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Maitland is as guilty as they come

God, Allah, or Yahweh, would have to whisper to me directly and convince me that police constable Noel Maitland is not guilty, as the court found him, of either murdering his girlfriend Donna-Lee Donaldson directly, or contributing to her demise.

Soon after the start of the trial of the constable for murder and preventing the lawful burial of a corpse in the Criminal Division of the Home Circuit Court, it was clear to me that only divine intervention could get Maitland off the hook, as the evidence, as the days wore on, became overwhelming.

It must have been a nightmare for the family of the young woman who went missing in June 2022, aged 24, for them to have endured the emotional suffering so far, maybe even tougher to handle knowing that a body has not been found.

Constable Maitland, who with the conviction, now has to say ‘bye bye’ to the Jamaica Constabulary Force, and look toward spending, potentially, over 30 years locked away from civilisation and the fine life that he had the chance to enjoy as he could have afforded to.

There is a certain challenge in this life that men often undergo, and that is how to control their emotions and aggression when it comes to women. Those men who go for men seem to have a similar challenge too; the only difference is same sex individuals appear to be far more brutal when it comes to going into revenge mode, although I am seeing far less of those matters these days.

Many men involved with women, whose relationships turn sour, do not have the strength to walk away from the women who are not singing their Sankey. They get far too violent and when they do those silly things, that’s the time remorse is relied upon to save them from the pangs of prison. They are lucky that the hangman’s noose has seemingly been officially set aside.

The lead attorney for Noel Maitland, Christopher Townsend, a seasoned man at the bar, uttered some quite unusual words after the verdict was handed down last week, in interviews with reporters. Townsend questioned the time it took for the jury to arrive at a verdict – just over three and a half hours – appearing to view that as irregular. In my time of covering court matters, I have seen verdicts handed down in far less time, and that’s what happens when the evidence is so clear and overwhelmingly in favour of one side.

It also seemed that Townsend was not too happy with how judge Leighton Pusey conducted himself, saying that the summing up was ‘very short’, which itself is not unusual. But look, there is a place called the Court of Appeal where matters of the sort can be fleshed out, so the in the heat of the moment utterances were uncalled for. 

Can so many technical people be wrong about the health sector?

As I watched the All Angles programme on Television Jamaica last Wednesday, I was left to wonder if I were in a zone all by myself, hurling stones at the man who has been presiding over Jamaica’s dying health sector for 10 years on the trot.

I saw, the Opposition spokesman on Health & Wellness, Dr Alfred Dawes repeating, and revealing, some of what has been happening, and which needed to be corrected for there to be at least hope. I said, well, people are going to say that he is too critical of the Government and he is only seeking power.

But then, there were two others on the panel voicing their frustration and fearing that the worst could happen, if the challenges are not tackled forthwith. They were the president of the Jamaica Medical Doctors Association, Dr Renee Badroe, and the president of the Nurses Association of Jamaica, Dawn-Marie Richards.

Wow!, I thought. These women are brave…dangerously so. Aren’t they afraid of the backlash that the lumpen element is usually trained to unleash when their masters are attacked?

What the women revealed, though, were things that not even Dr Dawes was aware of. They were not lying or orchestrating a smear campaign against Dr Christopher Tufton and his band of great pretenders in health, who rely on daily injections of public relations and promises to keep us all as patients, admitted or not, in the department of hope. 

Melissa, that demon of a hurricane, continues to take the blame for incompetence and what existed long before anyone thought about a new hurricane season. That’s how it is in Jamaica. Whenever people in charge do not know what to do about fixing problems, they rush to find the nearest shelter. The problem is, all shelters are going out of business, so what will come next?

The loss of ‘Cat’ Coore, and Jennifer at Coronation Market

Two people dear to me transitioned in recent days that has me scratching for hair in areas that they are non-existent.

Stephen ‘Cat’ Coore, and Debraly Coleman, known to everybody who used the Coronation Market, as simply, Jennifer are, sadly, no longer around.

Coore, musician extraordinaire and co-founder of Third World Band was a one-of-a-kind individual, who stepped away from life on January 18. Shocking it was, as only weeks before we last met up in unorthodox fashion near Manor Park in St Andrew, having a road chat, and effectively hindering traffic at one time. It was a time when I felt happy not to have the police patrolling the area.

Cat then, was wasting his time sending his blood pressure up by placing the subject of West Indies cricket high on the agenda. He was quite fond of the sport, but wept internally about decades of embarrassing results that have left the game, so fondly adored by Caribbean people for decades, in tatters.

In fact, we first met at a cricket match in Barbados many years ago. He was close to former Jamaica and West Indies captain James “Jimmy” Adams, and we sometimes linked up at Kingston Cricket Club during and after regional and international matches for a few sips.

Cat was humble – the kind of man whom anyone could approach without fear of being humiliated. 

His contribution to the world in music in particular cannot be adequately described in the most flowery of words.

Jennifer, who went on her way three days before Cat, came through the rigours of West Kingston and established herself as a stalwart in selling produce. For at least 30 years that I know of, she managed her stall, at first attracting me with my favourite fruit – grape – at prices that would embarrass supermarket operators. They were always fresh and sweet.

Other purchases would follow each week – you name them apple, ginger, carrot, Irish potato, tomato, Kiwi, pear … in fact, over 70 per cent of my weekly purchases were from Jennifer.

For the long term, you often test the people you deal with, and on two occasions, I told her that I had insufficient funds to take care of the bill. No worries to her. I took the stuff and returned a day or two later to make the payment, which I had on me in the first place.

There were even times when I bought fruits, and, miraculously, left them right on the counter. Jennifer would secure them, wait until I returned, and if I took too long, she would replace them with fresh items at no extra cost.

How she juggled her market business with the upbringing of her children, six of whom I know, including national boxing champion Jerone Ennis, was admirable.

My colleagues in media, Milton Walker and George Davis, also customers of her, can attest. Like, Cat, she was a nation builder extraordinaire.

Unease in the world’s most famous land 

The brutal shooting death of Minneapolis, Minnesota resident Alex Pretti last week has opened the eyes of the world that things happening nowadays in the United States that the globe thought were in the past, were far from that.

The US’s Department of Homeland Security claims Pretti wanted to “massacre law enforcement” without a shred of evidence, emphasising that Pretti had a weapon on him, a 9mm ‘high capacity’ handgun, and dozens of rounds of ammunition, although he was a licensed holder and was allowed to.

Videos, though, told a different story, among them, one that caught border patrol agents collaring him, pushing him to the ground, kicking him all over, and then a barrage of shots were heard, ending up with a fatality. This is not the United States that we know. Something is amiss, and comes far too close to what led to the killing of an innocent woman by border patrol personnel mere days before.

It is not a good look on the United States. There are too many issues and incidents going on now with the country’s administration that threaten many of the gains made by previous administrations.

As things stand now, we have been thrown into a circus of unease, and no one knows if, or when, good sense will prevail and close it down