I liked the jist of thisarticle (http://bahamapundit.typepad.com/bahama_pundit/2005/11/protecting_our_.html). My little cousins have a case! I wont even begin to think about the numerous little boys who arget "root up" and their basic civil rights trampled on my out of order police officials. Everylast one of them have a case. I wont even begin to talk about the voiceless illegal immigrants. But what I will say is that the police need to sto they sh!t or they will continue to pay for the wrongs they do.

Abiskabooboo angel you will clean up here Im talking mass tort legislation like never seen before in the Bahamas. This wil be better than a Joh Grisham book with all the "rainmaking" possibilities

Protecting our Consitutional Rights
by Larry Smith

Eighteen years ago, a police squad led by Sgt Drexel Cartwright burst into a Freeport home and arrested a public school teacher from California who was visiting her crippled father.

Twenty-nine-year-old Tamara Merson was summarily frog-marched to the police station and held for three days with male prisoners in filthy, unsupervised cells.

According to a judge, “it was 57 hours of the most harrowing and excruciatingly degrading experiences a young lady visiting the Bahamas could possibly encounter.”

“The conditions were horrific,” Tamara told Tough Call recently. “Like the black hole of Calcutta. There were no toilet facilities and I was in a small space with a dozen men. One masturbated in front of me. One defecated on the floor. I was terrified of being gang-raped.

“We took turns at the three-inch hole in the door for fresh air - it was about 120 degrees in there. One poor fellow threw up. They removed him, but not the vomit. No medical attention. No place to pee, poop, wash, get water. No supervision from the guards.

“I didn't get a phone call. To my knowledge, no one knew I was there. When they moved me, I thought they were going to take me into a field and shoot me. There are so many bad memories that I want to cry.”

Tamara has no idea why she was treated this way, although there is speculation that her father – who occupied the house but was not there at the time – may have offended someone in the community.

The three policemen who arrested Tamara were executing a search warrant because her father, George Clarke, was suspected of running an unlicensed bank. And according to police, Tamara was “aiding and abetting” this illegal operation.

Turns out that while Mr Clarke did make loans, there was nothing illegal about them. But that did not stop the police from eventually charging Tamara in the magistrate’s court. Later withdrawn, the charges were described by judges as a “ruse to justify the arrest”.

Utterly shaken by her experience, Tamara returned to California, and immediately enrolled in law school: “I taught history to five classes of 13-year-olds during the day, and studied law at night. I was so angry at being treated like that...that anybody could be treated like that.”

She got her law degree in 1991 and hired Freeport lawyers Fred Smith and Harvey Tynes to sue the government for false arrest and imprisonment. Mr Tynes has had a similar experience of his own with the police. Mr Smith - a leading member of the Grand Bahama Human Rights Association - specialises in such cases.

In March 1994, Chief Justice Joan Sawyer ruled that Tamara had been treated inhumanely: “In my view it would be difficult to think of any circumstances in a supposedly civilised country which could be considered more inhuman.”

The police were roundly condemned for their “gestapo-style” behaviour and Tamara was awarded $300,000 in damages for wrongful arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and breaches of her constitutional rights

“You cannot arrest a person for ‘suspicion’ and then begin to look for facts or grounds to justify that suspicion and in the meanwhile hold the person,” the Chief Justice said at the time.

But the government deemed the award too high, and in 2001 the Court of Appeal cut Tamara’s award to $200,000, arguing against separate damages for violation of constitutional rights.

So Fred Smith appealed to the Privy Council in London, which last month came down squarely on the side of Tamara Merson – ending an 18 year ordeal. The constitutional damages of $100,000 were reinstated, with interest from 1994.

The Privy Council said constitutional damages “vindicated the right of the complainant, whether a citizen or a visitor, to carry on his or her life in the Bahamas, free from unjustified executive interference, mistreatment or oppression.”

