CITY Magistrate, Ann McClenan recently freed two policemen accused of the shooting death of Dameon Belgrave at the White Castle Fish Shop on Hadfield Street.

This decision by the magistrate was an expected end to an otherwise simple case. I say simple case because the tell-tale facts of the events went contrary to that given by those who blindly oppose the actions of law enforcement when apprehending criminals. Theirs is the highly tainted view that policemen have no right; and I say absolutely no right going after, far less apprehending a criminal.
In this regard, testimony coming from those quarters is bound to be peppered with opinions and flat-out hearsay allegations. The long and short of it is that their version of the events will be a political account. This concept is ever so pervasive in Region 4, Georgetown in particular, that most, if not all, of these cases of police brutality will meet a similar fate.
Right now, two cases are engaging the attention of the Police Complaints Authority: One involving Colwyn Harding, and the Alex Griffith “shot-in-mouth teen.” I am certain these two will meet a similar end, that is, if they get to the courts. Because I guarantee you the version that is so hyped up by the criminal crowd out there is so far removed from reality that one has to stop and ponder. So, the brutality music plays on.
I would not dwell much into the Dameon Belgrave story, because that has already been dealt with in detail by an astute magistrate, but suffice it to say the true facts of the case runs contrary to the ‘hocus-pocus’ given by the so-called eyewitnesses. Their testimony suggests an out-of-control police who descended on the scene firing indiscriminately at “innocent” civilians. Well, the facts reveal a totally different story, and tell of the police turning up at the scene where they were engaged in a shootout with criminals; and there, Dameon Belgrave got the worst of it.
That version of the events was concretised with the ballistics record, which shows that warheads found at the scene did not match those coming from the police; a story reminiscent of the Linden attack. So, in the face of mounting evidence against them, the magistrate had no choice but to free the accused.
This prompted Cathy Hughes to cry foul at Magistrate’s McClennan’s ruling, with her thinking that this is another Linden. You see, Hughes still has the Linden fiasco riveted in her mind, where the rebels were rewarded for their outrageous behaviour. But I will caution Cathy that this is not Linden; neither is it a commission of inquiry, so there will be no blood-money compensation.
Even if we are to entertain that thought, Linden’s ruling by the Commission could have been quashed in a court of law if the Government had persisted, because the foreign expert they brought gave the same results as the findings of the local expert. The Government was hungry for peace, hence their acceptance of the Linden COI’s ruling.
In fact, as Cathy Hughes is touting a cover-up by the police, then she is free to call in foreign advice on the matter; like the Linden case, she can bring in a foreign ballistics expert. I doubt whether that would happen, because they would not want to be further embarrassed.
The point I am making is that these cases of police brutality are turning out to be a public relations and money-making stunt by the Opposition criminal fraternity, and they are turning out to be costly ones at that. I believe the authorities should pay keen attention to these alleged cases of brutality, with a view to separating fact from fiction before proceeding with these spurious matters. Because the way things are going, if this is not done, Government might very well go bankrupt.
I am making a renewed call for the DPP, Ms. Shalimar Hack, to be more vigilant; be on the alert; and put a stop to this masquerade.

NEIL ADAMS