Human Rights advocate Mary Francis has called for an inquest into the death of New Village teenager Jay-Z Joseph, whom police shot in Vieux Fort on Tuesday.
Francis acknowledged that officers must defend themselves if they come under attack.
However, the outspoken Attorney at Law asserted that when there is a fatality, the police need to give an account of what occurred.
The National Centre for Legal Aid and Human Rights Coordinator observed that the details were sketchy regarding the police shooting of the 19-year-old.
“If they said he was one of three guys wearing masks, what happened? Did he actually attack the police? What happened to cause the police to shoot at him? Was he in the process of committing a crime ?”
Francis told St. Lucia Times all those factors need due consideration.
She asserted that the law requires an inquest.
Francis acknowledged that Saint Lucia is in a serious crime situation.
Nevertheless, she emphasised that the violent crime surge should not become an excuse to cover up unlawful police actions.
The Attorney at Law said she was not indicating that the police acted unlawfully in shooting Jay-Z Joseph on Tuesday.
However, Francis told St. Lucia Times the police must prove that they acted lawfully.
She recalled that inquests into fatal police shootings in the past had returned verdicts of unlawful killing.
Nevertheless, Francis said there had been no further action.
In addition, the human rights advocate declared that police investigations take forever.
Francis recalled the fatal police-involved shooting of 17-year-old student Arnold Joseph in 2019.
“Up to now, the investigation is still ongoing,” she lamented.
Mary Polius, the Government Lawyer.. if you walk around with a mask and a gun in broad day light.. you should be fortunate enough to not get your head blown off. Now leave the police alone, because if it had been a gang war and this youth died as a result of that, we would have never heard from your usless A “double S squared”
Mary strikes again…..a country plagued with gun crimes is being destroyed by a so called educated legal practitioner…a stark example of the failures of democracy. I dare anyone to make her role make sense in the crime fighting strategy….please.
Mary Francis is a mazee.
You that Mary you need to stop let the police do they work .all the killing your mouth shut but the police you on a poll stop it .
All the killing you under a rock now it’s the police u coming please let them do their job thank u
Mary, Mary, why are you so contrary. An internal investigation is already on the way . The rampant killings by thugs don’t seem to border miss Mary. I don’t condone killings of any kind, or by anyone. However, when a known gun slinger is taken out, it removes some fear, especially from those who have been terrorized. The police need to take the upper hand on criminals by any means appropriate and necessary!
Mary what about the senceless killings by gangsters. A lot of us know who they are.
Why are you not commenting and demanding inquest. You waste of time. One day the chickens will come home to hatch and this is for all of us. Hope you are prrpared…..
SMH
…..yeah Arnold Joseph since how long and there are others shootings that preceded him and HAVE NOT HAD A FINAL TO DATE and this the problem with St Lucian Police “Accountability’s “ and no disciplinary body to rebuke misconduct. No one is saying policing is easy in St Lucia there is a thin line between citizens and criminals, but law enforcement has to make themselves accountable to the public of which they serve there must be transparency and RSLPF is lacking there of. So what happened to the other two culprits that were involved that tagged along ? Nothing much is been said of their ware about. Some narcissist has question his motives for being “down south “ given the fact that he resides in the North which is the perfect Segway into his conditionality and his freedom of movement and his right to move freely in his own country with a criminals intent or not that’s another chapter for balance minds, every police killing is not justified, but in cases like this I am willing to give the ben
The people criminal killing don’t they have rights also why when a criminal kill somebody she is no where around and when is the police that’s when she comes out and talk I believe she’s there looking to get money from the government
Yes she is right when ever there is a fatal police killing there should an investigation or an inquest this is the law . We must understand that the human rights lawyer has a job to do to put the matter to rest so let get it going . The police had a job to do to as to protect the citizenry and property but ad we can see this young man was a thug and a criminal . We need to get those cockroaches off the streets . In vieux fort all they do is smoke crack cocaine, weed and drink bounty and steal from hard working people a bunch of jealous and envious people who have a negative mind set in the community of grace you can’t have a plantain or macarbo in your garden they are stealing from the farmers to come and sell by the road side …. So when you see that they are selling plantain by the road is crack addicts that does sell cheap food for them so they can make a profit on the farmers and are using those crack heads to do their dirty work for them …
We know that a country like St Lucia in which thousands glorify a known nefarious, low class , loun mouthed and quite foul individual in the Cabinet of the country- cannot understand an individual like Mary Francis.
The reality though is that with our ‘culture of corruption’ it is vital that someone like Mary is willing to put her head on the block to hold authority to some kind of standard of moral behaviour.
Even at the heights of our socio economic social ladder we have know characters from supposed ‘good families’ who for their own personal agrandizement still support a government with morally repugnant elements who are crushing democracy by corrupt acts and destroying our institutions.
Mary Francis may seem to be a lost crusader like Don Quixote but she is a becon of some moral code in a mini state slowly losing the Christian backbone that built the country.
Ms. Francis perhaps what you should do is the following to help your country battle crime in your time.
1. Call a meeting with the criminal elements (thugs) and let them know to cease and desist from engaging in and committing crime because if they don’t cease and desist with immediate effect they will have NO RIGHTS FULLSTOP.
