THE statements were familiar. The predictable clichés.

From the acting prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller, was the promise that "no stone will be left unturned".

Dr Peter Phillips, the national security minister, offered "a full and thorough investigation".

And there was the obligatory announcement that the police involved have been "removed from front-line duty". Whatever that means!

So things remain the same. Another stupid, asinine and botched police operation.

It is as if the constabulary cannot sequentially string together two internally consistent and logical operations which do not have to be become mired in controversy. They, perhaps, become overwhelmed, and burdened, by one good action. Like Canterbury.

It is as if they are intent on making it frustratingly difficult for decent and logical people to support the constabulary.

Of course, our concern is triggered by Saturday's incident at Flankers in Montego Bay where two elderly men, aged 63 and 66, were shot dead. Allegedly they were caught in a cross fire between the police and gunmen.

Flankers residents reject the police account of events. They claim that the men, a taxi operator and a newspaper vendor, were executed by the police.

Whatever the merits, if any, of the residents' claim this newspaper is clear that it does not support the action of those persons who blocked a central highway into and out of Montego Bay and burned tour buses. Ultimately, they will have hurt themselves.

Flankers is a mostly impoverished squatter community. Like elsewhere in Montego Bay, and Jamaica generally, the fortunes of Flankers rest heavily on the fortunes of tourism.

Saturday's action -- the bonfires in the streets, the burning buses, the attempt to enter the runway of the Sangster airport -- have the potential to damage the tourism sector.

So the mode of protest in Flankers on Saturday was a kind of thoughtless ignorance that is all too common in Jamaica, which highlights a societal dysfunction which, to a substantial degree, has its roots in the country's education deficit.

There is this national incapacity to resolve disputes other than in violence. This is not the case only in places like Flankers. There are the several cases of the middle-class cowboys gunning down each other in bars, on party boats and in car parks.

But having said all that, we expect our police force to behave with a civility and restraint that should be the product of training and a consistent enforcement of discipline. Occasionally, we have a sense that this approach to policing is taking hold. The recent events in Canterbury provided such hope.

But as is too often the case, these expectations are quickly dashed. It may be true, as the police say, that these elderly men died in a cross-fire.

However, we had thought that part of the operational logic of the constabulary is to protect innocent lives. The police have talked much recently about their rules of engagement. We would hardly believe that it is an empty message.

There are beginning to be dins of guns found after the shooting, but not of bodies other than the two elderly gentlemen's. We hardly believe that they had engaged the constabulary.

So let us add to the clichés, but with the hope that they carry real meaning. Mr Forbes should leave no stones unturned in a full and thorough investigation leading to a speedy resolution in which justice is done.

But that is not enough. Mr Forbes has to grow bold and decisive. Enough is enough.

Trousers in Denim

Cream of the 'Crop'

Cheeky's World