Dear Editor,
Mr. Verwayne Adams (`Only a commission of inquiry can establish the facts:’ SN: 05/08/12), referring to a position I took in Future Notes (SN: 01/08/12), argued that “when Henry Jeffrey prefaced his thoughts by writing “the police action at Linden… killed three innocent protestors,“ he is stating as a fact something that the independent inquiry will have to establish.” Yes, Mr. Adams, but my contention does not require the establishment of innocence or guilt, for even if the persons who were shot had been throwing stones and teargas at the police, the latter still did not have the right to shoot and kill them. So in any event, they were innocent victims of police excess.
Mr. Adams then asked: “If there is no evidence that the persons shot were “innocent protestors” how does Dr Jeffrey believe that there is a very important, more-or-less, overlooked dimension to the entire tragedy?” As I indicated in my article, the excessive police action could be attributable to what I call the Becket syndrome.
Mr. Adams further enquired: “Is Dr Jeffrey arguing that if a government employee makes a mistake or commits an error in the discharge of his functions the entire government should resign?” No, Mr. Adams: I said in the article that ‘I am not one of those who demand the resignation of public officials for minor infractions’, but the killing of protesters can hardly be seen as simply an “error” by a government employee! And when are we going to stop blaming the employees? What we have here is a policy failure, which saw less lethal methods such as water cannon, shields and batons, etc, not being properly deployed, and as such, the call for Mr. Rohee’s resignation was appropriate.
Yours faithfully,
Henry B Jeffrey
