Reneto Adams has no regrets

Retired SSP Reneto Adams says he doesn't regret his approach to policing, even as he insists that he has never breached human rights or taken the life of an innocent person.

"I am accused of many things, but I walk free all over Jamaica. And man, woman and school children always saying, 'Adams, we want you back.' Everybody calling back for Mr Adams. People saying they want 10 Adams right now because of the crime situation in the country," the former crime-fighter said.

Adams has been barred from entering the United States of America (USA) for what the State Department said is his "involvement in gross violations in human rights in Jamaica". A feared crime-fighter when he served as a member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), Adams has been penalised for his role in the May 7, 2003 killing of four persons in Kraal, Clarendon.

Along with Adams, the State Department has also designated Devon Bernard, Patrick Coke, Shayne Lyons, Leford Gordon, and Roderick Collier as being unwelcomed in the USA.

In the Kraal incident, 45-year-old Angella Richards, 38-year-old Ferris Lewena Thompson, Matthew James and a man known only as 'Renegade' were killed, according to police, during a shoot-out with members of the Crime Management Unit. Two illegal firearms - a Taurus 9mm pistol with six cartridges and a Winchester rifle with 14 rounds - were seized.

Were charged with murder

After several weeks of investigations in the aftermath of the killings, Adams and his fellow police officers were charged with murder. They were, however, acquitted in December 2005.

Adams figured prominently in the 2001 incident in Tivoli Gardens when his now-defunct Crime Management Unit came under sustained heavy gunfire for hours from gunmen from Tivoli Gardens, pinning down the cops inside a high-rise building. The gunfire ceased for a short moment when former Prime Minister Edward Seaga showed up to offer the officers safe passage out.

Adams turned the offer down, and when Seaga left, the gunfire resumed. Twenty-seven citizens laid dead at the end of the stand-off. His unit was also responsible for the the killing of seven young men during an early-morning operation in Braeton, St Catherine. He maintains that he has always operated by the books.

Adams, 70, asserts that he has no interest in reapplying for a USA visa. He said that he had a USA visa for more than 50 years, but had only travelled three times.

"I have achieved everything I wanted before I arrived at age 50. Children gone to university, a home, my land, good health and my integrity intact. So why would I want to go to the US? America has never given me a dollar. I went to the United States to spend money. I never went there to look money. The last time I carried US $9,000 guh spend up deh," he said.

- R.L.