Melville Cooke
I HAVE never spoken to Senior Superintendent Reneto DeCordova Valentino Adams, but I have twice felt his immense presence from relatively close range (no pun boss, no pun).
The first was at the bottom of 100 Lane, where it joins Red Hills Road, about three years ago. I was getting the radiator of my car fixed, when a convoy of police vehicles stopped on the main road beside the gas station owned by the late LG Brown. And there he was - calm, cool, composed, not in uniform, nonchalantly speaking on a cell phone, the apparently unconcerned focal point of all activity, despite the presence of long guns and blue denim uniforms. ?See de big man deh!? I heard the awed, emphatic whisper of a tough-looking fellow who seemed to be in his late teens or early 20s.
Then he got back into his vehicle and they were off.
My second close encounter of the Adams kind took place about two months ago, at an early morning concert in Emancipation Park, New Kingston. This time around it was not the awe that was in effect, it was the charm, as I saw him give his undivided attention to a woman who had approached him for a handshake while he stood up with another man. He made eye contact without making her uncomfortable, he listened attentively, he smiled without smirking, all from a distance well outside the personal space.
Then off he walked, quickly without hurrying, firmly without demanding attention, although he got plenty of that.
RESOUNDING CHEERS
I have been to entertainment events where there have been resounding cheers for Adams (which probably would have been standing ovations if the people had not already been standing) and I have heard the rumblings for his recall to the front line, as the crime rate spirals and the calls for "firm measures" get louder. I do not agree.
The tough policemen (and a man who gives criminals a choice between the 'Bible' and the gun, not guaranteeing their safety if they choose the latter, is certainly a tough cop) are placed in positions where they take on criminals who are armed, dangerous and have often already wreaked serious harm. To kill a murderer in a gunbattle when he has already gone eight or nine victims and claim that, in putting him to rest, other lives have been saved, makes no sense.
A policeman of Mr. Adams' obvious intelligence and strength of personality is wasted on the streets, neck well wrapped and dark glasses on. He should be at the ports, implementing measures to stem what former Commissioner Francis Forbes once called an open pipeline for guns to come into the country.
We, however, do not think that way. We want 'man fe dead' now and dramatic pacification of trouble spots. We want the tough cops out on the streets - most of whom, I strongly suspect, lack Mr. Adams' intelligence, personal charm and sense of patriotism (which I suspect is sometimes highly misguided).
Sure, there is need for very firm policing, but the allure of this tough 'brand name' cop going up against the criminals, automatic rifle blazing, is very dangerous. It invariably results in a situation where the lawman feels he is above the law and that is when very bad things happen, like usurpation of the state.
COOPERATING WITH POLICE
I hope you all realise that last week's dispatching with extreme prejudice of the four would-be robbers in Whitehouse, Westmoreland, was an example of police-citizen cooperation. While there are the usual comments about mob violence, when I read the story in The Gleaner, I did not get a sense of a mob at work, but a community united to defend itself.
There is absolutely no reason why the safety of four men who walk in on hard-working people with guns should be guaranteed. And more is sure to happen, for many times the police come in time only to count spent shells and watch over the dead and private security is out of the pocket's reach.
Not a 28-inch cutlass, a file and a good pair of lungs to shout "tief!", though.
Melville Cooke is a freelance writer.
