Police Federation spewing balderdash

Saturday, November 21, 2009 7:16 AM

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Editorials

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

During his tenure as police chief, Commissioner Lucius Thomas charged at a conference of the Police Federation that there were criminals in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

"There are criminals among us. not only corporals, sergeants, and inspectors, it goes all the way up," Commissioner Thomas said in a no holds barred address to the constabulary's rank and file.

In fact, Commissioner Thomas went further to say that members of the police force were providing gunmen with bullets and that some of those same bullets were being used to kill police.

Of course, his frank declaration generated widespread comment. We can't recall, though, the Police Federation asking for his resignation because they were so offended by what he said. In fact, if our memory serves us right, delegates attending the conference applauded Commissioner Thomas.

In March last year, Commissioner Thomas' successor, the current police chief, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, told the Jamaica Employers' Federation's Chief Executive Officers breakfast at the Hilton Kingston Hotel that there are criminals in the police force.

Commissioner Lewin made the charge against the background of his acknowledgement that corruption is endemic in the constabulary and that he intended to drive the transformation process being facilitated by a strategic review of the police force.

As was expected, the comment sparked vigorous debate. We recall too, that members of the police force were not too pleased about Commissioner Lewin's statement. However, we don't remember the federation asking for his resignation.

We have cause to raise these two instances after reading a press release from the Police Federation issued Sunday night and calling for Assistant Commissioner of Police Les Green to resign if he is unable to provide proof to back up his statement of policemen involved in criminality.

Assistant Commissioner Green, in an interview aired on CVM-TV at the weekend, was reported as saying that some of the police officers who have been killed suffered that fate because they were involved in criminal activities.

The comment, the federation is arguing, was "ill-timed" because the JCF is mourning the murder of the ninth cop by gunmen since the start of this year.

The federation has also said that Assistant Commissioner Green's statement has eroded morale in the police force and that the families of the police officers slain are "outraged that the memories and reputations of their loved ones are being tarnished".

Quite frankly, the federation is spewing a lot of balderdash and is displaying hypocrisy on this issue, as its members are very well aware of what is happening among their ranks. They displayed that awareness when they applauded former commissioner Thomas' statement which was just as damning as Mr Green's.

The question therefore is, why the double standard?

Based on the news report, Mr Green was very clear in pointing out that of the police officers killed it was only some, and not all, who were involved in criminal activities. In fact, he did go on to admit that other police officers were killed because they represented authority.

Unfortunately, the Police Federation, in what can only be described as a shameless act of deceit, chose not to reproduce Mr Green's comment in full and used that to mount its soapbox.

Instead of pouting at Mr Green's truth, the Police Federation would do well to work at supporting the many members of the constabulary who are trying hard to regain public trust that has sadly been ruined by years of abuse.

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