Dear Editor,

It was a relief not to hear or see a more tragic outcome of the brief confrontation between a couple of Denham Town residents and a unit of the Jamaica Defence Force which recently made the news.

What many of us fail to appreciate about soldiers is that, for them, it is more about what they must do and not, as with the police, what they can do.

Soldiers are trained to only follow the orders of their superiors, survive, kill, and anything in-between, hence, the abovementioned sense of relief. The difference between the police and soldiers may be further illustrated by the following three considerations.

Queen’s Counsel Bert Samuels fairly recently commented about one of his defence cases in which a young man was charged with illegal possession of firearm. He outlined how the police’s account of what took place nearly sent his innocent defendant to prison. QC Samuels said his client owed his just acquittal solely to the truthful statements from the soldiers who were at the scene of the incident.

More recently there was debate about the restricted movement of uniformed or marked police personnel through toll booths as opposed to the unfettered access given to on-duty soldiers. Just the mere observation of the difference between how the police and soldiers travel should favour the soldiers in this respect. On-duty police officers, unless going on or coming from special operations, often travel with vehicle windows wound up and air conditioner on, comfortably separated from the public who they serve and who pays them. Very few soldiers are so privileged, and inclined.

The issue of inclination brings us to the last consideration. If one were to run a survey among the hardened criminals, and even the ‘softer’ ones, asking the question: Who do you think your actions most resemble, a police or a soldier? The majority would likely respond that they seee themselves as being more like the police.

Although we do have the odd military-trained miscreant, the hidden or too often ignored narrative and culture behind the police force is that they are more prone to commitiing criminal acts than a soldier.

But how can it be criminal when the police consider themselves to be the law and not preservers of it?

Andre O Sheppy

astrangely@outlook.com