Jamaican police deliberately killed a group of young men in 2001 in a high-profile case known as the Braeton Seven, not as the result of a shootout, according to a report released Thursday by Amnesty International. The deaths of the youths, ages 15 to 20, were part of a long line of extrajudicial killings of criminal suspects by the Jamaican security forces, the report said. More than 1,400 people have been killed by Jamaican authorities during the last decade. Jamaica’s population is approximately 2.6 million. Since April 2001, an average of 12 people per month have been killed. Many of the deaths at the hands of law enforcement happened under suspicious circumstances. “A lot of the deaths are ordinary people,” said Piers Bannister, an Amnesty International researcher. “We have laws to decipher who has done wrong and who hasn’t. Officers shouldn’t be the ones to decide who should live and who should die.” Amnesty International has branded the Jamaican police force as one of the deadliest in the world for its violent history. The organization also says authorities have carried out killings and torture with impunity. Full Story
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