Garth Rattray I LEARNT many life-long lessons at the University Hospital of the West Indies. Not the least among them, was the unwritten rule that people operating as a team must set aside their individuality and ego. This principle meant that we all shared in the blame or praise for the management of our patients. At clinical meetings, where special cases were discussed, it was never "I did this or he did that", it was always, "we did this or that".
In a blatant demonstration of the antithesis of camaraderie and self-discipline, a senior police officer of the Jamaica Constabulary Force recently subjected us to disparaging remarks about his superiors. It left us with a bad taste of infighting, name-calling and the assigning of blame for failures. The unprecedented public display of acrimony between Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Reneto Adams and the Police High Command is an embarrassment and sets a bad example for the rank and file. It portrays disharmony and represents a breakdown of discipline.
SSP Adams has always been too garrulous for his own good. His most recent statements have assured an ignoble end to his mostly illustrious career. If, for a moment, we assume that Mr. Adams is correct when he says that the Police High Command is a "total failure" then, as a senior police officer and long-standing active member of that organisation, he too must share in that failure. The police hierarchy alone cannot take all the blame because controlling crime is multi-faceted. Crime represents failure on the part of our entire society and not just the police force.
The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) advocates that police involve themselves in the development and social welfare of the communities that they serve, but traditionally the police force only came into play after the proverbial horse had already gone through the gate. In other words, the police were left to deal with the products of our social ills (a.k.a. the dirty work).
SYMPTOMATIC MANIFESTATION OF POVERTY
Crime represents the symptomatic manifestation of poverty (and its attendant problems), social despondency and/or the inequitable distribution of wealth. When young men are deprived of a solid fundamental primary education, the door is shut to further academic pursuits. When all they see around them are celebrated and powerful dons, aggression, criminality, death, the tired bodies, calloused hands and doleful faces of honest common labourers struggling to barely make ends meet, some decide that a life in a gang is worth the risk. These young men aren't capable of long-term planning. None can conceive of an old age. They only live for the gratification of their present needs.
So, if SSP Adams is to accurately place the label of "total failure" somewhere, then it's the society that should wear it. Then there's the quote that the police hierarchy is just as "dangerous as the common criminals". Were they suddenly transformed into dangerous men? And since these men rose through the ranks, are we to assume that we are incubating another set of men just as dangerous as common criminals to take over the reins? Furthermore, since SSP Adams was also ascending the ladder to the upper echelons and would perhaps have joined them were it not for his possibly over-enthusiastic methodology and obvious unrestrained flippancy, are we to assume that he too would have become just as dangerous as a common criminal one day? Or does he know something about this particular group of high-ranking officers to which we are not privy?
If his words have any veracity, then he is guilty of aiding and abetting his bosses with his complacent silence over all these years. Before his fall from grace, SSP Adams was revered and seen as the ultimate weapon against crime. When an exalted member of the force equates his superiors with common criminals it must be taken seriously. We cannot live in the shadow of his words. It is in our best interest to have him either retract his statements or substantiate them with facts. The implications of such utterances are far too grave to let them just slowly vanish under the sands of time.
Dr Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice.
