Police often let persons with small amounts of cannabis off- ACP Morris
While the police may very well be in authority to exercise such a discretion, the argument is that such powers should not rest with them since it is unfair to others who may not “get lucky” to be spared prosecution.
Mr Morris appeared on ZROD 103.7 FM’s Morning Ride Show on February 20, 2013 and told host, DJ Paul ‘Gadeithz’ Peart that part of the job of the force is to treat people with equality if not necessarily equally and and that police can also exercise their discretion whether to prosecute a crime or not based on the nature of it.
Obviously, in terms of policing, every police officer has the ability to use their discretion and what officers do sometimes…we get operations over the weekend and we arrest individuals with small amounts of cannabis, we take them to the station, we caution them, because they have had no previous convictions and release them.
At this point Mr Peart asked the Acting Commissioner to “say that again…”
“That’s right, because they have had small amounts, and am talking about very, very small amounts, personal use, they have had no previous convictions, they have not come across as having committed any unlawful activity so we use our discretion, we talk to them, caution them and release them,” Mr Morris explained.
“I have seen persons taking to court over a small amount of marijuana and they didn’t have any previous matters before the court and had a clean record so I really don’t understand how that could be fair to some persons,” one resident told Virgin Islands News Online on the basis of anonymity.
“Cannabis is unlawful therefore, whether big or small, personal use or not, it is not legal in the BVI so not one should be spared. In doing so you give people the go ahead to smoke even when issuing a warning,” another person commented.
“If the police have that discretion, according to law, then I see no problem with that. The court is already burdened with huge amount of cases and so they really don’t need those pettiness to further pile up on them,” was the comment of a taxi driver.
A prominent lawyer practicing in the Virgin Islands related to Virgin islands News Online that the police is allowed to exercise such a discretion as Mr Morris indicated but noted that it is usually accompanied by a warning not to repeat the offence.
Meanwhile, Acting Commissioner Morris said the RVIPF has been working to improve their relationship with the community to restore trust.
“Part of my job, part of my manager’s job, the sergeants and inspectors, is to make sure that when we enforce the law that we do it without fear or favour…ensuring that we treat people with equality, not necessarily equally because people are all diverse...You recognize their nationally, different backgrounds, gender, sexual orientation etcetera but make sure that you don’t discriminate and you don’t treat people with unfairness.
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39 Responses to “Police often let persons with small amounts of cannabis off- ACP Morris”
I dont smoke though.
All law abiding residents of the BVI should move to distance themselves from Mr. Morris on this especially seeing that crime is on the rise and drug use is out of control.
the opposition to Morris comes from our lazy fat cat tolian officers who believe that they merit promotion based on their nationality.
Talking of equality, its a double standard when alcohol , tobacco and prescription drugs are freely available and do MUCH more harm than marijuana.In its 10,000 year history no one has ever died of its use.
everytime Morris speaks he put his foot his @$$
Outside of that, you catch a man with enough for him, caution him and send him on his way. I'd want to say preferably with what he was holding, but this is a two way street and this thing is still illegal.
If " logic" was a word I probably could not spell it..
Now they letting off the criminals because it’s a small amount?