BARBADOS URGENTLY NEEDS a permanent law reform commission to remove a number of antiquated statutes from the law books and reduce the number of nuisance cases that help to clog up the judicial system.
And high on the list, according to some attorneys, should be laws that give police the power to charge individuals with using insulting language only because their feelings might have been hurt; an Immigration Act that identifies “idiots, imbeciles and feeble-minded persons” as unfit for immigration status; and the 1970s act that makes it a criminal offence to wear something as innocuous as a camouflage swimsuit.
Queen’s Counsel Andrew Pilgrim, particularly incensed by the century-old law relating to using insulting language to a policeman, told the DAILY NATION: “The trend in a lot of modern jurisdictions is that police accept that part of their job is that they will come under criticism and that criticism can be harsh . . . . A strong police officer conducting his business should be able to say you can call me a $%#$#$ if you want and it would not bother me.” (TKS)
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