'Police should not be expected to clean up mess left by politicians'
Rights activist says cops given basket to carry water
BY TANESHA MUNDLE Observer staff reporter mundlet@jamaicaobserver.com
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
HUMAN rights activist Yvonne McCalla-Sobers yesterday called for additional resources to be given to the police in order for them to conduct their duties efficiently.
The police, the rights activist said, have been given 'basket to carry water' and that the constabulary should not be expected to clean up the "mess" made by politicians over the years.
Addressing editors and reporters at the Observer's weekly Monday Exchange at the newspaper's Beechwood Avenue headquarters in Kingston, McCalla-Sobers said the expectations of the police were unfair, adding that police officers were being mandated with an impossible task of cleaning up crime without the necessary resources.
"The police deserve better treatment, and better treatment means they deserve the resources that they need...," said McCalla-Sobers, president of the rights group Family Against State Terrorism (FAST).
The police have, for years, called for more resources to strengthen their fight against crime and violence. In addition to the calls for more police officers, the constabulary has over the years called for more motor vehicles, state-of-the-art equipment to help in forensic investigation, and more bulletproof vests, among others.
McCalla-Sobers, at the same time, said politicians were the root cause of the problems in most communities affected by crime, and they should not leave the problems up to the police to fix.
"...The police do not deserve to be put out there on the front line cleaning up what mess politicians make," she said.
McCalla-Sobers said, too, that it was not the duty of the police to implement social intervention programmes in crime-riddled communities in an effort to provide other alternatives for the residents.
"The police cannot do that. The police have a job and social intervention is not their job," she said.
McCalla-Sobers said that even though intervention by the police in some inner-city communities had in recent times shown a decline in crime in those areas, there has not been the necessary intervention by relevant government agencies to ensure that stability remains.
Citing police intervention in inner-city communities in Kingston such as Hannah Town, Tavares Gardens, better known as 'Payne Land', and Parade Gardens in 2004 as examples, she said the police were expected to restore calm to those areas with the expectation that the relevant authorities would follow up with the necessary social intervention. "But it did not happen," she said. "Social intervention is not their (police) job."
However, she said the police needed everyone's support.
"The police need our support, but they also need our support to act in ways that do not increase alienation in the community. We have to support a kind of policing that is going to do what the military called building hearts and minds. If we treat the innocent badly they will become supporters of the tyrants," McCalla-Sobers said.
 
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7/13/2010
@David Armstrong, we can and we must have it both ways. Police must have adequate resources to enforce the law and citizens rights must be protected. Not everyone in that 6 by 20 ft cell is a criminal.
7/13/2010
Jamaicans are still trapped in the past blaming politicians for everything - while its true that many of those gutless evil crap filled individuals are responsible, many of our ordinary citizens continue to bribe police and officials to get their way. Many of our "uptowners" use "downtowners" to do their dirty work using money as a dangling carrot. They underpay their staff yet expect the staff to keep dirty secrets. Jamaicans neet to start living for others and not just self.
7/13/2010
OK so the jails are overcrowed with criminals confined in 6 by 20 ft cell. At least they are still alive. Some of these criminals are responsible for victims who are now 6 ft deep in the ground. We can't have it both ways folks...when people are brutually murdered you cry for the government and police to do something. When they do take out these thugs then you start crying police brutality. We have a new breed of criminal thugs who are ruthless and they prefer to be taken dead than alive.
7/13/2010
While most of the violent crime in JA is being committed by people who are poor and undereducated there is no strong evidence that suggests that poverty is a significant cause of crime. Many poor people are probably more law abiding than rich people. It is true that poor people if they are in a desperate situation may resort to crime as a survival means. This is what I believe has happened in TG and other poor garrison constituencies. Being poor and uneducated they are vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation by politicians as we have seen. The fact remains that where crime exist the police will be drawn to those areas and if there is resistance people will be killed. To argue that the police is picking on poor people is naïve.
7/13/2010
Only constitutional changes can clean up politicians "mess".
We also need an "overzealous" COP who is not afraid to arrest people because of their perceived position in society.
Social intervention programs will always be stifled in the prevailing conditions.Too much window dressing,REAL change required.
7/13/2010
Let me make it simple for all you critics of Sobers and Gomes. After the police rough up the people and tek wey the guns, man woman and child still need to eat. You think people dey in Haiti. Jamaica have 295 people per square kilometer and Haiti have 320 people per square kilometer. Jamaica is in a crisis and police alone cannot fix it. Wake Up!
7/13/2010
@C M seems to think that all downtowners are criminals, terrorist, and not human. Sobers holds the mirror to our face. We cannot use law enforcement in this way without also creating social programs and jobs. The outcome of this misguided approach will only be a bigger explosion than what occurred last May. Uptowners need support the JFJ rainbow because Bruce and his like are morally bankrupt. IMF will not bring us happiness.
7/13/2010
I agree with Mrs Sobers.
I am once again saying we need a new arm of National Security system that is not answerable to politicians.
This would allow this investigative branch to use technology, stealth and intelligence to bring some of these criminal to books taking a case all the way through to conviction.
We the people must demand this change. I am currently writing a white paper on this change and will post on my blog so we can have the input of other.
We must attack crime at the top
7/13/2010
Anthony Johnson: Long before his death, kentucky Kid warned that police would try to kill him because he threatened action when THEY crashed into his vehicle. He recorded the beating they gave him and his pregnant wife.
Yet nothing has been done. Nothing.
Now what was that you said about the police and their enforcing "law and order"? Open your eyes and use your brains man. You cannot have law and order without justice, and call yoursef a democracy.
