Ian Boyne, Contributor
THE GOVERNMENT and the hierarchy of the police force have been seized of the gravity of the disastrously and terrifyingly low levels of trust between the Jamaican people and the police force - indeed of the deep, seemingly implacable resentment toward the police force.
You have to award them high marks for damage control and responsiveness on the Flankers issue which is not to suggest by any means that there was no sincerity. Absolutely not. In fact, because the Prime Minister, Minister of National Security and Police Commissioner are so acutely and painfully aware of the horrifying implications of the anger of large numbers of Jamaicans on the Flankers issue they could not help but be sincere and genuinely concerned about this major tragedy at the hands of members of the police force.
BEGGED FOR ABSOLUTION
"In all my years of law enforcement, few things have touched me so profoundly, and I dare say that the incident will motivate me to work more tirelessly to bring about a police force of which the Jamaican people can be truly proud," the Police Commissioner Francis Forbes told residents of Flankers feelingly on Tuesday. "I am sorry for the pain, grief and loss that you are feeling," he assured plaintively, begging for absolution.
National Security Minister Peter Phillips was also penitent and in the mood for a confessional, even in the absence of a priest (though in the presence of a bishop): "I am sorry as a Jamaican, I am sorry as the Minister responsible that the event could have occurred," the Minister pleaded.
Upon arriving in the island on Monday the Prime Minister immediately weighed in on the issue which had captured the attention of the entire Jamaica. He warned that his Government wouldn't "condone the wanton and excessive use of force against citizens," despite whatever difficulties the security forces were facing in fighting crime.
And the authorities have not just removed the police officers involved in the incident from front-line duties, but the National Security Minister has appointed the Pastor of the Open Bible Church in Flankers, Glendon Powell, to be the liaison between the investigators in the Bureau of Special Investigation and the community, and he has mandated the Victim Support Unit in his Ministry to provide support to the families of the two senior citizens who were gunned down by the police and the lady who was injured.
In addition, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Montego Bay, Charles Dufour, has been appointed to spearhead new initiatives to build peace in the Flankers community, in addition to the work of the Bishop Herro Blair-led Peace Management Initiative. And all funeral expenses have been taken over by the state.
POLICE-CITIZEN RELATIONSHIP
The shooting of a taxi driver in Spanish Town last week also, coupled with people's anger over Kraal and the multiple other incidents in which police officers are alleged to cold-bloodedly and wantonly murder people - have brought police-citizen relations to what must be the lowest ebb possible. Montego Bay Human rights activist Liz Hall in a discussion on the Breakfast Club on Thursday morning said openly and emphatically that the police force was not set up and does not operate in the interest of the Jamaican people. The police exist to support the hierarchy in the country, she says.
In raising the issue of Flankers and police behaviour generally to a sidewalk vendor on Thursday, I was told quite forcefully that "We haffi get rid a them", referring to the police force. Frightening, indeed, but this kind of talk has dominated the airwaves all week. From uptown to downtown, from country to town, from young to old there is a growing consensus that the police force has been acting outside of the interests of the Jamaican people and that there are too many hoodlums, criminals and rogues in the police force. Is it possible for the level of cynicism toward the police and the lack of trust to get any lower?
Yet herein is a major danger to the society. This heightened cynicism toward the police and the vitriolic, acerbic verbal attacks against them could not have come at a worse time. We are in an intense war with terrorists and hardened criminals, people bent on destroying any semblance of order and stability. The rapidly sliding credibility of the security forces is the best gift which could be given to criminals and terrorists at this time. Before the powerful -- and I believe invincible-human rights lobby finish cranking up its artillery to blow me away on the talk shows and in columns, hear me out carefully. The propagandists will not heed this caution, but for those who want to be taken seriously, you can't afford to shoot and then ask questions later. Hear me now.
The Jamaica Constabulary Force itself has contributed in a large and significant way to the dangerously and alarmingly low levels of trust which exist between itself and decent, law-abiding Jamaicans. The things that many of us are alarmed and horrified about today have been taking place routinely at least since the 1960s. When I was a boy growing up in the 1960s and going to my father's tailoring establishment on Charles Street, I used to hear about the dreaded Joe Williams. In the 1960s and 1970s Rude boys and Rastafarians were regularly and commonly harassed, unjustifiably jailed, beaten, shot and sometimes killed. There were very few people in polite society to plead their cause. This is why I have a great deal of respect for human rights activists like Dennis Daly. Dennis is not a hurry-come-up human rights activist. Dennis has put his life on the line for the oppressed, defenceless masses in this county; he has waged a ceaseless and magnificently courageous battle on behalf of the poor and dehumanised for justice and against police brutality.
