标签： Jamaica

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — A thick cloud of anger, sorrow and trepidation settled over the tight-knit community of Granville in St James parish on Monday, as residents took to the streets to demonstrate against the fatal shooting of 47-year-old Latoya “Buju” Bulgin, who was killed by a single police bullet the day prior.

Fear of retaliation has silenced many in the neighborhood, even as outrage grows over the killing. One resident, speaking to reporters only on the condition of anonymity after being guaranteed their identity would remain hidden, shared a firsthand account of the Sunday incident that has divided public opinion across the island nation. According to the witness, who was standing near Bulgin when the shot was fired, the encounter began when an officer pulled Bulgin over and requested her driver’s license. When Bulgin produced a license issued by another country, the officer continued to question her and press for additional documentation.

The witness recounted that Bulgin exited her black Toyota Voxy minivan after the officer told her he would impound the vehicle and call a wrecker. As Bulgin moved to turn off the van’s engine, the vehicle shifted slightly — and the officer opened fire immediately. “It’s not like Buju was going to drive off or anything; the officer knew her personally,” the witness said, demonstrating how Bulgin clutched her chest and collapsed backward after being struck by the bullet. This account directly contradicts the official police narrative, which claims Bulgin threatened to run the officer over before she was shot.

A local peace broker affiliated with the community-based Peace Management Initiative (PMI), who also requested anonymity, pushed back against widespread characterizations of Bulgin as a dangerous person. “Everybody knows Buju. We know she had a rough, ghetto-style demeanor, she was out of order sometimes, but she was not a criminal,” the broker insisted. “She never deserved to die this way.”

The killing comes on the heels of a string of fatal security force shootings in Granville since the start of 2026, which have already eroded public trust in police. So far this year, five people in the community have been killed by law enforcement. On New Year’s Day, a 4-year-old child named Romaine Bowman was among three people killed during a joint operation by the Jamaica Constabulary Force and Jamaica Defence Force. Just two weeks before Bulgin’s death, on Mother’s Day, 17-year-old Tjey Edwards was shot and killed by police as they wrapped up an operation in the area. Bulgin was shot Sunday while helping transport protesters who had gathered to demand justice for Edwards’ killing.

The Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom), Jamaica’s independent police oversight body, has issued a public call for witnesses to come forward with information about the shooting. Local leaders have echoed that appeal, though they acknowledge widespread fear of retaliation keeps many silent. Granville Division Councillor Michael Troupe, of the People’s National Party, said a meeting with Indecom and senior police leadership is planned to address safety guarantees for witnesses. “They have to assure the people that it is safe for them to give statements. Let them share what they saw — that’s the only way we can get justice for this latest incident,” Troupe said from his party office, just steps from Granville Square where the shooting took place. Some residents have already given statements to Indecom, but the PMI peace broker said far more action is needed to repair broken community trust, including expanded community policing initiatives.

On Monday, demonstrators erected burning roadblocks across key thoroughfares in Granville, including a heavily traveled route connecting multiple inland communities to Montego Bay. Firefighters were called in to extinguish the blazes, and police assisted with clearing the roadway to restore traffic flow.

Security camera footage of the encounter has amplified long-simmering national concerns about the rising toll of fatal police shootings across Jamaica. In an official press release, Indecom confirmed that Bulgin’s death marks the 15th fatal shooting of a civilian by security forces in May 2026 alone. The most recent prior fatal shooting occurred on May 16 in Hague, Trelawny, where two men were killed by police. Year-to-date, 130 civilians have been fatally shot by Jamaican security forces, compared to 129 during the same period in 2025 — a slight increase that has alarmed civil society groups.

A key detail that has drawn renewed criticism from advocacy groups is that none of the three officers assigned to crowd control duties at the protest the day Bulgin was killed were wearing or issued body-worn cameras. The absence of body cameras has been a persistent point of contention between civil society and Jamaican law enforcement for years, with activists arguing mandatory body cam use increases transparency and accountability.

A new layer of labor tension has emerged in Jamaica, as the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) — already locked in a public pay disagreement with the national government — now confronts an internal protest from its own non-teaching staff over nearly a decade of unpaid and improperly calculated wages.

On Monday, dozens of disgruntled JTA employees took to the streets outside the union’s downtown Kingston headquarters on Church Street. Dressed all in black and holding hand-painted placards, the workers demonstrated their mounting frustration over pay issues that have remained unaddressed since 2015.

The employees are represented by the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), one of Jamaica’s most prominent labor organizations. BITU Vice-President Rudolph Thomas laid out the full scope of the grievances in an official statement shared with media outlets. According to Thomas, the core of the conflict dates back to 2017, when the JTA first failed to provide transparent breakdowns for incremental and seniority-based salary adjustments that staff were contractually owed. Union representatives have repeatedly flagged calculation discrepancies and requested formal clarification, but no resolution has been forthcoming.

Thomas added that the situation has deteriorated sharply in recent months. The JTA has not completed negotiations for wage and fringe benefit packages covering the 2024 to 2026 period, even though the prior agreement has already expired. Compounding this, the union says the JTA has unreasonably delayed the launch of a market-aligned salary restructuring that was scheduled to take effect at the start of 2024.

The BITU represents a range of non-teaching staff at the JTA headquarters, including security officers, support and maintenance workers, accounting personnel and clerical employees. Thomas emphasized that the prolonged inaction from JTA leadership violates existing collective bargaining agreements between the two groups. “This is effectively a refusal to pay our members the fair wages they have earned through their work,” Thomas said in the release. “Workers have run out of patience after years of broken promises and empty delays.”

