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This is crisis, make the declaration now!
MARK WIGNALL
Thursday, June 12, 2008
There comes a time in the life of a nation when its people, starved of effective political leadership and the articulation of a workable, believable plan and a policy to generate positive change, must summon their collective will to demand from that leadership either a full demonstration of its ability to perform or an open admission that the problems facing us are beyond its ability to solve. In which case such leadership must hastily retreat and create the space for new ideas and a greater firmness in pursuing a new direction.
In the 24th week of this year we have been murdering, on average, about 29 Jamaicans per week as if it is some prime-time game show where prizes are handed out for the best scores. That those killed include the very young, the elderly, women and children, only tells us how far down the scale of humanness we have slipped in the 46 years that we have dared to call ourselves an "independent" nation.
Placed before us in recent days is the latest in a (long, predictable) string of reports on our police force. The Transforming the JCF report (86 pages) is a pretty impressive one that highlights a lot of what is public knowledge about the force and sets out a timetable and a shopping list towards implementing the needed changes.
Even as we shudder at the grim prospect of how well the morgues will do next week as they amble on with us in weeping at the cold finality of death and a people too far gone in their sad waltz with the face of another loved one taken too soon, we are being asked to believe that another crime plan can buy us hope at prime-time rates. Very hard sell, that.
To the extent that the JCF is supposed to represent that sturdy, high, impregnable wall that separates us from the forces of lawlessness, violence and pain, it is useful for us to determine if there is anything in the latest report that points to where we are, that is, where the JCF is in terms of its ability to be that "effective wall".
I found the answer:
Page 63 of the report: "To meet increasing requirements for more sworn police officers on the streets in response to attrition and growth demands, the Police Academy is under pressure to accept less than acceptable applicants. We are advised that upwards of 75 per cent of male applicants accepted as recruits do not meet the basic requirements for engagement." Page 65: "The current training facilities at Twickenham Park are in a very poor state of repair and offer very basic facilities for recruits; this deters good, qualified recruit candidates, particularly females. The facility is the first tangible image of the JCF received by recruits; in its current state it presents a poor and less than encouraging first impression."
Reality check. The vast majority (75 per cent +) of male recruits accepted should never be in the Force in the first place. Crisis check. Based on the more chilling reality of the streets informing the policeman of how hated he has become among the poor, the powerless and the hopeless, in time that 75 per cent has easily reached 95 per cent. In other words, in about nine out of every 10 times that there is an interface between a policeman and a poor man or woman, someone is going to be physically abused while the gun-toting youngsters are at a "safe" distance sipping beer and smoking coke and having a good laugh as they watch relatives and friends getting their faces boxed repeatedly.
Page 66: Under the heading, "Recruit Training" the following is stated, "The current approach and curriculum for recruit training are outdated and more aligned with 'building soldiers' than developing modern, competent, community-oriented police officers. Approximately 20 per cent of the recruit curriculum is focused on foot and weapons drill. As one senior officer commented, 'We train them like soldiers. We tell them when to eat, when to sleep, when to study; it's high control. So they aren't equipped for reality once they leave the Academy.'"
Hovering around just under 10,000, unless we are prepared to scrap the Force now, we have no other choice but to work with it. Because of the harsh economic climate, the typical policeman, untrained in the first instance, is forced to peer inwardly at his own economic survival. Often what this does is slot actual police work as the secondary element of work. In other words, the 'moonlighting' is the actual police duty.
My suggestion at this time is for the government to declare a State of Emergency in certain communities/constituencies/pockets for specific durations. Having said that, I am faced with a cold, jolting reality. How do we ask a highly unequipped (training, detection and high-tech tools) police force to man states of emergency when such a force has been effectively nullified from training-day one?
I found the answer in the very report
being cited.
Page 66 again: "Approximately 20 per cent of the recruit curriculum is focused on foot and weapons drill. As one senior officer commented, 'We train them like soldiers. We tell them when to eat, when to sleep, when to study; it's high control. So they aren't equipped for reality once they leave the Academy."
The point I am making is, the very lack of effective police training could possibly be a godsend in terms of dealing with a state of emergency. "So they aren't equipped for reality once they leave the Academy" is effectively saying to us that our policemen cannot deal with the people of this nation in normal times, that is, peacetime.
My added point is, this country is at war with small, tightly knit, well-armed bands of desperadoes who have demonstrated over the years and in recent months their ease and lust in spilling blood and walking free to many repetitions. In plain language, with selective leadership, our rag-tag police force is perfectly equipped, tailor-made to deal with "unpleasant" operations in a state of emergency.
Impressive report aside, the JCF will be with us in its present dispensation for many moons. Let us utilise it in the best way possible, because it sure as hell is highly ineffective in the present rules of engagement. Prime Minister Golding may have to disconnect his administration from any "civil dislocation" promises or assurances made by the previous PNP administration to large investors in tourism and make the declaration that effective governance is impossible in the current climate of fear.
