THE VIGILANTE attack on the Clark's Town Police Station in Trelawny last Saturday is the second such in recent months.
In April an even bigger assault on the station in Spaldings, Manchester, led to the death of a 16-year-old youth and injury to several persons.
Both instances are cause for great alarm, mainly because they signal a disturbing descent into near anarchy among persons normally presumed to be law-abiding.
Vigilante behaviour is defined as action undertaken by a group attempting to enforce their objective without legal authority. It is in the class of lynching which violates due process; and which indeed has happened here occasionally with individual presumed offenders being chopped or battered to death.
A concerted attack on a police station raises the ante. The mob aims its rage at an institution which represents legal authority.
In Spaldings and in Clark's Town the mobs defied the police and demanded that persons held in custody be delivered to them for their own brand of justice.
What is most disturbing is that ordinary residents in rural townships in this country could so quickly abandon respect for police authority. This raises questions about the very prestige of the constabulary which has come under the public spotlight in recent times.
We have as recently as this week pointed to positive initiatives being undertaken to mend the image of the Police Force and enhance its professionalism. The relationship with the communities policemen are sworn to serve is one of the primary objectives of the corporate strategy being pursued.
In this context what has happened in Spaldings and Clark's Town indicates that much more needs to be done even after the vigilantes are brought to justice. The ultimate objective must be that these aberrations should not happen again.
