A voice from the Diaspora: We love to hate the police
Security Minister, Dr Horace Chang, has been in the hot seat of government for the last few years. Chang occupies a seat in the national security ministry which none of his colleagues in parliament covet him for.
Last week Chang made an emotional utterance in which he accused sections of the media of placing the police in a negative light even though they are the buffers between law abiding citizens and the criminals.
Chang’s statement, however, holds some water and speaks to the general disdain in which members of the Jamaican public hold members of the security forces. We love to hate the police. This ill-feeling towards the police have deep roots in the island’s history, as far back as the 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion in which National Hero Paul Bogle and many of his followers were executed by the state after the smoke had cleared.
The force has its history in being established to protect the interest of the colonial rulers and as such were seen as ‘house slaves’ by members of the mostly black skinned population. They, the police, were puppets of the state who took joy in exercising force to keep them in check, on behalf of their white colonial oppressors.
Those days however are long gone. At present the security forces no longer can be accused of being used as tools to further the bidding of an oppressive state. They are our own sons and daughters and hail from the same communities that are now under siege by criminals.
It is common practice for us to paint the police as corrupt and violent. But the police are simply a reflection of Jamaican society at large, we are violent and corrupt. It is common practice in our public and private institutions for ‘hustling’ to be the order of the day. It is a way of life to pay these hustlers in order to avoid long waits and jumping through hoops and pole vaulting high hurdles, just to get business done. Is this not corruption?
Some Jamaican motorists will flash their lights to other motorists after passing a police checkpoint to warn them that the cops are in the area. They do this whether or not they know if the occupants of the motor vehicle they flashed their lights to are heavily-armed and intent on carrying out mayhem and murder against innocent civilians.
Corruption runs right through every section of Jamaican society and it is unfair to only cast blame at the members of the constabulary. Many of us would rather pay a bribe to a corrupt traffic cop rather than attend court or even pay the cost of the fine. Our utility companies have over the years reported on discoveries of water and electricity being stolen by persons of means and by businesses. Are the police the only ones in Jamaica who are corrupt?
Not all persons of means or business owners steal light and water. Similarly not all police are corrupt or take part in extra-judicial killings.
Jamaicans are a violent people. Let’s not mince words about it. There can be no sugarcoating of that fact.
In recent times, the number of criminals killed in confrontation with the police have increased. In one such incident a young man unfortunately lost his life in Stephen’s Run, St Elizabeth after he refused to be taken in by two cops. One of the policemen was forced to discharge his service weapon into the man’s torso after he attempted to disarm the cop. In various social media postings of the incident, the comments were very revealing.
Despite the man’s foolhardy stance and actions in which it appeared to be a justified fatal shooting, many commentators had harsh words for the police. They still found it hard to accept that the young man gave away his life and the cops really had no other option but to protect theirs.
The comments would have still been unflattering to the police if the crazed man had managed to disarm the officer and had shot one or both of them. It would be a good gamble to bet that the police would be lambasted for allowing a thin framed civilian to overpower them and snuff out their lives.
While covering crime for the Jamaica Observer over a decade ago, I was alerted to a crime scene which took place at a football field located close to the Tinson Pen Aerodrome in Kingston. There the opening ceremony for a primary school football competition had just got underway and members of the teams were greeting each other.
A gunman calmly entered the fray and approached the coach of one of the teams and shot him in the back of the head, killing him instantly. It was reported that the killer then ran across a football field while traumatised children, all under the age of 11, were scampering for safety. The killing was witnessed by the coach’s son, who was a member of the football team.
The incident grabbed the headlines and grief counsellors were sent out to the four primary schools involved by the Ministry of Education.
A few days later the main suspect in the crime and his cronies were cornered by the police after they left an event in East Kingston and, during an exchange of gunfire, three men were killed and another managed to escape.
The men were based in the volatile community of Hannah Town in the Kingston West Police Division and the very next day residents of that community, mostly females, took to the streets bearing placards crying bloody murder. The police had executed the men they claimed and were murderers in uniform.
There was no demonstration for the coach who worked in the same community and even coached some of the demonstrators’ children. There was no concern for the mental health of the children who had witnessed the macabre act. The only criminals as far as the members of that community were concerned, were the law enforcement officers.
We must be under no illusion that some members of the constabulary are not fit to be our protectors. The actions of some have nurtured a deep distrust by members of the public to provide them with information about those among us who are hell-bent on keeping us under the gun. Cops have been arrested and convicted for a range of crimes in Jamaica and we must call a spade a spade. However we can’t paint them all with one brush.
Jamaica needs the police more than we need criminals.
Karyl Walker is a veteran journalist who served as the Jamaica Observer’s Crime/Court and Online News Editor. He now resides in Florida, USA.