2. Folk are living in fear and being victimized in St. Lucia round the clock..what about their rights?
3. Law abiding citizens need to live in peace which is their right.
4. Don’t you recognize the criminals have no regard for humanity or the civil rights of their victims?
Mary, I am so shocked. Did you just got up from a deep sleep? People like you are condoning crime in the country. Had the criminal who died killed someone, what would you say, not a peck, and you will blame the government. Officers job well done.
Typical ignorance by the vast majority of St. Lucians. Mary Francis is a HUMAN RIGHTS lawyer. The job of HUMAN RIGHTS lawyer is to ensure the Government and its agents don’t infringe on the rights of the individual. You ignoramuses have access to the internet. Look it up.
Eh ber bon Mary
I want Mary Francis to ask for inquest from the criminals the same way everytime there is a shooting too. SMH.
And we wonder why there are so much crime in St Lucia. It is because of people like Mary Francis who let the the criminals think that they have more rights than the victims they kill. WTF is wrong with that boney woman.
To be honest, when Mary asks for an inquest into the Police conduct, I welcome it. Because if the Police acted lawfully, then we can rest assured that atleast, the Police is being held accountable for their actions and the Law is working to protect every single one of us and also protecting our human rights,…So I welcome Mary doing her job as a human rights lawyer. It shows that the checks and balances that a country needs is working and that can only be good for our country and for every single citizen….so don’t berate Mary for doing her job, she is simply saying that let’s have an inquest to ensure the authorities are not becoming tyrants by acting illegally towards the citizenry. We must understand that there must be checks and balances in a democracy, otherwise things can get really bad very quickly especially when the authorities such as the government and the police can use terror on the citizenry. So Mary, yes. Let’s have that inquest and we want it to be transparent and open to public scrutiny….and if the police is found to have acted legally, society can even be more assured that the police is on the side of the people…but if the police is found to have acted illegally, then we know the law will bring justice for the wronged…in doing so, police won’t just willy nilly extinguish innocent citizens in the future because the police will know that the law will hold every single one of them responsible for their actions….So let’s have that inquest… despite the dire state of affairs in Saint Lucia, there appears to be a ember of hope that we can save our nation.
Early on, I thought of Mary as a massive joke. Time hasn’t changed my opinion, and she remains a bigger joke.
First one must understand the international rights movement driven by the West. The biggest purveyors of “human rights” are Western countries. You would think that names like Guantanamo, Gaza, and a hosts of others (including black sites) would not provoke powerful emotions. Unfortunately, they do. Western countries and their clients are directly responsible for what takes/took place in them. Planned human degradation, deprivation and sickly behaviors occur in places by the countries that purport to support human rights. What a contradiction! The language is something to behold: “enhanced interrogation,” “during investigations, his health deteriorated,” “abusive drift,” “countermeasures to resistance,” “conditioning strategy,” “chart of “moral disengagement,” “walling,”
Western countries have created useful idiots like Mary. These people are blissfully aware that the greatest abusers of rights are those very same countries. What the Mary’s doesn’t understand, that she and others are propped up, so those same Western countries can beat their chest and say what a good boy I am. The West has always been ruthless when it comes to its survival and security. Their total wars where there are no lines between civilians and the military is just an example (World War II area bombing, 1920s Iraq, 1960s Algeria, 1920s Syria, 1970s Vietnam, 21st century Gaza etc.). Were anyone held for human rights abuses? You guessed freaking right.
The label “terror” is easily reserved for White populations that are under fire. Black populations don’t get the same or even half that label. The bias is noticeable to anyone paying attention. Then the right to LIFE is downplayed of Black victims in client states. The perpetrator’s rights is consistently held supreme.
I will never take Mary seriously until everyone follows the rules. I take the system for what it is. Neocolonialism wearing a pretty dress. Did I mention the way they treat their minorities?
To see what is in front of one’s nose,” George Orwell wrote, “is a constant struggle.”
By law, anytime there is a fatal police shooting, fatal vehicular accident and other fatalities there must be an inquest. The police and the DPP are fully aware and it will happen. It may take 6 months, a year or 5 years before we get the results but there is always one. In fact I know of an ongoing inquest into a fatal death of a family member which is in its eighth year and we don’t have a final report or closure. My issue is with Mary demanding such so quickly after the incident and claiming that the police statements are questionable. Mary is even asking whether the police were threatened and whether the young man was in the act of committing a crime. Mary can’t you understand the crime situation. A young man with a mask carrying such a deadly weapon, was he going to greet a friend? Was he going to give his girlfriend a gift for her birthday? Was he going to check on the students having holiday classes at the school? Tell me Mary?There will be an inquest but you are already prejudicing it with the hatred for have for law enforcement.
Miss Mary,
What will you do when God confronts you when you have a grevience against the Slaves for a minimum wage of fifteen dollars an hour and not three cents an hour ?
When it is your power to act on their behalf,as human rights lawyer, have denied and influence in their rights and let their eyes 😭weary ❓
Quite agree that there should be checks and balances. Despite the crime wave, we need to ensure that law enforcement operates within the parameters of the law. Being as it is with human nature, total power usually leads to corruption. However, Mary needs to be discreet about these situations. Do your job, but at the same time do not make the criminals feel empowered.