Recently I was part of a police party that conducted raids in the rain. There’s nothing like the rain that fell recently. It was not a storm, but it had been raining enough to create flooding.

The whole dynamic of the squatter settlements change when it rains. It really doesn’t take long to flood because squatter settlements aren’t planned settlements. You may not realise it, but the reason your home is not flooded out every time it rains is because of this little thing called town planning. That’s why you require a permit to build, and it is restricted to the blueprint you submit.

So, as I said, the dynamic is different because the yards are flooded, the lanes to the yards are flooded, and more times than not the houses are flooded. The ground becomes muddy very quickly, and there is never any grass.

Due to the existence of unapproved septic pits, the sewage also rises and is often part of the muddy water that you are walking through whilst conducting the raids. Then you have to enter into a high-risk environment in many dwellings often not related to your target suspect. This is because gangsters sleep in any house they choose. I bet Jamaicans for Justice never told you that piece of information!

So the already besieged community now has to contend with police stepping into their homes with their muddy government boots.

So on this day we were raiding this squatter settlement in southern St Catherine. It was a five-man team. This is where we look on perspective and priorities. As I approached the puddles, what was foremost in my mind was the illegal electric wires that are always on the ground in these lanes and yards. The water can serve as a conductor, and in my limited knowledge of electricity, I believe it can electrocute me.

Beside me, there is a young man. He is not really concerned about the electricity, he is worried about the crocodiles in the neighbouring swamp that often come across during heavy rains. The other police officer, a veteran of many operations and in his 40s, is more worried about the noise we are making by splashing in the water because the target of the raid is said to have a rifle. This officer was shot within the last year, and he was shot badly. This, I think, makes him more cautious than he used to be. He is perfectly right though. We are making too much noise.

The approach down the lane is between high zinc. This concerns the fourth police officer, as the human rights angels can fire, without us seeing them, from behind the zinc. The veteran officer had been ambushed this way before, so his concern is the high zinc.

The fifth officer is younger than my youngest child, he worries about nothing important or logical because he is protected by his youth and inexperience. The job will teach him, and he will learn, but right now he is worried about his cellphone getting wet. God forbid he may have to spend a day off
TikTok. Others have their own perspectives and priorities. Many people are involved in police operations, of course, they are all worried about our safety.

The intelligence guy is worried about anything that could compromise his source. The administrator is worried about us adhering to the policies of the organisation. If this operation turns into a shooting, then Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom) has a guy with his own perspective and his own list of things that are important. He doesn’t give a row of pins if we are shot because we are making too much noise splashing; he does not care if we are ambushed from behind the high zinc; he does not care if the crocodiles eat us like roast beef; and he does not care if we get our hair straightened by electricity. His perspective is his priority. What is important to him is that we are wearing a body-worn camera with a red blinking light in this dark, wet, muddy lane, so “he” can see what happened. As for me, I’m still focusing on being electrocuted.

Gunfire erupted when we were halfway up the lane. I could not tell you where it was coming from. Training kicked in, and I went low in the mud. So did all of the team, cellular phones and all. I couldn’t fire because I didn’t see who was firing at us. I didn’t know if it was coming from the high zinc or if it was a gunman using a muzzle flash. I didn’t know if it was other police officers firing as there were other officers in the area.

The firing subsided and one of the officers shouted that we had to get out of the fatal funnel (the lane is narrow so it is considered a fatal funnel) so we retreated tactically to the end of the lane. I was no longer worried about electricity, my colleague didn’t seem to be worried about crocodiles, and the young fellow we still believe should be in school, had totally forgotten about his cellphone.

When I got to safety it occurred to me that nobody fired. This was good, as firing would have been reckless. It also occurred to me that Indecom would not be involved with this investigation. It is of no concern to them because we didn’t fire. If all five of us had been killed, whether by electricity, gunfire or crocodiles, they they would not be involved, they would not care, as long as we did not fire! Neither would Jamaicans for Justice care.

Let us assume that we did fire. Let us assume that the born again Christian that just happened to have an AK-47 in his possession was shot by us. He would represent a statistic that would be used against us when they recklessly and randomly check off numbers with no column that shows the type of gun he was using. Ironically, there is a column for whether we are wearing body-worn cameras.

All of the people mentioned here are good people, other than the gunman. Yet, we all have different perspectives, priorities and specialisations. I can identify with the five-man team having different perspectives and priorities because of individual experiences, and even phobias. Try as I may, I can’t understand why some good men and women are not only more concerned with the lives of gunmen, but are “only” concerned with the life and safety of gunmen. Remember, I said these are all “good” people. What causes this type of thinking? When did we become like this?

There have been studies conducted into “why” people follow orders, irrespective of the fact that what they are doing is counter to the benefit of other human beings, or society at large. Some studies speak to psychological conditions such as obsessive compulsive personality disorders, or even antisocial personality disorders.

I have seen too many people from Indecom and from Jamaicans for Justice to believe it could be driven by psychological disorders. I am more looking on something called deontological ethics or duty-based ethics.

The definition: “This ethical framework judges the morality of an action based on whether it adheres to a rule or duty, rather than the consequences of the action. A person strictly following this approach might perform their job diligently, even if the outcome is negative for society, believing they are doing the ‘right thing’ by following the rules.”

This type of thinking is what got good people to turn in Jews in hiding during the holocaust. Or work in death camps. They do their job without any consideration for the bigger picture. Let me make one thing clear, good people work at Indecom. Good people are members of criminal rights organisations, to include Jamaicans for Justice. Both organisations are primary contributors to the existence and continuance of gang domination in Jamaica.

This is because they have separated themselves from the challenges the police face and are focused on achieving their mandate without any consideration of the police officers’ safety, mental state, or future.

Just as the five of us walking down that lane, hoping to recover that weapon, were worried about five different things but were focused nevertheless on recovering that rifle and bringing that man to justice, it is the same way the Indecom investigator is focused on getting his evidence, irrespective of the risk that body cameras represent to the officers, the risk that he insists we take for his benefit without even discussing the ‘blinking red light’.

We will never win this war if we approach it this way, as a country, as a society. All good people, although we may differ in job description, have to prioritise the safety of law enforcement and of good people, irrespective of perspective, priority or specialisation.

I found out who fired at us that night. He did in fact fire from behind the zinc, just as my colleague feared. He was never tried for shooting at us. Intelligence can’t be presented in court, just evidence. But he is before the courts for another police-related shooting and I hope he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

I also hope that the ‘pencil pushers’ at Indecom will begin to concern themselves, even a little bit, about the safety of the men and women who serve their armed forces and who they are advocating should put a ‘red, blinking light’ on their chest.

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