LETTER OF THE DAY - Purge JCF of rogue cops
Published:Thursday | July 11, 2013 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, SIR:
THE PRACTICE of arbitrarily stopping and searching of motorists by the police without reasonable cause is illegal under the Road Traffic Act, and should end, says the recent ruling of Justice David Batts of the Supreme Court. The police say their orders to fight crime permit them to 'stop and search motorists'.
This reaction has enraged many, including L. Williams (Letter of the Day, July 5, 2013), who opines that the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) should be scrapped and rebuilding it should start from scratch. That is extreme and impractical; possibly born of disgust and bewilderment.
microcosm of the larger society
The JCF will always be a microcosm of the larger society. That society has more than 40 per cent of its young males suffering from personality disorders, according to psychiatric findings by Professor F.W. Hickling and Dr V. Paisley of the University of the West Indies. Expectedly, many who cause discredit to the Force today come from that cohort. The present indiscipline, lawlessness and perhaps the compulsion to crimes such as murders, drugs-for-guns trade, praedial larceny and corruption in the society may explain much of police behaviour.
We have an emergency to be addressed urgently. It is prompted by police response to Justice Batts' ruling and the effrontery of the criminal-minded. The semblance of conflict between the Supreme Court and the police is untenable. Police ineptness and power-drunkenness (vide Williams) are costly to taxpayers. But recent finds of guns and ammunitions in a PPV-licensed minibus in Portland and a vanload of livestock carcasses, proceeds of praedial theft, demonstrate the need for eternal police vigilance. Also, police excesses continue to demand the watchful eyes of everyone. The rogue cops among the police must be purged. More psychiatric care must be given to the JCF. Police take quite a bit of battering protecting us.
BARRIE A. WALKER