Give Rastas their due
by Maria Bradshaw
THERE MUST BE a full and lawful recognition of the Rastafarian faith if there is to be mutual respect between them and the police.
And this recognition must first come from Government, said secretary of the Justice Committee, Ras KudosSage I.
He was responding to coroner Faith Marshall-Harris’ observation that there was a high level of mistrust between Rastafarians and the police and her call for the Royal Barbados Police Force to examine its relationship with members of the Rastafarian community.
“The first tangible way would be to have the state make some official recognition of Rastafari as a legitimate religious body as is being done in the United States, Jamaica, Italy and other countries.
“That is where everything originates because the ones with the authority tend to neglect the rights of Rastafari and how we worship and practise,” KudosSage argued.
He accused the police of treating Rastafarians “differently” stating: “Don’t get tie up! Almost every Rastafarian has had some sort of harassment by the police; so it is psychological - a syndrome.”
Suspicions
And he noted that the death of their Rastafari “brethren” I’Akobi Maloney had only deepened the mistrust since there were suspicions among the Rastafarian community regarding his death.
KudosSage, who thinks “strongly” that the police officers involved should have action taken against them, said the Justice Committee would be collecting data against the police and would prove that they did engage in profiling against Rastafarians.
“We will have to put pressure to have something put in place to curb this,” he said.
Other Rastafarians were not as optimistic as Ras KudosSage I.
Mark Alexander said that police profiling of Rastafarians had been going on for years.
“It is only because I’Akobi’s death stands out, but there have been nuff injustices passed on to Rastafarians.
“When you are aware of what is right and wrong and see there is no justice, what good relationship can there be?” he asked.
Ras Bongo Congo I stated that society at large identified Rastafari only with drugs and that should not be.
Run-ins with police
“I had run-ins with the police where I had to call them when things happen to me and they dealt with it second-class. When they see Rasta, they don’t deal with the issues. All they see is drugs,” he added.
Ras Ilex Hartman believed there would always be confrontations between Rastafarians and the police.
“As a rebel, I would stand up for my rights.”
Tags: confrontation, Faith Marshall-Harris, harassment, injustice, Justice Committee, Mark Alexander, psychological, Ras Bongo Congo I, Ras Ilex Hartman, Ras KudosSage I, Rastafari, Rastafari profiling, recognition, Royal Barbados Police Force, syndrome