THEIR FRUSTRATIONS over working conditions and anger over what they see as a snub by the Minister of Finance to their demands for a significant salary increase notwithstanding, the police presented a very bad example to the public along National Heroes Circle on Monday morning.
To use police service motor bikes and their persons to prevent the Minister of Finance from freely entering or leaving the compound was inexcusable. We hasten to add that our position would be the same were the movements of any other public servant or member of the public having business at the ministry been similarly disrupted.
We have long maintained that by dint of their training, the position they hold and the expectations of responsibility the public has of them, that the security forces in general must be held to a higher standard of behaviour than the rest of the society in all areas of their professional life.
So the fact that it has become commonplace for agitated employees to block gates, mount roadblocks, and sometimes hold their employers or the public to ransom to press their demands in negotiations or various disputes, provide the police no excuse to behave in like manner. Monday's loutish behaviour and gross indiscipline effectively undermines their own authority when they go to other scenes of demonstrations insisting that the public comply with the law and not obstruct the free flow of traffic.
The police have no carte blanche right to tell the rest of the public do as we say and not as we do.
The protest action was particularly bad given the presence of and apparent endorsement by members of the Jamaica Police Federation. In this, there was an absence of good leadership. The police are required to keep their wits about them even in the most trying of circumstances. On Monday they fell victim to the rabble-rousing behaviour they often decry.
Specific legislation prevents the police from withdrawing their services in protest as other members of the workforce frequently do, but they can make their positions strongly felt and known without themselves being disruptive. It is unfortunate that this lapse into indiscipline may also undercut the widespread public sympathy for the police and the very difficult job they have to do, especially in light of the recent coordinated assault on their members by gunmen.
At the same time, the police must appreciate the difficult economic constraints the country faces and the urgent need to cut spending while at the same time making the public sector more efficient.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
