Minister To Appear At Forum On Police Powers
Bermuda’s Centre for Justice will be hosting a public forum next Wednesday [Nov. 30] entitled: “The Balance between Public Safety and Liberty: Policy Stop and Search Powers.”
The forum has been organised following an increase in the use by the police of their stop and search powers in response to gun crime, said a spokesman.
“It will consider the effectiveness of those powers together with their constitutionality, and also whether they have a disproportionate effect on young black males,” he said.
The panel members include the National Security Minister Wayne Perinchief [pictured], Acting Police Commissioner Michael Jackman, leading local lawyers Peter Martin and Larry Mussenden, CURB president, Cordell Riley, and community activist and president of Youth on the Move, Carlton Simmons.
The forum will be held at St Paul’s Centennial Hall, on the corner of Court and Victoria Streets, at 6 pm.
The Centre for Justice is a non-governmental, non-profit and non-partisan organisation which aims to promote human rights and the rule of law in accordance with the rights proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments.
“Over the short-term we aim to scrutinise legislation and policy to ensure compatibility with international human rights standards and the rule of law; publish user-friendly legal briefing and guidance notes; and hold public forums and debates on fundamental human rights including proposed legislation that may impact on those rights,” said the spokesman.
“In the long-term we wish to improve access to justice by establishing pro bono servicing within the legal community and to provide special legal advice where a miscarriage of justice may have taken place.”