John Maxwell and Ronnie Thwaites have also been long-time advocates against police brutality and police excesses. It was a lonely struggle for Dennis, John and Ronnie over the years. Now that the human rights lobby has become invincible and when it sets the agenda and has won over the entire media, it is well to recall the courageous pioneers. Jamaicans for Justice,(JFJ) Families Against State Terrorism (FAST)and others have done an important job in standing up for the rights of dispossessed Jamaicans.
I do not believe they are politically motivated. I believe Carolyn Gomes, Susan Goffe and Yvonne Sobers are sincere, genuinely public-spirited Jamaicans. They have their job to do and they must continue to do it.
The anger and bitterness toward the police were not created by JFJ, FAST, the Jamaica Council for Human Rights, other human rights groups and Wilmot Perkins. In fact, if by highlighting police excesses, arrogance, and the dangers of extra-judicial killings, they lead the authorities to institute radical reforms which result in greater trust between the citizens and the police, then they would have done something good. Conflict and confrontation is not necessarily bad. Indeed, much good has come through this means.
WEAKENING THE FORCE
But it must be acknowledged by even the human rights lobby that a situation where disrespect toward the police force is at such a height that they can't even carry out their lawful duties without being stoned is totally unacceptable. Now police cannot even fire teargas without being attacked with missiles and acrimonious words in the media. The criminals and terrorists in the society must be very happy with the situation today. They can now infiltrate any community, develop their drug base and centres of terrorist activities and the police dare not raid them without some major uproar about police harassment and unjustified police action.
Criminals feel emboldened to fire their high-powered weapons on police officers knowing that if the fire is returned there will be more public spotlight on the police than on them. Criminals can also buy out a community, provide enough schoolbooks, money for sporting activities and food so that when the security forces come after them, a whole community protests their innocence and the television cameras are there ready to hear the shouts of the belligerent residents bellowing for "justice!"
We are in a very dangerous situation. The police is all we have, the Minister of National Security had said earlier, but when you reach a situation where so many people believe that the police are not acting in our interests then we have reached anarchy and are on the bring of being a failed state. If we erode the legitimacy of the security forces, with what shall we combat the criminals and terrorists?
There is no columnist who is more street-smart, informed and in touch with grassroots realities than Mark Wignall. Besides, Wignall has no axe grinding for either of the main political parties. He glories in his iconoclasm and independence.
We need more journalists with his courageous, defiant spirit. Some of the anti-police talk-show hosts and columnists are out of touch with the runnings of the Jamaican ghettoes (called inner-cities uptown). Let Mark Wignall address these issues for me: When the shottas in the ghettoes turn on their radios and watch television and hear and see the kind of anti-police rhetoric and police-bashing which is taking place, however justified it is; when they hear the growing condemnation of the police force and when they see the increased and militant resistance of the police by citizens, will they be weakened or strengthened?
When shotta know seh "police boy" 'fraid fi fire him gun because that police officer is going to come under enormous pressure from the media, the society and by his own Police High Command sensitive to press criticism, is he strengthened or weakened? If the shottas know that the police officers who are likely to confront them are now generally presumed guilty rather than innocent, will they be strengthened or weakened?
The criminal underworld, with its international connections and extortion money to buy out different sections of the society-are they strengthened or weakened by a society up in arms, so to speak, against the police forces, who stand between them and their full criminal take-over of Jamaica? Are the drug lords not facilitated by an environment where the police's every action and every move is cynically questioned? All of this is not an argument for the continuation of extra-judicial killings, police brutality or the suppression of the human rights of inner-city people. Forget the propaganda and hysteria. I am asking someone in the know like Mark Wignall, who is not a political hack, and who knows this society better than most people on radio, television and who write for newspapers to address these issues.
Hardened criminals and terrorists respond only to fear. We now seem to want to disarm the police while these heartless human being are walking around boldly in the ghettoes with their high-powered weapons. Mark Wignall knows what I am talking about. The people in the ghetto who know these criminals and their brazenness-and more so their mindset-know that if they feel that the police are psychologically immobilised, demotivated and afraid to challenge them ballistically, that is all they need to completely take over this society.
Let's remove police brutality and the inanity which resulted in the deaths of Baccas and Brown in Flankers. Let's remove the harassment of innocent youth (A young member of my church who lives in the inner-city was picked up by policemen coming from a church rehearsal and locked down for the night just because he is poor and lives in the ghetto--- an absolutely model youth going to university. I know these things.) The human rights activists and the advocates of hard policing like me are united in our desire to rid the society of terror. But we must discuss rationally, and not emotionally, how we can do that while not demoralising the police force and not fanning the flames of wrath against them. Of course, pressing the authorities to reform the force is one of the best ways of helping to restore trust and hence the strengthening of the hands of the police against criminals and terrorists. But let us be fully aware that our greatest threat is from criminals and terrorists, not the rogues in the police force, despicable as they are.
Let's cool the anti-police rhetoric.
Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist. You can send comments to ianboyne1@yahoo.com
