Dear Editor,

From the front page of your issue for the 13.04.2002, it was learnt [ please note: link provided by LOSP web site ] that the pathologists who autopsied the body of Shaka Blair, found no gun powder residue on the hands of his corpse. Reality? - he had fired no gun before being killed.

For the very first time in the much too long history of police executions in this country, the issue of the credibility of the police has been resolved beyond the shadow of a doubt. Science, for evidential purpose, is the vastly superior revelator.

Regrettably, there still exists the mystery of the missing warheads. Buried so deeply somewhere, it was impossible to find the remnants of the bullets in the body. That would have assisted in identifying the weapon from which they were fired. A crucial item of evidence if the shooter is to be pinpointed.

This is not the first instance in which it has proven impossible to recover warheads from the bodies of persons shot dead by the police, a clear indication that at some level, there is a concerted design to frustrate such efforts as might be made to determine the true circumstances under which persons died at the hands of the police.

The validity of recourse to pleas for indulgence in due process must be premised upon the existence of a level playing field between the parties whose claims are to be tested. Such equilibrium does not exist in this country between the state and its citizens.

Thus, while the President may contend that allegations made against the police must be subject to due process, it may be well to bear in mind the fact that the unlawful killing of an accused person denies him/her of the right to enjoy submission to the same process which the President canvasses for the police.

It is a notable fact that the other branches of the GPF succeed in arresting accused persons, sometimes some very notorious ones at that, without encountering fatal results on either side. Only one unit of the force seems to have been vested with the power of ultimate termination regardless of the circumstances of the encounter.

Those citizens who are frustrated by the frequent depredations of the lawless amongst us and as a result feel tempted to condone the adoption of unorthodox methods of "control" by the police, will do well to remember the words attributed to Sir Thomas Moore, "If we should tear down the barricades of the law, in order to trap the lawless, behind which wall will we seek refuge when they should turn to face us?".