AfriKa CRY BLOOD

The Royal Barbados Police Force needs to look closely at its relationship with the Rastafarian community.

This recommendation came from Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris yesterday as she declared the death of Rastafarian I’Akobi Maloney a misadventure and suggested that he may have felt harassed by the barrage of questions from the police and that he “panicked and made a dash for freedom” when asked to escort them to the station.

The coroner noted that there was a high level of mistrust from the Rastafarian community against the police to the extent that Rastafarians had become paranoid and felt that there were constant forms of victimisation against them, even when that did not exist.

ARMED MEMBERS of the police Task Force were on hand to control the crowd at the Coroner's Court after yesterday's verdict into I'Akobi Maloney's death last year.

Tension

“There seems to be a great deal of tension, fear, mistrust and suspicion by the Rastafarian community, but by the same token, the community needs to look carefully at some of their actions which suggest that they are harbouring a victim mentality and may be looking for injustice where it is not intended,” said the coroner.

She was also very critical of how the police officers dealt with Maloney’s mother Marguerita Maloney, saying that they had given her incorrect information and that their actions may have led to the confusion she experienced surrounding her son’s death. (MB)

A fireman who called police after seeing a stranger in the area of his house in Pie Corner, St Lucy, earlier this year, yesterday denied to a coroner’s inquest that his actions were bigoted.

Anthony Collymore, who lives at Glitter Bay, Pie Corner, St Lucy, testified that he did not call 211 simply because he saw a man with Rasta dreadlocks, but because he saw a stranger in an area well-known for illegal drug activity.

Collymore was the fifth person to give evidence on the first day of the coroner’s inquest into the unnatural death of I’Akobi Maloney.

He told the court that on arriving home on June 17, he noticed a barebacked man with dreadlocks stooping about six feet from a cliff’s edge near his home. Using his binoculars, he noticed a white boat out to sea. (more…)