Gunned-down constable lived for police force

KINGSTON – The neatly pressed uniform of Special Constable James Lemmie still hangs above his bed in his home in Crescent district, St Catherine. The young constable did not get another chance to don the blue seam but the legacy of the Island Special Constabulary Force (ISCF) is written everywhere. Etched in the family ackee tree, on a school bag from his days at Spanish Town High. On planks of wood nailed near the window, even on the very sockets that gave light to the room. For many, it would appear to be the mark of a man obsessed, but for the gunned-down 22-year-old the force was the very nucleus of his existence. Lemmie is the ninth policeman murdered since the start of the year and the third to be shot in a three-day span. The Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) report stated that Lemmie was fatally shot around 9:30 Monday night by 17-year-old Radcliffe Foster. The policeman’s own service pistol was the weapon used in the act.“Jah know, me neva think me would be the one a go a him funeral,” said one teary-eyed officer, shortly before he exited the station, head bowed.Woman Special Corporal Novelette Davis Leachman said Lemmie had been a light-hearted but disciplined example of what a young policeman should be.Back in Crescent district, a family is without its breadwinner. Lemmie is survived by a twin brother, other siblings, mother and grandmother. Younger by a few minutes, Joseph is wistful as he speaks of his brother. Even when recalling their lives as youngsters he, like many others, could not escape mentioning ISCF.(Jamaica Gleaner)