Homosexuality in the Jamaican Police Force

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of homophobia, homophobic language, murder and police brutality. There are also brief mentions of slavery and rape.

By no stretch, is the Jamaica Constabulary Force the most loved civil servant organisation. However, the organisation colonial roots, anti-black mode of operations and the nation’s homophobia lead to a rumour that the organisation is been overrun by queer male police officers; and despite being untrue, this rumor has lasted for almost a century where at one point, it even prompted a government inquiry into the force for their alleged "homosexual behaviours".

Additional Knowledge

BOOKS

  • Bending the Trend Line : The Challenge of Controlling Violence in Jamaica and the High Violence Societies of the Caribbean by Anthony Harriott

  • Crime and Criminal Justice in the Caribbean by Anthony Harriott, Farley Brathwaite, and Scot Wortley

  • Exceptional Violence: Embodied Citizenship in Transnational Jamaica by Deborah Thomas

  • Fractal Repair: Queer Histories of Modern Jamaica by Matthew Chin

  • Freedom's Children: The 1938 Labor Rebellion and the Birth of Modern Jamaica by Colin A. Palmer

  • Inna Di Dancehall: Popular Culture and the Politics of Identity in Jamaica by Donna Hope

  • Killing Time: Morant Bay Rebellion Jamaica by Gad Heuman

  • My Political Journey: Jamaica's Sixth Prime Minister by PJ Patterson

  • Noises in the Blood: Orality, Gender, and the"Vulgar" Body of Jamaican Popular Culture by Carolyn Cooper

  • Police and Crime Control in Jamaica: Problems of Reforming Ex-colonial Constabularies by Anthony Harriott

  • Political Life in the Wake of the Plantation by Deborah Thomas

  • Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington by James Kirchick

  • Sexuality, Social Exclusion and Human Rights: Vulnerability in the Caribbean Context of HIV by Christine Barrow, Marjan de Bruin and Robert Carr

  • The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government by David K. Johnson

  • Towards Decolonisation: Political, Labour and Economic Developments in Jamaica 1938-1945 by Richard Hart

ACADEMIC PAPERS

  • Antecedents of Trust in the Jamaican Police: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Study by Daniel K. Pryce and Lorna E. Grant 

  • Antihomosexuality and Nationalist Critique in Late Colonial Jamaica: Revisiting the 1951 Police Enquiry by Matthew Chin

  • Black Police Power: The Political Movement of the Jamaica Constabulary by Dr. Eilat Maoz

  • ‘Bullers’ and ‘Battymen’: Contesting Homophobia in Black Popular Culture and Contemporary Caribbean Literature by Timothy Chin

  • Casting the First Stone! Policing of Homo/Sexuality in Jamaican Popular Culture by Cecil Gutzmore

  • Homosexuality and HIV/AIDS Stigma in Jamaica by RC White

  • Our Own Gayful Rest: A Postcolonial Archive by Kanika Batra

  • ‘Such a Mass of Disgusting and Revolting Cases’: Moral Panic and the ‘Discovery’ of Sexual Deviance in Post-Emancipation Jamaica (1835–1855) by  Dr. Jonathan R. Dalby

REPORTS

  • Human Rights Watch: Hated to Death: Homophobia, Violence, and Jamaica's HIV/AIDS Epidemic

  • Report of the Commission of Enquiry into the Police Force

ARCHIVES

FICTIONAL BOOKS

  • Fellow Travelers by Thomas Mallon

  • Kingston Noir edited by Colin Channer

POETRY COLLECTION

  • Constab Ballads by Claude McKay

  • Crossfire: A Litany for Survival by Staceyann Chin

  • Providential by Colin Channer

PODCAST

DOCUMENTARIES

  • Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn

  • Where's My Roy Cohn?

TV SHOWS

PLAYS

  • Bashment Granny 2

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