is that there are 30-something police officers who are responsible for 30-something deaths. “Or is it there are a few police officers who are responsible for 30-something deaths, which means that some of them are toting three, four or five ghosts.
“If that is so, we have a problem, a serious problem and all of us are responsible and that affects the law because people on the ground know what is going on.” His reference to people on ground was viewed by many in the audience as a reference to the fact that as a priest he deals with some of the criminal element in his work with in the east Port-of-Spain community and other crime hotspot areas and would, as a result of that, get information to which other members of the public would not be privy.
According to USLegal.com, an extra-judicial killing is defined as a deliberated killing not authorised by a previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court which is recognised as indispensable by civilised people. Harvey said when people lose respect for law and order in that context they lose respect for all, including judges, magistrates, attorneys and everything that has to do with the law.
He told the gathering, including President Anthony Carmona, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams and other dignitaries, that they had a responsibility to be sensitive about these things and to do everything in their power to address and correct it. He said correction could only be done in a context of truth and not of lies. “Some of the greatest enemies of the State are those who manipulate the truth for their own ends,” Harvey said.
Legal fraternity challenge
Harvey also called on the legal luminaries to reflect on the legal system and whether it had brought a better quality of life not only to themselves but to the country. He also called on the law fraternity not to be blinded by the pursuit of wealth but the pursuit of justice for all. He asked: “Is the law a source of life or a harbinger of death? Does law give life to you? Have you ever laughed at the law or wept at it?
“If all you do is simply practise without that challenging that ought to go on, without that pouring of your energy into the resolution of the issues in such a way that you feel the pain of the moments in your practice, something is wrong.”
He added: “In this moment there is a need for a revisioning of all our institutions so that we might be able to meet the challenges. “I ask you to commit yourselves to the clarification of values, to commit yourselves to living those values even if you do not see the fruits of that now and in living it, I pray that God will help you to sow seeds with the need of the ongoing transformation of this land we know and love so much.”
Approached for a comment on Harvey’s statement afterwards, Williams said he would do so today, adding that yesterday was “Chief Justice Ivor Archie’s day.”