According to lawyer Smith, “people have no idea of the extent of police and general governmental abuse in this country. It is sometimes exhausting, but the fight is important, even if there is no victory.

“It is the fact that people do stand up for their rights that helps prevents further abuse or worse abuse,” he told Tough Call.

In fact, lawyers say there are hundreds of human rights cases pending before the courts – most involving ordinary Bahamians. And now that the Privy Council has confirmed the right of vindicatory damages, there will likely be many more.

And as there is no time limit on such cases, actions can be brought for breaches dating back as far as the 1963 constitution, which introduced the protections into law.

“This could expose the government to hundreds of millions of dollars in damages,” trial lawyer Damien Gomez told Tough Call. “For instance, the extradition case I am working on now is being appealed, and if the Privy Council rules that the five men involved have been unjustly imprisoned for 14 months they will be entitled to vindicatory damages.

“Compare 14 months in jail to a couple of days as in the Tamara Merson case and do the math. If I succeed they could each get $2 million in damages.”

Mr Gomez says he is working on scores of such cases, and several other lawyers are also pursuing constitutional actions. Besides Fred Smith they include Wayne Munroe, Elliot Lockhart, Sean Hanna and Maurice Glinton.

In 1989 lawyer Harvey Tynes sued the police for assault, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and breach of his constitutional rights. He was eventually awarded damages of $255,000.

Mr Tynes was arrested at General Aviation in Nassau for “trespassing” while rushing to catch a charter flight to Andros. He was manhandled, handcuffed, threatened, strip-searched twice and not allowed to make phone calls by a cop whom he had cross-examined some time before.

The police wouldn’t produce documents to the court, although they offered no objection to doing so: “Unless the Bahamas has become a police state, that conduct by the higher echelons of the force cannot be accepted,” the judge complained at the time.

But perhaps the worst human rights abuse in recent years involves an unfortunate individual named Atain Takitota, who claims to be a Japanese citizen, although the authorities in Tokyo deny it.

Now about 40, Mr Takitota was arrested by Immigration officers in Nassau in August, 1992. He had no money, no passport and spoke no English. To this day, no-one knows how he got here or where he came from – despite efforts by the honorary Japanese consul, Basil Sands, to establish his identity.

So, for the indiscretion of being a homeless foreigner, Mr Takitota spent the next eight years of his life billeted with hardened criminals in the maximum security wing at Fox Hill Prison. He endured the most appalling conditions, attempting suicide at least three times.

Five years ago, a prison officer brought Mr Takitota to the attention of lawyers at A. D. Hanna & co, and they applied to the court for his release. He has since been living with a former inmate who befriended him.

Attorney Sean Hanna sued the government for $200 million on Mr Takitota’s behalf. And in 2004, Supreme Court justice Hartman Longley ruled that his eight-year imprisonment violated the constitution, which says “no person shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

He also set aside a 1992 deportation order and directed the government to give Mr Takitota, within 60 days, the right to earn a living in the Bahamas:

“Despite the fact that the Bahamas is not a party to the convention dealing with stateless persons, one would expect that a certain minimum standard of civility and humanity would be the order of the day,” Justice Longley said at the time.

He went on to award Mr Takitota $1,000 in damages for false imprisonment, which Mr Hanna deemed “wholly inappropriate”. So he appealed, asking for exemplary damages. And a ruling by the Court of Appeal is expected “imminently”.

As for Mr Takitota’s immigration status, Mr Hanna says that despite the Supreme Court order he is unable to get a response from anyone in the government.

“There is nothing but silence and a blank wall,” he told Tough Call. “My client is surviving on the kindness of strangers.”

The question arises as to why there there is this persistent pattern of abuse by the authorities. It ranges from police brutality and forced confessions to wrongful arrest and false imprisonment.

“As long as I have been practising here,” lawyer Gomez said, “not once has the Commissioner of Police invited me to address recruits on this subject. If they cared about constitutional abuse the first thing they would do is try to educate officers on how to operate within the law. But they don’t.”