Words from Security Minister MacMillan, Commissioner Lewin and the prime minister have not stopped one bullet in its trajectory of death. We need action in the short term now, and the declaration of such action must come before the authorities assault us with more meaningless talk.
observemark@gmail.com
MARK WIGNALL
Thursday, June 12, 2008
There comes a time in the life of a nation when its people, starved of effective political leadership and the articulation of a workable, believable plan and a policy to generate positive change, must summon their collective will to demand from that leadership either a full demonstration of its ability to perform or an open admission that the problems facing us are beyond its ability to solve. In which case such leadership must hastily retreat and create the space for new ideas and a greater firmness in pursuing a new direction.
In the 24th week of this year we have been murdering, on average, about 29 Jamaicans per week as if it is some prime-time game show where prizes are handed out for the best scores. That those killed include the very young, the elderly, women and children, only tells us how far down the scale of humanness we have slipped in the 46 years that we have dared to call ourselves an "independent" nation.
Placed before us in recent days is the latest in a (long, predictable) string of reports on our police force. The Transforming the JCF report (86 pages) is a pretty impressive one that highlights a lot of what is public knowledge about the force and sets out a timetable and a shopping list towards implementing the needed changes.
Even as we shudder at the grim prospect of how well the morgues will do next week as they amble on with us in weeping at the cold finality of death and a people too far gone in their sad waltz with the face of another loved one taken too soon, we are being asked to believe that another crime plan can buy us hope at prime-time rates. Very hard sell, that.
To the extent that the JCF is supposed to represent that sturdy, high, impregnable wall that separates us from the forces of lawlessness, violence and pain, it is useful for us to determine if there is anything in the latest report that points to where we are, that is, where the JCF is in terms of its ability to be that "effective wall".
I found the answer:
Page 63 of the report: "To meet increasing requirements for more sworn police officers on the streets in response to attrition and growth demands, the Police Academy is under pressure to accept less than acceptable applicants. We are advised that upwards of 75 per cent of male applicants accepted as recruits do not meet the basic requirements for engagement." Page 65: "The current training facilities at Twickenham Park are in a very poor state of repair and offer very basic facilities for recruits; this deters good, qualified recruit candidates, particularly females. The facility is the first tangible image of the JCF received by recruits; in its current state it presents a poor and less than encouraging first impression."
Reality check. The vast majority (75 per cent +) of male recruits accepted should never be in the Force in the first place. Crisis check. Based on the more chilling reality of the streets informing the policeman of how hated he has become among the poor, the powerless and the hopeless, in time that 75 per cent has easily reached 95 per cent. In other words, in about nine out of every 10 times that there is an interface between a policeman and a poor man or woman, someone is going to be physically abused while the gun-toting youngsters are at a "safe" distance sipping beer and smoking coke and having a good laugh as they watch relatives and friends getting their faces boxed repeatedly.
Page 66: Under the heading, "Recruit Training" the following is stated, "The current approach and curriculum for recruit training are outdated and more aligned with 'building soldiers' than developing modern, competent, community-oriented police officers. Approximately 20 per cent of the recruit curriculum is focused on foot and weapons drill. As one senior officer commented, 'We train them like soldiers. We tell them when to eat, when to sleep, when to study; it's high control. So they aren't equipped for reality once they leave the Academy.'"
Hovering around just under 10,000, unless we are prepared to scrap the Force now, we have no other choice but to work with it. Because of the harsh economic climate, the typical policeman, untrained in the first instance, is forced to peer inwardly at his own economic survival. Often what this does is slot actual police work as the secondary element of work. In other words, the 'moonlighting' is the actual police duty.
My suggestion at this time is for the government to declare a State of Emergency in certain communities/constituencies/pockets for specific durations. Having said that, I am faced with a cold, jolting reality. How do we ask a highly unequipped (training, detection and high-tech tools) police force to man states of emergency when such a force has been effectively nullified from training-day one?
I found the answer in the very report
being cited.
Page 66 again: "Approximately 20 per cent of the recruit curriculum is focused on foot and weapons drill. As one senior officer commented, 'We train them like soldiers. We tell them when to eat, when to sleep, when to study; it's high control. So they aren't equipped for reality once they leave the Academy."
The point I am making is, the very lack of effective police training could possibly be a godsend in terms of dealing with a state of emergency. "So they aren't equipped for reality once they leave the Academy" is effectively saying to us that our policemen cannot deal with the people of this nation in normal times, that is, peacetime.
My added point is, this country is at war with small, tightly knit, well-armed bands of desperadoes who have demonstrated over the years and in recent months their ease and lust in spilling blood and walking free to many repetitions. In plain language, with selective leadership, our rag-tag police force is perfectly equipped, tailor-made to deal with "unpleasant" operations in a state of emergency.
Impressive report aside, the JCF will be with us in its present dispensation for many moons. Let us utilise it in the best way possible, because it sure as hell is highly ineffective in the present rules of engagement. Prime Minister Golding may have to disconnect his administration from any "civil dislocation" promises or assurances made by the previous PNP administration to large investors in tourism and make the declaration that effective governance is impossible in the current climate of fear.
Words from Security Minister MacMillan, Commissioner Lewin and the prime minister have not stopped one bullet in its trajectory of death. We need action in the short term now, and the declaration of such action must come before the authorities assault us with more meaningless talk.
observemark@gmail.com