RJR News

Last week’s action by popular Jamaican clergyman, Reverend Al Miller, in seeking to bypass the country’s security forces and deliver the fugitive, Christopher “Dudus” Coke, to the Americans at their Kingston embassy resulted in him being slapped with two charges by the police – harbouring a fugitive and perverting the course of justice.

 It has also sparked a spirited public debate with hardly any neutrals to be found on the sidelines. Miller has either been roundly condemned for seeking to evade the authority of the Jamaican police in favour of American refuge for Coke, or praised for having the courage to take steps to safeguard the fugitive from a police force which many feared might have done him harm. The Sunday Observer related that, even after he was placed in handcuffs, Coke was still reportedly pleading with the police not to kill him. This is hardly an advertisement of the high reputation of the Jamaican police.

 On “That’s a Rap!” on June 27 the debate was split two-to-one against the action of Reverend Miller. In a pre-recorded segment, Monsignor Michael Lewis, Pastor of Stella Maris Roman Catholic Church, was unequivocal in his rejection of the justification given by Miller.

 A country’s laws must be respected by all citizens, irrespective of their status, religious or otherwise, he argued. “The established rules that are there are inviolate and must be respected at all times.”

 He did concede, however that there might be circumstances in which “a law is just so dehumanizing, or immoral or unjust” that the Church says, morally, one should not observe such a rule.

 Al Miller, he said, was facing a serious dilemma because such exceptions did not apply to the case of Christopher Coke.

 “To say that your government wants to speak to this person and you say ‘no; I don’t trust my own government, I don’t trust my own people, and I’m going to hand him over to somebody else’ without speaking to your own local jurisdiction, I really think that was just wrong.

  Regular panelist, Martin Henry, was at one with Monsignor Lewis in the view that Reverend Miller acted improperly.

 “The action of any citizen of aiding and abetting a fugitive outside the knowledge and concurrence of the police is a mater which, at the very least, is dicey. The approach to delivering a Jamaican citizen to a foreign power over and above the heads of the Jamaican authorities is a serious matter” he observed.

 Ian Wilkinson, Attorney at law, strongly disagreed, however, with the decision to charge Reverend Miller, “unless there is more material to which we have not been made privy.”

 At worst, he argued, the pastor was guilty of naivety in the matter, not understanding how the law operates in such circumstances. Handing Coke, the fugitive, over to the American embassy, was never going to be a successful mission, he contended, suggesting that the Americans would not have risked a “diplomatic incident” by taking custody of Coke without the knowledge and consent of the Jamaican government.

 The mini-debate on “That’s a Rap!” was certainly not the last word on the matter. Miller’s fellow church ministers met on Monday, reportedly to develop a protocol to guide how pastors treat with persons wanted by the police in the future.

 Ultimately, the popular churchman will have to answer the charges in the criminal court. Long before that court’s verdict is handed down, however, the court of public opinion will have had its say. This informal court is high unlikely to arrive at a unanimous verdict on this most contentious of issues.