These female graduands clutch their rifles as they perform a key manouevre during the passing-out parade and awards ceremony held at Twickenham Park, St. Catherine, yesterday. There were seventy-five females in the batch of 448 graduates, the largest-ever in the history of the Jamaica Constabulary Force. - Norman Grindley /Staff Photographer UNDER A gun metal grey sky, thousands of relatives, friends and well-wishers descended on the Jamaica Police Academy, Twickenham Park, St. Catherine yesterday to attend the passing-out parade and awards ceremony.
At 2:30 p.m., the parade of the graduands snaked up the incline, feet tramping and arms swinging in tandem with the drums and horns of the marching band.
It was a magnificent sight, the largest-ever ceremony in the history of the force, 448 constables of which 75 were females marching in unison and upon whom the Jamaica Constabulary Force, buffeted in recent times by in-fighting and controversy, was pinning its shiny new hopes.
The parade was accompanied by the whirr of cameras and the ringing of cellphones as some members of the audience delivered up-to-the-minute accounts of the ceremony to relatives miles away at home. Others clutched their umbrellas close, and made nervous jokes about the purple dragging underbellies of the clouds stacked overhead.
After the graduands were handed over to the parade commander, they stood at attention, awaiting the arrival of dignitaries and the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister's arrival provoked a murmur of excitement that ran like an electric current through the crowd.
GLIMPSE
Some females in the audience, clambered on top of chairs, three-inch spiked heels and all, to get a better glimpse of the Prime Minister's arrival. One of those women was Janice McFarlane.
"At first I was worried that he had chosen to enter the police force, but right now, I am very proud of him, and glad that I had decided to support him 100 per cent when I even had misgivings," 30-year-old Janice McFarlane, the self-proclaimed 'girlfriend' of 20-year-old graduand Jason McKane, said.
Rastafarian Simba Heights with a red, green and gold umbrella at his side, stood watching the proceedings quietly behind dark glasses. He had journeyed all the way from Mt. Pleasant in Hanover to see his childhood friend, Lynroy Irving, graduate that day.
When questioned by the news team, he insisted with a sly smile that he was 'not supporting Babylon by being present at such a function'.
"Sometimes, is just a negative perception of the police force that is out there already which might mek yu believe that. As long as the police don't oppress people, and respect those with a different faith, things should be alright; the country needs law and order," Simba Heights said.
SHOWERS
There were light showers during the Prime Minister's inspection. One man jokingly shouted: 'shower!', and received a couple of black looks from members of the crowd. The rain fell for at least five minutes, during which some persons scrambled under nearby tents, others opened umbrellas but others were forced to improvise by putting the plastic chairs on their heads to shield them from the rain.
The crowd oohed and aahed in pertinent sections of the parade as it marched past in slow and quick time, and cheered the razzle dazzle when the parade marched off in display formation.
Cherry Davis, a resident of Troja in Riversdale, St. Catherine, who was there to see her neighbour's son, Caswell Brown, graduate was impressed by the graduation.
"This is one of the best ones I've been to, and I have four nephews who have graduated and are now in the force," Mrs. Davis said.
Don't you think it's too large?
"Yu mad?" she said. "And my daughter, Sherine, nuh in de yet."
When the news team was leaving, JCF buses were still shuttling dozens of people from the entrance of Twickenham Park to where the ceremony was being held.