Now, he says, the Privy Council ruling in the Tamara Merson case makes it “imperative” for the authorities be more careful in the way they handle power.

And lawyer Hanna warns that individual officers involved in such abuses will also be sued and their property confiscated.

Meanwhile, Sgt Drexel Cartwright, the officer who arrested Tamara Merson, has been promoted more than once. He is now assistant superintendent in charge of the commercial crime section in Freeport.

But, depressing though these cases are, we must also consider - as journalist and diplomat Sir Arthur Foulkes pointed out in a recent conversation - that the judicial system can still be effective in guarding our civil rights against arbitrary executive authority.

"We have a good constitution but we need to learn how to use it," Sir Arthur told Tough Call. "I congratulate Fred Smith and other Bahamian lawyers who are proving that we are a country where the rule of law prevails."

Of course, as one lawyer put it, we are also a nation of form over substance: "We go from the extreme of ignoring regulations that provide for basic safety (as in the case of jet skis, mailboats, traffic, hospitals etc), and then we have police crackdowns for non-offences like that involving Tamara Merson."

Absolutely Shocking!!!

Maybe I should study law and sue some of those companies who fired me unfairly so many times during my working years!

Most likely there are poor prisoners in this jail right now who are innocent but can't afford legal representation.

But with all these litigations coming up against the govt they could go broke, God forbid! If they have any sense, they'd scrap the Privy Council and use the local appeals court who would most likely be more lenient to the govt!

We here in the Bahamas have been told on numerous occasions that the Bahamas' hands are tired when it comes to effectively dealing with our illegal immigrant problem....Peet, Pratt, Gibson, Maynard Gibson, Hanna-Martin, and even PM Christie all keep shoving in our faces "UN agreements" that's why we can't be tough!

Well, here is the defining article taken from International Convention on the Protection of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (adopted by GA Resolution 45/158 of 18 December 1990). Keep in mind also that the Bahamas is not even signatory, much less ratified the agreement! In fact, as of 2004, of the 34 signators, 17 poor countries have ratified the agreement! None of which are from the major economics in the east or west cohorts! We are NOT BIND BY THAT AGREEMENT! How come everyone can crack down on their illegal migrant workers and we are not allowed to do the same? :cool:

Also remember that this agreement was constructed in keeping with UN Charter, Universal Declaration of Humans Rights, Rights of the Child, Refugee Rights and other UN sanctioned agreements. Then pray tell me why we are being told nonsense by our leaders....that's violation of our Constitutional right to be fairly governed and our laws faithfully carried out!

Take a look for yourself:

Article 68

1. States Parties, including States of transit, shall collaborate with a view to preventing and eliminating illegal or clandestine movements and employment of migrant workers in an irregular situation. The measures to be taken to this end within the jurisdiction of each State concerned shall include:

(a) Appropriate measures against the dissemination of misleading information relating to emigration and immigration;
(b) Measures to detect and eradicate illegal or clandestine movements of migrant workers and members of their families and to impose effective sanctions on persons, groups or entities which organize, operate or assist in organizing or operating such movements;
(c) Measures to impose effective sanctions on persons, groups or entities which use violence, threats or intimidation against migrant workers or members of their families in an irregular situation.

2. States of employment shall take all adequate and effective measures to eliminate employment in their territory of migrant workers in an irregular situation, including, whenever appropriate, sanctions on employers of such workers. The rights of migrant workers vis-a-vis their employer arising from employment shall not be impaired by these measures.

If ya tink er lie...get the Convention fer ye sef. Better still, download the boat load from the UN site-- see the poo poo being fed to us by our oh so enlightened ones! :hot:

Man it seems like the only people who don't know the documents are the ones who must make decisions based on them! They can't put this one on the UN...WE LEADERS ARE SLACK AND MIXED-UP LIKE COUNCH SALAD~that's the problem!

That's a Major assault on the Constitution of the Bahamas!