Dear Editor,

On August 9, while among hundreds of mourners attending the thanksgiving service for the late woman Constable Crystal Thomas, I was moved by the grave loss.

I know the community and the family of the deceased, and with the direction in which the young woman was going, she would have been a beacon for the entire community, especially the many unattached young people.

The packed church heard of Thomas’s dedication to her work as a police officer, her zealousness to achieve academic success, and her yearning to make life better for herself so that she could stop her mother from being a market vendor.

Minister of National Security Peter Bunting praised the contribution of citizens in the early arrest of those suspected of killing the officer. Opposition spokesman on national security, Derrick Smith, and Police Commissioner Dr Carl Williams used their tributes to comfort the family and associates of Thomas, with Smith making a very sober point for the gap between the police and the citizenry to be filled, where they are not only seen as enforcers.

Head of the Kingston West police, Senior Superintendent of Police Cornwall Ford told the mourners of the many calls of support, shock and outrage that he had received from ordinary people in the area.

At the introduction of Sergeant Raymond Wilson, I said to the person beside me, “We are in treat for some garbage,” and he said, “Loose cannon”.

The only contribution that the chairman of the Jamaica Police Federation could make to a very sad occasion was to boost his ego, while suggesting that the Independent Commission of Investigations in some way contributed to the death of Thomas. Wilson’s tirade at the service of thanksgiving for a promising Jamaican brought into focus, once again, the serious deficit that we have in leadership. The worst part of his almost 16-minute disruption of the service was the applause and handshakes given to him by other members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force. An apology from the High Command to Thomas’s family and the Ebenezer Fellowship Church of God Seventh-day is long overdue.

Garfield L Angus

Mandeville PO, Manchester

garigus@yahoo.co.uk