Christopher Serju, Star Writer

Acting public defender Matondo Mukulu has warned police personnel to stop using goods confiscated from persons caught selling them illegally, for their personal use and profit.

"We found evidence that they were making gifts of these items and, also in some instances, there were members (of the Jamaica Constabulary Force) who were trying to sell these items to members of the public. That's an infringement of people's property rights and it is intolerable. It is intolerable," the public defender told Tuesday's public forum of the Jamaicans for Justice Human Rights Year in Review.

The attorney-at-law told the audience at the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) Auditorium, 36 Trafalgar Road, New Kingston, that he was not condoning the illegal activity of vendors, but, the subsequent actions of the police were equally wrong.

"Yes, they might be trading illegally, and we are not sanctioning or saying that persons must trade illegally. That's wrong, also, but, as your grandmother would tell you, two wrongs don't make a right," he insisted.

evidence

Mukulu said a report of the evidence uncovered by his office, detailing evidence of this illegal practice by the police, more prevalent in downtown Kingston, had been submitted to the police high command, which has responded favourably.

He pointed out that, about two weeks after Commissioner of Police Dr Carl Williams had used the Force Orders, the in-house document on force policy, to remind members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) of their obligations to observe the law, in this regard.

"So in that sense, there was result," Mukulu said.