Blaise Andrew Taylor passes quietly…his case of Police brutality shocked the nation in the early 1980s… and beyond the killing in Mason’s Addition
Former CID serious crimes detective Blaise Andrew Taylor of Yamacraw passed away after a long illness in late August and was laid to rest at a local catholic church,
Taylor rose to infamy in the early 1980s when Supreme Court Judges frowned on how he conducted investigations; which hovered around serious infractions of the Judges Rules on how prisoners and detainees of the Police are to be treated while in custody.
This was a period when criminal convictions at the Court level were largely dependent on confessions and forensic and scientific evidence was barely existent.
It would take a Privy Council ruling during that period which laid down the requirements for scientific and forensic evidence to secure a rape conviction. Prior to that persons were being sent to jail for rape and sexual assault when the court relied totally on the veracity of the complainant. And the confession the Police obtained.
Taylor was the part of a CID team along with another officer who is still alive so we won’t call his name; who were proven to be vicious and brutal.
In that period Policeman did not carry hand guns and only senior officers were allowed a hand gun and a police squad may have a rifle or shotgun in their patrol car.
The situation worked in opposites as serious and dangerous felons who carried out daring armed robberies which resulted in murder were freed by the higher courts who ruled that the confessions obtained by the Police were given under duress and incredible force.
In some instances Judges sent for Medical reports from the Prison where fingers, ribs, limbs and the chest and abdominal areas of detainees showed signs of blunt force and trauma which was received after the person was taken into custody.
During that period, under the Commissionerships of Salathiel Thompson and Gerald Bartlett, the Police were given carte blanche to behave irresponsibly.
It was a familiar happening for the Police to arrive at crowded function such as a sports event or party and openly beat and subdue an unarmed person who they were taking into custody.
Police brutality was the reason given for a tragic period in the early 1980s when a young man who was innocent was viciously beaten by the Police and having served a jail terms for a crime he did not commit the man went on a killing rampage where he targeted and shot police on sight. His first victim was a police Beach Warden, Philip Kemp; standing sentry outside the West Bay Street Police Station across from Long Wharf. Several policemen were wounded when they were shot at in other locations.
The police would eventually track down the assailant and shoot him dead.
In the Blaise Taylor case; Supreme Court Justices would make skeptical comments from the Bench when the case file showed Taylor was the investigating officer.
The thin Blue Line as they call it in policing remained strong and unassailable for years.
In 1974 former Attorney General Paul Adderley charged several CID officers with murder after a Coroner’s Court brought back a verdict of murder. The case was about a body mechanic whom the police were questioning about a series of armed robberies. The man died in Police custody from blunt trauma to his chest cavity. The Police alleged at the time of the trial that before they took the man into custody he was under a car doing repairs when the transmission or gear box fell on his chest.
A Supreme Court jury made up of retired policeman and prison officers acquitted the three senior police officers, in this matter. They are now also all deceased.
The question of Policeman over reaching their boundaries has become a hot button subject in the country and recent Coroners Court findings on Police involved deaths suggest something may be amiss.
Many senior Police Officers on retirement become transformational leaders in their Churches and communities.
Senior Officers accused of serious sexual crimes against minors were not prosecuted and ended up as “Bishops” in churches they founded.
Persons have been shot dead by senior Police Officers who allege the victim was trespassing on their property and a Coroners Court was not convened to make a finding.
The conscience is blaze of police karma.