Dear Editor,

Once again history has repeated itself in a morbid way and has left us with no apparent lessons to be learnt.

This is exemplified in the recent fatal shooting of Woman Corporal Judith Williams. Approximately nine months ago, Constable Crystal Thomas was fatally shot in a minibus along Spanish Town Road. Both incidents saw the police women either on their way to work or from work being brutally killed in sections of the Corporate Area well known for high levels of criminal activities.

In the case of Constable Thomas, save for a faint call from the Police Federation for secured transportation to be provided for officers going on or off duty, in the main there were, as was expected, the usual outpouring of condolences and a strong resolve from certain quarters to bring those responsible for the death of the policewoman to justice.

The insistence for the Government to provide transportation for officers (both men and women) who had to traverse dangerous areas either on foot or with the aid of the public transportation system was never pursued in any forceful way. Apart from entertaining the usual platitudes attendant upon such tragic circumstances from various quarters, the Police Federation needs to get up off its laurels and demand from the Government that safe and secure transportation be provided for those officers whose situation warrants it.

Other civil servants are afforded this privilege, not the least of which are some politicians who, in many instances, are hardly in need of it at all. How many deaths of a Constable Thomas and a Corporal Judith Williams will it take for this issue to be addressed adequately? Until then, the rank and file members of our security forces continue to be treated like the children of Sisyphus. When will we learn?

Peter Champagnie

Attorney-at-Law

Peter.champagnie@gmail.com