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More criminals in police uniform?
Earlier this year when Police Commissioner Hardley Lewin said that there were criminals in the police force, many members of the constabulary were angry. You kept hearing that the police were demotivated and upset. Policemen were reportedly pouting and folding their arms.
Weeks later came the news that two policemen were being accused of sexually assaulting a woman who they discovered in a car getting her groove on with her ... well, a man. The woman reported the incident and the policemen were allowed to flee the station.
That they later turned themselves in is beside the point. That they disappeared in the first place is cause for much concern, leaves a bad aftertaste and further enforces the nation-wide belief that you just can't trust the police.
What these policemen have been accused of is downright sickening. The woman and her man were not breaking the law carrying on in the privacy of their car on a darkened road in Portmore. Such trysts are exciting but dangerous and as such the most that should have happened was that the policemen should have warned them to be more careful, not provide them with a graphic example of what could have and did happen.
eerily silent
What really scares me is that someone may have helped them flee even after knowing what they were accused of. And the Police Federation that was so vocal when the commissioner made his statements is still eerily silent, even though I am not sure what they would have been able to say.
Examples such as these suggest that there are more criminals parading in police uniforms than even the force is aware of or willing to acknowledge. For every bad cop, there may be two others who know what that cop has been up to but have chosen to remain silent. In my book that makes them accessories to or aiders and abettors of criminal activity.
And I am betting they were among the ones throwing up their arms in disgust when Admiral Lewin made his statements weeks ago.
wrong attitude
Look, I support the police and I have friends and relatives in the force and I grieve whenever a policeman falls in the line of duty. I also accept that the police force is a reflection of wider society, but many within the constabulary simply have the wrong attitude. If a person is breaking the law, no matter how simple, it is a policeman's duty to arrest him. If a policeman is thinking 'he is not harming anybody, a just hustle him a hustle', then he needs to resign and get into another line of work because in a very big way such actions contribute to the breakdown of civil society.
If the police are going to ignore the simplest of transgressions, is only a matter of time before he begins to turn a blind eye to greater ones and then what? Chaos, that's what. And that is what is happening now.
Every day, right across this country, you see people vending in no-vending areas, cars parked in no-parking zones, people throwing garbage from their car windows and people 'p...ing on the pavement like they just don't care' and they are never prosecuted. But there are policemen right there watching them break the law and choosing not to act. I will take bets that if people were being prosecuted for these things, they would behave better.
Improve its image
Of course there are many other factors that contribute to society's ills but I am not talking about those now.
There has been much talk in recent weeks about reforming the police force in an effort to improve its image. All that is good, but it certainly does not help when incidents like the one in Portmore keep happening.
I mean, what did the accused cops think was going to happen? There was nothing preventing the woman from reporting the incident, even if the man she was with was not hers because in reporting the incident there is really no need for her to tell the authorities who she was with. What the man was doing to her inside that car was something she wanted. What the policemen allegedly did afterwards was not.
Obviously, those who helped them escape didn't share that view.
It's time the law-abiding policemen - and they are still by far the majority - stop whining about the public scrutiny and start acting to rid the force of these people who taint their integrity. Pretending like it isn't there is not going to change the reality of what has been staring them in the face all along.
Failure to do so is only helping crime rise.
Send comments to [email protected].
Earlier this year when Police Commissioner Hardley Lewin said that there were criminals in the police force, many members of the constabulary were angry. You kept hearing that the police were demotivated and upset. Policemen were reportedly pouting and folding their arms.
Weeks later came the news that two policemen were being accused of sexually assaulting a woman who they discovered in a car getting her groove on with her ... well, a man. The woman reported the incident and the policemen were allowed to flee the station.
That they later turned themselves in is beside the point. That they disappeared in the first place is cause for much concern, leaves a bad aftertaste and further enforces the nation-wide belief that you just can't trust the police.
What these policemen have been accused of is downright sickening. The woman and her man were not breaking the law carrying on in the privacy of their car on a darkened road in Portmore. Such trysts are exciting but dangerous and as such the most that should have happened was that the policemen should have warned them to be more careful, not provide them with a graphic example of what could have and did happen.
eerily silent
What really scares me is that someone may have helped them flee even after knowing what they were accused of. And the Police Federation that was so vocal when the commissioner made his statements is still eerily silent, even though I am not sure what they would have been able to say.
Examples such as these suggest that there are more criminals parading in police uniforms than even the force is aware of or willing to acknowledge. For every bad cop, there may be two others who know what that cop has been up to but have chosen to remain silent. In my book that makes them accessories to or aiders and abettors of criminal activity.
And I am betting they were among the ones throwing up their arms in disgust when Admiral Lewin made his statements weeks ago.
wrong attitude
Look, I support the police and I have friends and relatives in the force and I grieve whenever a policeman falls in the line of duty. I also accept that the police force is a reflection of wider society, but many within the constabulary simply have the wrong attitude. If a person is breaking the law, no matter how simple, it is a policeman's duty to arrest him. If a policeman is thinking 'he is not harming anybody, a just hustle him a hustle', then he needs to resign and get into another line of work because in a very big way such actions contribute to the breakdown of civil society.
If the police are going to ignore the simplest of transgressions, is only a matter of time before he begins to turn a blind eye to greater ones and then what? Chaos, that's what. And that is what is happening now.
Every day, right across this country, you see people vending in no-vending areas, cars parked in no-parking zones, people throwing garbage from their car windows and people 'p...ing on the pavement like they just don't care' and they are never prosecuted. But there are policemen right there watching them break the law and choosing not to act. I will take bets that if people were being prosecuted for these things, they would behave better.
Improve its image
Of course there are many other factors that contribute to society's ills but I am not talking about those now.
There has been much talk in recent weeks about reforming the police force in an effort to improve its image. All that is good, but it certainly does not help when incidents like the one in Portmore keep happening.
I mean, what did the accused cops think was going to happen? There was nothing preventing the woman from reporting the incident, even if the man she was with was not hers because in reporting the incident there is really no need for her to tell the authorities who she was with. What the man was doing to her inside that car was something she wanted. What the policemen allegedly did afterwards was not.
Obviously, those who helped them escape didn't share that view.
It's time the law-abiding policemen - and they are still by far the majority - stop whining about the public scrutiny and start acting to rid the force of these people who taint their integrity. Pretending like it isn't there is not going to change the reality of what has been staring them in the face all along.
Failure to do so is only helping crime rise.
Send comments to [email protected].
. Of course, they had nothing to see, other than a female in blouse and shorts, and their only resort was to let me know I had been there at that spot for a number of hours (they were watching me... 
). 
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