Jamaica is a poor high crime area. This was true in colonial as well as modern times. In the old days disorder was cracked down on harshly by the British Army. After the Morant Bay rebellion a Constabulary of locals was established in the hope of a middle ground. Yet still Britain interferes. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The uniforms shown on this stamp will be recognizable to any British Commonwealth stamp collector. It does though also show the one huge change that came with independence, there were no longer any white faces in charge. Whether that is refreshing or terrifying depends on your point of view.
Todays stamp is issue A82, a one Shilling stamp issued by independent Jamaica on November 28th, 1967. It was a three stamp issue in different denominations celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Constabulary as it was then thought. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents unused. Curiosity had me check if there would be a 300th aniversary issue in 2016 based on the date the force uses now or a 150th in 2017 based on this stamps dates. There was neither but Jamaica does not bother with many stamp issues any more.
The Constabulary now considers their founding date 1716 when freemen were first hired to serve as night watchmen at the port of Kingston. In 1865 things were pretty desperate for the freed slaves of Jamaica. They were no longer working the fields and that year there was horrible flooding to go with no income. Paul Bogle was an untrained but literate Deacon of a black Baptist church in Morant Bay. Bogle maintained correspondence with literary and religious figures of the British political left from which he raised funds. He had also tried to sollicit a handout from Queen Victoria but she instead wrote back suggesting that her Jamaican subjects work harder. When two freeman blacks were convicted of squatting on an abandoned plantation trouble broke out. Deacon Bogle had a few people in the courtroom and many more armed outside. When the first disrupter was arrested by a baliff, the crowd outside went wild burning the courthouse and nearby buildings and killing 27.
With no national police force, British Governor John Eyre declared marshal law and the British Army marched on Morant Bay. Insert here many stories of random inocent blacks getting executed and or whipped that don’t include any evidence. Bogle himself was arrested, tried in court and executed for his part in troubles.
The British left at home made a big stink over what happened. Governor Eyre was summoned home and faced charges. Back in Jamaica a local constabulary was established, British run, but mainly staffed by local blacks. Governor Eyre was found innocent and the court decided that the charges were filed in error so Eyre was entitled to have his legal expenses covered. Deacon Bogle has of course been rehabilitated by modern Jamaica which is probably why the Constabulary reexamined their founding date to lessen the association with the uprising they were on the wrong side of.
The Constabulary is still involved with the British political left. In 2003, a crime management unit of the Constabulary was accused of extra judicial killings during a brutal gang war with the “Stone Crushers” gang. The head of the unit, black police Captain Reneto Adams was decried in Britain as Jamaica’s version of Dirty Harry. A veteran white Scotland Yard detective was airlifted in to show the Constabulary a better way. Is anybody surprised that the detective turned out a grifter who used the assignment to set up his own security consultancy. I bet the many crime victims of Jamaica would prefer to consult Reneto Adams.
Well my drink is empty and I may pour two more to toast Governor Eyre and Reneto Adams for being there to make the tough decision when trouble came. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.