Thomas warned that the protest will escalate if JTA management does not immediately agree to meet with union representatives and set binding, clear timelines to resolve all outstanding issues. He added that previous commitments to resolve the dispute, reached during mediation at Jamaica’s Ministry of Labour, have already been broken, leaving workers with no other option than to take public action.

On May 16, 2026, at the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Falmouth, Trelawny, a new chapter began for the North Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (NJC). During the inauguration ceremony for the organization’s newly elected officers, directors, and executive committee members, newly sworn-in president Pastor Jermaine Johnson delivered a bold, mission-driven address challenging the conference’s congregations to step beyond traditional religious boundaries and pursue widespread transformational change across Jamaican society.

Known affectionately to his peers and followers as Pastor JJ, Johnson brings a wealth of cross-sector leadership and public service experience to his new role. A native of Port Antonio, Johnson is an established motivational speaker, personal and professional development strategist, and justice of the peace for St Ann parish. He built his early foundation as a student at Titchfield High School, before going on to earn his degree from Northern Caribbean University. His long record of public engagement includes leading the National Youth Council of Jamaica, serving as an ambassador for the National Youth Service, and representing Jamaica at the Commonwealth Youth Parliament in Australia. A nationally celebrated communicator, Johnson is an award-winning toastmaster, recognized across the Caribbean for his dynamic oratory and leadership. He also composed the theme song for the Governor General’s I Believe initiative, and in 2023, he received the prestigious Governor General’s Gold Medal of Honour for his decades of work advancing social progress across the country. Johnson has also shared his leadership and faith frameworks through two published works: *The Seven Ps to Effective Church* and *Don’t Chicken Out*.

In his inauguration address, Johnson emphasized that the event marked more than just a change in organizational leadership: it was a collective recommitment to the conference’s core mission. “If we are to achieve maximum impact for the Kingdom of God we must become intentional about engaging people everywhere they are — not for prestige, not for political advantage, but for transformational influence,” Johnson told attendees.

He pushed back against the idea that the church’s role is only to maintain long-held traditions, arguing instead that the NJC has a duty to shape broader community life. “The NJC has not been called merely to preserve tradition, we have been called to transform communities, disciple nations, uplift families, engage institutions, and proclaim the everlasting gospel with urgency, fervency, and emergency,” Johnson said.

Johnson outlined a radical expansion of what counts as the church’s mission field, rejecting the idea that faith work is confined to church buildings. “The time has come for us to think bigger, pray deeper, work smarter, and move boldly. The mission field before us is no longer confined to the four walls of the church. Our mission field is Parliament, the hospital, boardrooms, police stations, universities, the media landscape, the digital space, and every sphere where people seek hope, integrity, purpose, and truth,” he explained.

Drawing inspiration from a quote by Seventh-day Adventist World Church President Pastor Erton Kohler, which states “A hopeless world is in desperate need of a hopeful church,” Johnson rooted his call for engagement in the example of Jesus Christ. “The church must not isolate itself from society while expecting to influence society, for we cannot impact that with which we are out of touch,” Johnson said. “Jesus did not merely preach in synagogues; He walked among the people; He entered cities; He engaged leaders; He transformed culture through compassion, truth, and service. We must let the world know that except God is placed in His rightful place, which is first place, things will always be displaced in this place.”

Johnson was first elected to the NJC presidency during the conference’s Fourth Quadrennial Session, held April 20–21, 2026. He will lead the 85-congregation conference alongside Executive Secretary Pastor Carlington Hylton and Treasurer Pastor Onyeka Nevins. Covering the parishes of St Ann and Trelawny, the NJC currently counts more than 22,936 registered members across its faith communities.

KINGSTON, Jamaica — A brewing labor dispute at one of Jamaica’s most influential education sector organizations has boiled over into industrial action, as non-teaching staff employed by the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) have walked off the job to demand resolution to years of unpaid and improperly calculated wages. The workers, who include security guards, administrative support staff, accounting personnel, and clerical officers, are all represented by the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), one of the country’s oldest and most prominent labor organizations.

Rudolph Thomas, BITU’s vice president, outlined the origins of the conflict that led to the work stoppage: since 2017, JTA management has failed to provide transparent breakdowns of how incremental and seniority-based salary increases are calculated for the represented staff. Union representatives have repeatedly flagged clear discrepancies in the amounts paid to workers over the seven-year period, but formal requests for clarification have gone unanswered.

The situation escalated beyond the long-running calculation dispute in recent months, Thomas explained. In a public statement released Monday, BITU detailed three additional core grievances that pushed workers to take industrial action. First, JTA management has failed to conclude new collective bargaining negotiations for wage and fringe benefits covering the 2024–2026 period, despite the previous agreement having already expired. Second, a long-planned market wage realignment initiative scheduled to take effect this year has been stalled by repeated management delays in engaging with union negotiators. Third, multiple written commitments to resolve the dispute made by JTA leadership during mediated talks at the Jamaican Ministry of Labour have been broken with no forward movement.

For the affected workers, these repeated failures by JTA management have created widespread financial uncertainty and deep frustration. The union emphasizes that management’s inaction not only violates existing collective agreements between the two parties, but also amounts to a deliberate refusal to pay the fair wages that JTA staff have rightfully earned through their work.

Thomas issued a clear warning to JTA leadership on Monday: if management does not immediately agree to a formal meeting with union representatives and establish binding, firm timelines to address every outstanding issue, the current industrial action will be scaled up to intensify pressure on the organization. With multiple previous commitments already broken, the union has signaled it will not accept further delays in resolving the nearly decade-long dispute.