7/13/2010
Mrs McCalla Sobers needs to bear in mind that some of the persons we call police officers, are criminals alike. They part-take in criminal activities such as extorting which most motorists have faced. It is their constitutional duty to SERVE and PROTECT the people of Jamaica.
7/13/2010
McCalla-Sobers is making severals points but I must disagree in cases, the police are there to clean up the criminal "mess" , the politicians who we trust to run our Country should NOT be involved in creating such disasters, just like you and I shouldn't rob murder and stock pile illegal weapons or the police will pay us a visit to clean up our mess.
I totally support our security forces who put their lives on the line for us every day and they should be treated better.
7/13/2010
The police have the necessary manpower and laws in place now to deal with crime. They however may need cleaner stations, bullet proof vests, higher powered weapons, motor vehicles and communication equipment.
The problem of garrisons stem from the political system of zoning areas for voting and handing out benefits to political supporters. This has I believe morphed into a more independent type of gangsterism, fueled by international drug smuggling aided by foreigners.
7/13/2010
She is also right about the absence of Social Intervention programmes. To her point, after crime is curtailed, then what? What opportunities exist in the communities allowing the youths to realise their potential to be full-functioning/contributing members of the society? She is correct in her assessment of the situation: both the role of the police and the absence of programmes to prevent the re-infestation of crime in affected communities. Cancer cannot be gotten rid of without followup chemo.
7/13/2010
I pray that God gives Mr. Christie all the evidence he needs in due time to show that our politician hands are also in the cookie jar.
They are trying to put fear in his heart but God is standing by his side and will lead him in the right direction, Good Luck Mr. Christie! We have to stand for something or else fall for anything.
7/13/2010
I agree that politicians should take the blame, but what happen to TG all these years and why the security forces weren't allowed unless permission was granted by the bigger heads? I think the former MOS PNP & Dwight Nelson should answer, they are to be blame as well for the crime as well. I have a cousin who was disbarred from the force because of his licky, licky ways, these bad policemen/women are giving the good ones a bad name, let us really clean up all crime organization in Jamaica.
7/13/2010
More resouces from where? Jamaica is under an IMF program and suffers from corruption and chronic econ. growth for years. It is the typical third world dilemma. These people are hoplelessly out of ideas.
7/13/2010
We hear about social interventions all the time,however that alone does not stop a man or woman from being a criminal.Therefore we must understand that the police have a duty to enforce law and order.
7/13/2010
If the police don't clean up any mess regardless of who create it, who is going to clean it up? Mess is mess...When a baby make a mess, who will clean the baby mess made by the baby?
7/13/2010
One recent study in USA found that in societies,where most folks have arms,legal arms,they have less heinous crimes.
In society,where few folks`gunmen` have guns and the most`good people have none, have high heinous crimes for those with guns,and in jamaica,they[few] are usually attached to party politicks,prey upon those without,no they caN RESPONSE IN LIKE TERMS.
AND THEN HANGING THOSE WHO COMMITS,HEINOUS AFT,CONVICTION,NEEDS TO BEROUTINE AGAIN,EVEN LASHING IN AND LASHING `OUT.
7/13/2010
Thank you Mrs. McCalla-Sobers. I would even dare to posit that our politicians didn't only create the mess in which our country and all of us are currently mired, but they have maintained the mess by interfering with police work and protecting their cronies from the law. Ever since the Michael Manley era I have been appalled at the shamelessness of politicians who cling to office after being publicly exposed and disgraced. I hope the 'Frankenstein' named 'Dudus" Coke destroy his creators
7/13/2010
We need to support the police forces; we alsoneed t osupport them acting with regards to human rights. and that they are abled,equipped.
The police is `the investigastive forces,procurement of evidence unit and prevention of crime resources,within a civilize society,just of the process.
Only in failed,state justice systems,that police becomes,accusers.arresters,jury,executioners,anti-thesis of being just.
and inoble,too, to freedom principles.
7/13/2010
These people are a bunch or COWARDS along with a certain talk show host, they want to appease the criminals, trying to get the criminal to think they are on their sides, they may be afraid of they own safety and that of their families, that's the only reason I can see why reasonable people would be against a policy that is strong and vigilant against criminals, lets hear from them when crime comes knocking at their doors.
7/13/2010
The argument is being made in an ackward manner, but it is nonetheless a valid one. Policing is for crime, but social programs is for people especially youths at risk and suffering. The argument being made is that those are the ones that are susceptible to being "supporters of tyrants" as Mrs. McCalla-Sobers put it. It is naive and shortsighted to think that all it will take to turn things around is constant patroling, curfews state of emergencies etc.. She is right about winning heart/mind
7/13/2010
This is what the police have been saying all a long. But it felt on def ears.The politicians dont give a dawn thing about how what the police have to use to fight crime. The mess they creat, is left for the police to get bad names in cleaning it up.It will ony a matter of time for a lot of he politicians to face the music. It is coming.Their behaviors are outrageous, to the point where they step into police station and demand the release of known thugs. Mr Christie, clean them up, expose them.
7/13/2010
this is such a poor statement so if the mess the politicians created is illegal is who should clean it up FAST ? The police needs to be supported we need to form a group to support the police and their efforts
7/13/2010
The police have to accept their share of the blame though. It is no use them telling us that they have no vehicles when they are within stone's throw of a complaint, or see something happening and turn their backs on it.
What we usually get these days is that there are only two people at the station and neither can leave.
I know its no use calling and telling and telling them that there are people in your breadfruit or mango trees. They just wont come.
7/13/2010
If these so called human rights group want to be political activists they should advocate the implementation of laws to dismantle garrison constituencies and the corruption it causes. garrison constituencies are an incubator for crime and corruption. If this this incubator is eliminated violent crimes would significantly decline and the police would not have to clean up the mess that the politicians create.
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