It will be hard for the police to explain, much more convince anyone, that Dr. Jephthah Ford was so difficult to restrain that he had to be battered to a pulp.

So now Dr. Ford is in hospital, with significant injuries and, as is the norm in such circumstances, facing a mountain of police charges, ranging from assault, resisting arrest, and illegal use of a firearm.

If the facts are close to anything the Ford family and his lawyers claim them to be, these charges will be eventually defeated and the Jamaican taxpayer could, in the end, be faced with a substantial bill for the civil suit that he is threatening to bring. At the very least, Dr. Ford will be assured his day in court.

Moreover, the fact that Dr. Ford is a prominent personality - a medical doctor, businessman and politician - has already ensured that his case, and alleged treatment by people who are supposed to uphold the law, gain national attention. The press is likely to maintain its interest in the matter and follow it in the courts.

In the end, therefore, this transparency will help to ensure that Dr. Jephthah Ford receives justice. It shouldn't have to be so. Justice, after all, is a right, not an entitlement which ought not to be distributed on the basis of privilege.

We make this point, as part of a large question: What if it was not Dr. Ford? Suppose it was an inner-city youth? The answers, many will insist, are obvious.

Indeed, the treatment that Dr. Ford is reported to have received is said to be the norm for many Jamaicans, mostly poor, inner-city youths. Dr. Ford allegedly got into an argument with policemen, doing private security work at a club he owns, but had hired out to independent promoters to host a show.

Having been initially beaten, the claim goes, Dr. Ford was handcuffed, dr.iven around in a police vehicle and beaten again. He was allegedly further beaten at a police station before being taken to hospital to be looked after.

Indeed, this is the kind of treatment that many in inner-city Jamaica complain of being subjected to by the police almost as a matter of course;a steel-toed, jackbooted, goose-stepping approach to law enforcement. Well-to-do Jamaicans are often insulated from such treatment and are wont, reflexively, to give the police the benefit of the doubt, when the claims are made by others.

Of course, we understand that policing in Jamaica is a difficult and often dangerous business. The death of Constable Michael Haughton, shot dead in Payne Avenue Sunday night and the seven other police officers killed so far this year make that point far too eloquently.

The fact though is that we expect our police to operate to a higher standard than criminals. Law enforcement is a critical part of the justice system, which has its basis in prescribed codes. When law enforcement officers operate outside those codes, they undermine the rule of law and create the basis for anarchy. That is why investigation by the Criminal Investigations Branch of the incident involving Dr. Ford must be done with dispatch and the public kept informed.