Judge likens aspects of Jamaican law to an assSays separate law for children born to unwed mothers proves that 'bastardy still exists'


Vivian Tyson, Observer staff reporterTuesday, January 13, 2004

WESTERN BUREAU - Senior Resident Magistrate for St James, Glen Brown, has lashed out at a section of the Jamaican law, describing it as an ass that he has been unwillingly forced to ride.

According to Brown, aspects of the Jamaican law, including the Status of Children Act, just do not add up. He was particularly peeved that in modern day Jamaica, separate laws still apply to children born to unmarried couples.

He explained that whenever a case involving a child born to an unmarried mother is brought before him, he has to determine which law to use "because there are two laws - one for the married woman and one for the unmarried woman, and that itself shows that the bastardy still exists"."

...As far as I am concerned, the law remains an ass, but I have to ride it," Judge Brown noted Saturday night, as he delivered the main address at the fifth anniversary dinner of the Home of Charlotte's Children Foundation.

In another scenario, Judge Brown pointed out that if a married woman went outside of the union and conceived a child and brought an action to get the father to maintain it, under the Jamaican law, she would not be successful.

"The court is going to say, 'look to your husband and not to the child's father'," he said, adding that if a woman divorced her husband and remarried (and the first union produced a child), the first husband would have to support his child under the law.

Turning to the rearing of children, Judge Brown cited the need for fathers to play a greater role in their children's lives, noting that in most cases they are the ones who falter in their role, resulting in the children losing their way.

Using the Malvo case as an example, the senior resident magistrate argued that if the father had played a greater role in the teenager's development, then maybe he would not have wound up in facing life in a US prison.

"Young Malvo wouldn't even have seen the gun that he used, except on TV, if he had remained in Jamaica," Judge Brown told his audience.

And he defended Malvo's mother, Una James, saying that she had "tried" with her son, but failed in her attempts. He added that Malvo's criminal side was created by the United States, even though throughout the trial the Jamaican culture was blamed.

"From day one, they (defence attorneys) were hammering home the Jamaican culture to show that we were wicked people. (But) it is a part of the Jamaican culture that when a child misbehaves we do not spare the rod and spoil the child, but they say it is child abuse," Judge Brown said, adding that the defence attorneys used the absence of Malvo's father and the beating by the mother to correct her son, as the reason Malvo was searching for a father figure in John Muhammad, who brainwashed him.

Judge Brown added that there were a number of Malvos on the streets of Jamaica, but said the reason that the sniper shooting was such a big issue was because it took place in the United States.

Quoting one of the defence lawyers who noted that children were not born evil and when they commit evil acts, it can almost be traced to some evil that had been performed against them, Judge Brown declared, "the only evil act that I know that may have been committed against him (Malvo) is the fact that his parents or his father did not support him
".

Yardie, this quote was taken from the article in the Gleaner about the events which supposedly took place in Negril - "Also, he denied reports that the station was being serviced by only one patrol vehicle. While making it clear that he was not denying the report, Supt. Fletcher said he was not aware that there was a shortage of patrol vehicles. Do you think you can explain it to me becausen sey, mi nat handastanding what it sey! :rolleyes Lata