Tweet
article by Miss.Chin)
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>More respect for the JCF</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Jean Lowrie-Chin
Monday, February 05, 2007
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=80 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Jean Lowrie-Chin</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>For me, it was the finest moment of the Jazz and Blues Festival. We were on our feet with tears in our eyes as Sanchez belted out a very special song. It was Jamaica's National Anthem. Like every exquisite work of art, each time we experience a heartfelt rendition of our anthem, we have a new awakening. The line "keep us free from evil powers" jolted me as I thought that just a few miles away, there were dens of thugs on the outskirts of our second city.<P class=StoryText align=justify>These are hardened criminals, some mere boys, wanted for not one but several counts of murder. From Mark Wignall's spine-chilling account of the exploits of a gunman named 'Shine', we know the randomness of their deadly activities. Shine and his cohorts pick up two men whose car they steal.
They kill one because his pleading annoys them and decide to slightly wound and release the other because he resembles someone's uncle. They happen on a mother and daughter walking in Duhaney Park, abduct them and put them through unspeakable horror.<P class=StoryText align=justify>It is because of the reality of these miscreants that this column is constantly begging the country to throw our support behind our security forces. The commissioner and most of us know there are bad cops, and there are concerted efforts to deal with them. The fact is that there are bad cops all over the world. Yet nowhere in the world do I hear cops being vilified as they are in Jamaica.<P class=StoryText align=justify>We in the media should be careful that we are not swayed by propaganda, that we do not make life more dangerous for ourselves and our country. Some, if not most of the citizens we see demonstrating against police killings, are doing so for fear of their lives, and have confessed this privately to police officers.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The High Command led by the well-respected Commissioner Lucius Thomas and including top-notch local and British deputy and assistant commissioners, can stand toe to toe with their first-world counterparts. I want to ask the media and the public yet again when we read that there was a robbery at a financial institution - and we heard about two big fraud cases just last month - do we condemn the institution and refuse to do business with them?<P class=StoryText align=justify>Does this readiness to ridicule our own come from a national lack of self-esteem? We are quick to understand that the big financial institutions are not responsible for their errant employees' lapses. Yet we show no sympathy for a commissioner and his good women and men who face deathly danger on our behalf. It must be "the most unkindest cut of all" for a policeman to return from a tough night of gully-running and bullet-dodging to hear idlers mocking at police officers on the talk shows.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Only a few weeks ago, two policemen on traffic duty were gunned down by delinquent road users that they attempted to stop. No other Jamaican is exposed to this level of danger on the job, and yet no Jamaican group is more mocked and disrespected than the JCF.<P class=StoryText align=justify>I have to agree with Opposition spokesman on security Derrick Smith that our police force must get the resources that they so sorely need. Now, I am not joining the chorus on the PM's foreign travel budget because again I am wondering why certain other leaders are not as
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>More respect for the JCF</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Jean Lowrie-Chin
Monday, February 05, 2007
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=80 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Jean Lowrie-Chin</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>For me, it was the finest moment of the Jazz and Blues Festival. We were on our feet with tears in our eyes as Sanchez belted out a very special song. It was Jamaica's National Anthem. Like every exquisite work of art, each time we experience a heartfelt rendition of our anthem, we have a new awakening. The line "keep us free from evil powers" jolted me as I thought that just a few miles away, there were dens of thugs on the outskirts of our second city.<P class=StoryText align=justify>These are hardened criminals, some mere boys, wanted for not one but several counts of murder. From Mark Wignall's spine-chilling account of the exploits of a gunman named 'Shine', we know the randomness of their deadly activities. Shine and his cohorts pick up two men whose car they steal. They kill one because his pleading annoys them and decide to slightly wound and release the other because he resembles someone's uncle. They happen on a mother and daughter walking in Duhaney Park, abduct them and put them through unspeakable horror.<P class=StoryText align=justify>It is because of the reality of these miscreants that this column is constantly begging the country to throw our support behind our security forces. The commissioner and most of us know there are bad cops, and there are concerted efforts to deal with them. The fact is that there are bad cops all over the world. Yet nowhere in the world do I hear cops being vilified as they are in Jamaica.<P class=StoryText align=justify>We in the media should be careful that we are not swayed by propaganda, that we do not make life more dangerous for ourselves and our country. Some, if not most of the citizens we see demonstrating against police killings, are doing so for fear of their lives, and have confessed this privately to police officers.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The High Command led by the well-respected Commissioner Lucius Thomas and including top-notch local and British deputy and assistant commissioners, can stand toe to toe with their first-world counterparts. I want to ask the media and the public yet again when we read that there was a robbery at a financial institution - and we heard about two big fraud cases just last month - do we condemn the institution and refuse to do business with them?<P class=StoryText align=justify>Does this readiness to ridicule our own come from a national lack of self-esteem? We are quick to understand that the big financial institutions are not responsible for their errant employees' lapses. Yet we show no sympathy for a commissioner and his good women and men who face deathly danger on our behalf. It must be "the most unkindest cut of all" for a policeman to return from a tough night of gully-running and bullet-dodging to hear idlers mocking at police officers on the talk shows.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Only a few weeks ago, two policemen on traffic duty were gunned down by delinquent road users that they attempted to stop. No other Jamaican is exposed to this level of danger on the job, and yet no Jamaican group is more mocked and disrespected than the JCF.<P class=StoryText align=justify>I have to agree with Opposition spokesman on security Derrick Smith that our police force must get the resources that they so sorely need. Now, I am not joining the chorus on the PM's foreign travel budget because again I am wondering why certain other leaders are not as
Comment