NINE years ago, the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) came up with what seemed like a brilliant idea: to ‘import’ police officers from Britain and Canada to bolster its existing staff and help to reduce crime and violence in the Western Hemisphere’s murder capital.

Among the first arrivals was one Mark Shields, who along with fellow United Kingdom citizens Les Green and Justin Felice would make their mark in different ways.

Green has since returned to England, having left an indelible signature on crime-fighting here, earning the reputation as a topquality investigator and a truly professional policeman.

Felice is still serving Jamaica, though not as an active member of the police force.

Shields has also left the JCF, but has remained in Jamaica, primarily, it seems, for personal reasons. It appears that in the years that the tall, lanky showman, who with western clothes could pass for Kid Colt outlaw in the comic book series, has lived in Jamaica, he has turned into an overnight Professor of Journalism at the University of Time Wasters and Day Dreamers.

Last week’s Sunday Observer lead story, headlined ’17 Guns for Freedom’ did not go down too well with Mr Showman, Professor Shields himself.

For Shields, the Sunday Observer’s publishing of the article went below the belt.

And to think that the Professor of Journalism sent his response to the Daily Gleaner the following day, and not to the Jamaica Observer — the newspaper with which he had the problem — seems to me to be the kind of journalism that he should not be imparting to his ‘students’.

I hope that the number in his ‘class’ remains at minus one, for if people opt to attend those sessions, they could end up learning masonry, instead of the intended journalism.

Stupid fellow!

Maybe as Shields says in his letter he holds “no candle” for Vybz Kartel, but could it be his wish that the convicted entertainer sing a sankey and find his way back home?

According to Professor Shields, his motivation “is based on the principle that Jamaica needs to ensure that the standards of journalism remain at a level that does not put people’s lives at risk for the sake of a good story’.

Oh sure, Professor Shields. I wonder if he at any time put any lives at risk while he carried the nomenclature of deputy commissioner for the sake of making the headlines and showing off his face on the pages of newspapers and on television.

And what about all those members of the police force whom he, without the requisite proof, suggested were acting outside of stated JCF guidelines?

Is this the same man who handled the investigation into the ‘murder’ of former Pakistan cricket coach, Englishman Bob Woolmer that turned Jamaica into a global laughing stock? My goodness, Woolmer was found to have suffered a heart attack, but star boy Shields was there hogging the limelight as only he knows how to.

Professor Shields will want everyone to be bought by his British charm and skilful use of the English language, which, to his credit, he is in full command of.

But that’s as far as it goes. It would be so surprising for someone to be brought up anywhere in the United Kingdom and not know how to speak English — the Queen’s way.

I am indeed appalled that the Sunday Observer story could put Kartel’s life and the lives of his family at risk. After all, he put the lives of several other people at risk, based upon the findings of a judge and jury in the Home Circuit Court that landed him in prison for life.

So what, according to Professor Shields, entered the heads of those in charge of the Sunday Observer, that led them to disclose that Vybz Kartel had allegedly offered assistance to the police?

Well, the decision to run the story was taken by me, so maybe Professor Shields needs to arrange a quiet meeting with psychiatrists Dr Aggrey Irons or Dr Freddie Hickling, to determine my mental fitness for putting out the kind of editorial garbage that the good Professor of Journalism is so sweaty about.

He, of course, cited risks to Kartel in prison. Is this fellow Professor Shields for real?

Isn’t Kartel the convicted criminal whom Police Commissioner Owen Ellington, the Professor’s former colleague, said led a gang that is responsible for over 100 murders?

Sure, it seems that, according to the Professor, there may have been a public interest angle that escaped him. For he knows nothing about journalism, or the functioning of a newsroom, to place himself on a pedestal, or to judge those who have been serving the profession for ages.

His chosen vocation — policing — ended in failure. He was responsible for the crime portfolio in the JCF while he served. There was no significant decrease in the crime numbers during the period, yet he chooses to profess to journalists that he knows how to run a newsroom.

Professor Shields also, quite ridiculously, wanted to know what was the “motivation” of the ‘highly placed source’ in the JCF who gave information to the Sunday Observer. To go further, he even wants Commissioner Ellington to “order a thorough investigation to try and identify the source of the article”. What kind of rubbish is that?

Can Shields honestly tell us that while he was in the JCF, he did not confide in media personnel and give information to them in exchange for his name not being mentioned?

That’s how the business goes, Professor Shields. And as the head of the journalism school at the University of Time Wasters and Day Dreamers, he ought to know that sources, even those who do not want to be named, are critical to a journalist’s existence.

Maybe it is time to change the curriculum at that university. Better yet, it may be appropriate to scrap the journalism programme and change it to a crime prevention one, headed by … oh dear, not Professor Shields … wasn’t he at one time deputy commissioner of police whose magic wand was often lost? Wow! What do we do next?

Vybz Kartel has been convicted and sent to prison for life. His release from the maximum security prison where he is housed depends largely on his conduct at the institution over the next 33 or so years, although defence attorneys are obviously hoping that the entertainer may be released on appeal.

Regrettably, this dreadful fellow donned the colours and tie of Calabar High School on the day of his sentencing, scarring the image of one of Jamaica’s illustrious high schools, which has produced so many outstanding men.

Calabar must still be in mourning … at a time when the school performed so admirably at the recently ended athletic championships at the National Stadium.

It is frightening, though maybe not to Professor Shields, that so many of our young people have invested so much of their time and confidence in Vybz Kartel … a man who can show no clear positive achievement in this society.

So many of his so-called supporters wanted him to be freed, long before the trial ended, many without even examining the facts (well, not sure they are capable of doing so anyway).

It is that same attitude that is keeping Jamaica stagnant. We go on the streets daily and see how reckless drivers of minibuses and $100 taxis reduce our life expectancy; how candles are lit and gunshots fired when Kartel’s lyrics are made public; and how we loot crashed trucks of their goods without showing any care for who was driving them.

I wonder if there will come a day when Professor Shields will join us all in trying to recreate in the minds of the people the more productive ways of doing business in Jamaica?

It was the same Professor Shields who had threatened to resign as deputy commissioner (thanks to Wikileaks) if then Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams was acquitted and returned to front-line duty after his trial for the alleged unlawful killing of four people close to a gold mine in Kraal, Clarendon, in May 2003.

Professor Shields, who first came to Jamaica as a Scotland Yard investigator in 2003 and was offered a secondment in the JCF in March 2005, said that he would quit and return to the UK, but waited a full three years later to leave the force, after his new one-year contract offer was revised. A return to the UK has still not materialised.

He did not give Adams a chance, although he should know that like Kartel, the court had a right to decide the outcome of a case.

Adams rightfully responded by saying that Professor Shields had no respect for Jamaican law, although the Englishman insisted that it would be in the best interest of Jamaica to have Adams let out of the force.

The clock is ticking. In the meantime, Professor Shields may still want to drink his coffee and hopefully go into a dream.

By the way, a few calls, maybe even e-mails may come my way, but I’ll be waiting. After all, if some of us want our country to get better, we must be prepared to die for it.

HG Helps is Editor-at-Large of the Jamaica Observer.