Dear Editor,

I watched in horror Wednesday’s television coverage of the incident at Luciano’s house. My heart goes out to the victims, particularly the children and the injured policemen.

I write to you as a former state prosecutor, and both my grandfathers and an uncle were policemen. I have some sensitivity to the difficult, stressful and often thankless job that the security forces do with limited resources.

However, I watched with equal horror as security personnel slapped a man and hit him in his head with a baton as he appeared to be blatantly interfering. His persistence also made me wonder at his mental state, so I was not surprised to read afterwards that he was of unsound mind. I do not believe that his mental state justifies how he was treated.

The security personnel’s response didn’t suggest to me that the man had a weapon on him. Could they have instead used their training to take him down to the ground, handcuff him and put him in a police car? I saw a soldier eventually escorting him from the scene without a great deal of urgency.

The situation was extremely tense especially with three colleagues injured in the line of duty. I cannot imagine the security officers’ emotional state, but I know that they are trained professionals. Still, I believe that the way the security personnel treated the man’s interference was unfortunate, with or without a camera present. This does not help the public, especially the youth, to continue to respect them and to appreciate the tremendous difficulty and danger they face daily in and out of uniform.

Commissioner and Minister of National Security, what more can you do to equip, refresh, sensitise and train our policemen and other security personnel?

It is not only Luciano, his family and the children in the neighbourhood who need healing for their damaged emotions. Our policemen’s souls are assaulted daily. We have charged you to be a part of the remedy on behalf of our nation.

May God restore justice and truth to Jamaica. “To our leaders, Great Defender, grant true wisdom from above.”

Charmaine Smith Bonia

Kingston 10

casmith@cwjamaica.com