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Saint Commissioner?
Jean Lowrie-Chin
Monday, October 15, 2007
I hear they are advertising for a new Commissioner of Police. If they had asked me to write the copy, I would say, "Living Saints invited to apply. Must have thick skin, broad back, stiff upper lip and strong teeth to bite some rather hard bullets." I am writing this from a position of knowledge, having worked as a consultant to the Commissioner's office during Francis Forbes' tenure.
Jean Lowrie-Chin
Like our outgoing Commissioner Lucius Thomas, Forbes was a career police officer who had earned the respect of his peers. Both men, I believe, are exceptional sons of Jamaica, showing courage under fire and worked assiduously to help plan and implement the JCF Reform programme. Like every other leader in this country, they have been criticised by the armchair experts. People who have problems in enforcing discipline in a family of four or a staff of 40 are quick to condemn the commissioner for the infractions of the minority of his 8,000 officers.
We are very vociferous against our commissioners, who must deal with the products inside and outside the force that our society has helped to create. Yet, we are very silent about the strongmen that have put quarter-million dollar weapons into the hands of children. Human rights advocates should be consistently strident about ruthless gang leaders as they are about police brutality.
An observer in Grant's Pen said that in last week's flare-up, the police had to call for back-up when they realised that the guns of the criminals were more powerful than theirs. As we hear the problem-solvers on the air, as we see the politicians still bobbing and weaving around the issue of crime, we have to admit that cowardice and hypocrisy are widespread national diseases.
Cliff Hughes' vox pop named Colonel Trevor MacMillan as the favourite for the commissioner position. The Gleaner has given a lead headline to speculation that Director of Elections Danville Walker could be the successor. Like Forbes and Thomas, these are indeed good patriots who have already had more than their fair share of criticisms.
We are so quick to condemn, and so slow to understand that this ignorant behaviour is eating at the very heart of our country. If we took a sample of the calls to our talk shows, we would find that about nine out of 10 times, there are complaints. It is true that many call these programmes as a last resort, but were it not for a few grateful citizens, public spirited journalists and volunteer publicists, who would ever know of the countless good deeds that our police officers perform day after day.
Lucius Thomas
The morale of these officers must be very low when the only headlines they can see about the force are negative ones. We, the very critics of the police, are actually damaging the JCF, creating frustration, lowering self-esteem, and making the force unattractive to the solid young people that the force needs.
The good folks who have been operating Crime Stop for decades will tell you that in spite of the confidentiality of their system and that of Kingfish, citizens are still turning a blind eye to the criminal-next-door.
Since there is a real and justified fear factor, some major companies have actually been encouraging their employees to pass on information to their security folks who would then alert the police, in order to protect the helpful citizen.
Friday, October 5, was a day of reckoning for Jamaica. If we did not know before, we now know the mindless brutality stalking our country, gang members who would shoot dead a four-month-old baby and her mother, as they slept, who would chase a nine-year-old under a house, back him up and shoot him.
The scenes of death are desolate, showing the basic conditions under which our poor live. The schoolboy had just had his bath from a basin of water set out in the open. The makeshift ply door of another house was easily kicked off by the killers as it had no locks. Certainly, the poor can take no more. They are desperate and vulnerable. When you have no door, no lock, you sleep with one eye open.
Children are taught that he who makes the mess should clean it up. History, past and recent, continues to point to our politicians, not our police commissioners, as the harbingers of deadly violence to our poor. They have created the mess and the police must clean it up. It is an open secret. Too many politicians know that even if they have not recently given out any of that lethal hardware, they have pretended not to see the artillery accompanying the surreptitious promise: "Victory for you, contracts for me."
Having read and digested Don Robotham's two columns on the lumpen of Jamaica, we know that garrisons are the ideal incubators for these morally-challenged individuals. Contrary to the accusations of his critics, Robotham was not making a classist statement. Wikipedia (my favourite online encyclopedia) offers this definition: "lumpenproletariat (German Lumpenproletariat, "rabble-proletariat", "raggedy proletariat") . refers to the 'refuse of all classes', including 'swindlers, confidence tricksters, brothel-keepers, ... and other flotsam of society'.
We know that there are decent people who beg, cry for peace in our inner cities. They are preyed upon by the lumpen among them. Whoever spawned the lumpens must admit that they have not only allowed, but also encouraged some of these elements to infiltrate our police force.
As another brave commissioner of police steps up to the plate, the good citizens of this country, whether they are in Parliament or in the private sector, must ensure that this commissioner and his/her high command do not become part of this endless cycle of elevation, frustration and accusation. Since our poor women and babies cannot afford our fancy locks and alarms, we must all join together to shield them from the daily danger they face. Not even the most excellent of commissioners will be able to do it alone.
Congratulations
Hearty congratulations to the distinguished recipients of National Awards. You're today's Heroes, keeping hope alive.
lowriechin@aim.com
Jean Lowrie-Chin
Monday, October 15, 2007
I hear they are advertising for a new Commissioner of Police. If they had asked me to write the copy, I would say, "Living Saints invited to apply. Must have thick skin, broad back, stiff upper lip and strong teeth to bite some rather hard bullets." I am writing this from a position of knowledge, having worked as a consultant to the Commissioner's office during Francis Forbes' tenure.
Jean Lowrie-Chin
Like our outgoing Commissioner Lucius Thomas, Forbes was a career police officer who had earned the respect of his peers. Both men, I believe, are exceptional sons of Jamaica, showing courage under fire and worked assiduously to help plan and implement the JCF Reform programme. Like every other leader in this country, they have been criticised by the armchair experts. People who have problems in enforcing discipline in a family of four or a staff of 40 are quick to condemn the commissioner for the infractions of the minority of his 8,000 officers.
We are very vociferous against our commissioners, who must deal with the products inside and outside the force that our society has helped to create. Yet, we are very silent about the strongmen that have put quarter-million dollar weapons into the hands of children. Human rights advocates should be consistently strident about ruthless gang leaders as they are about police brutality.
An observer in Grant's Pen said that in last week's flare-up, the police had to call for back-up when they realised that the guns of the criminals were more powerful than theirs. As we hear the problem-solvers on the air, as we see the politicians still bobbing and weaving around the issue of crime, we have to admit that cowardice and hypocrisy are widespread national diseases.
Cliff Hughes' vox pop named Colonel Trevor MacMillan as the favourite for the commissioner position. The Gleaner has given a lead headline to speculation that Director of Elections Danville Walker could be the successor. Like Forbes and Thomas, these are indeed good patriots who have already had more than their fair share of criticisms.
We are so quick to condemn, and so slow to understand that this ignorant behaviour is eating at the very heart of our country. If we took a sample of the calls to our talk shows, we would find that about nine out of 10 times, there are complaints. It is true that many call these programmes as a last resort, but were it not for a few grateful citizens, public spirited journalists and volunteer publicists, who would ever know of the countless good deeds that our police officers perform day after day.
Lucius Thomas
The morale of these officers must be very low when the only headlines they can see about the force are negative ones. We, the very critics of the police, are actually damaging the JCF, creating frustration, lowering self-esteem, and making the force unattractive to the solid young people that the force needs.
The good folks who have been operating Crime Stop for decades will tell you that in spite of the confidentiality of their system and that of Kingfish, citizens are still turning a blind eye to the criminal-next-door.
Since there is a real and justified fear factor, some major companies have actually been encouraging their employees to pass on information to their security folks who would then alert the police, in order to protect the helpful citizen.
Friday, October 5, was a day of reckoning for Jamaica. If we did not know before, we now know the mindless brutality stalking our country, gang members who would shoot dead a four-month-old baby and her mother, as they slept, who would chase a nine-year-old under a house, back him up and shoot him.
The scenes of death are desolate, showing the basic conditions under which our poor live. The schoolboy had just had his bath from a basin of water set out in the open. The makeshift ply door of another house was easily kicked off by the killers as it had no locks. Certainly, the poor can take no more. They are desperate and vulnerable. When you have no door, no lock, you sleep with one eye open.
Children are taught that he who makes the mess should clean it up. History, past and recent, continues to point to our politicians, not our police commissioners, as the harbingers of deadly violence to our poor. They have created the mess and the police must clean it up. It is an open secret. Too many politicians know that even if they have not recently given out any of that lethal hardware, they have pretended not to see the artillery accompanying the surreptitious promise: "Victory for you, contracts for me."
Having read and digested Don Robotham's two columns on the lumpen of Jamaica, we know that garrisons are the ideal incubators for these morally-challenged individuals. Contrary to the accusations of his critics, Robotham was not making a classist statement. Wikipedia (my favourite online encyclopedia) offers this definition: "lumpenproletariat (German Lumpenproletariat, "rabble-proletariat", "raggedy proletariat") . refers to the 'refuse of all classes', including 'swindlers, confidence tricksters, brothel-keepers, ... and other flotsam of society'.
We know that there are decent people who beg, cry for peace in our inner cities. They are preyed upon by the lumpen among them. Whoever spawned the lumpens must admit that they have not only allowed, but also encouraged some of these elements to infiltrate our police force.
As another brave commissioner of police steps up to the plate, the good citizens of this country, whether they are in Parliament or in the private sector, must ensure that this commissioner and his/her high command do not become part of this endless cycle of elevation, frustration and accusation. Since our poor women and babies cannot afford our fancy locks and alarms, we must all join together to shield them from the daily danger they face. Not even the most excellent of commissioners will be able to do it alone.
Congratulations
Hearty congratulations to the distinguished recipients of National Awards. You're today's Heroes, keeping hope alive.
lowriechin@aim.com