with Leighton Levy

Over the past few weeks, the police have faced embarrassment after embarrassment. A policeman tries to hold up a businessman in St Elizabeth and gets shot by a security guard. Another policeman is caught breaking into a home and is beaten half to death. Meanwhile, the chairman of the Jamaica Police Federation, Raymond Wilson, chooses the most inappropriate time and place, that of the funeral of slain policewoman Crystal Thomas, to bash the police oversight organisation, the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM).

The body was set up to investigate police excesses - not the robbing of businessmen or breaking into homes - but the wanton killing of innocent civilians. We should note here that since INDECOM became a reality, the number of police killings have decreased significantly. But Wilson is not alone in his cries against INDECOM, as Minister of State in the Ministry of Tourism, Damion Crawford, has also come against the oversight body.

Social-media outbursts

In a series of outbursts on social media, Crawford accused INDECOM of being only interested in public relations. He also said there were only a few bad cops in the force, which brings me to my point. Crawford, Wilson and others of similar thinking are wrong, but not for the reasons you might think.

Those reasons are ones for which we should be ashamed, but where do our policemen come from? They are our fathers, sons, daughters, sisters and brothers. They come from within our society, a society that in recent years has become increasingly corrupt and hell-bent on instant gratification. So should we really be surprised at the fact that so many of our policemen and women have been caught breaking the laws that they have sworn to protect?

Breeding criminals

Just recently, even the police who are assigned to investigate the police have been caught breaking the law. It's not a coincidence. We are a society that breeds criminals. We are a society that has lost its moral compass. We justify wrongdoing by saying someone who breaks the law, just a look 'fi hol' a food.'

If that is the standard by which we choose to do things, then what do we expect? And, it's not just the police force that's guilty. Our teachers, nurses and many other public servants are guilty of the same things. Many teachers these days have no standards. When I was growing up, whenever a teacher spoke, you knew. These days, things have become drastically worse. I have seen test papers of trainee teachers, and believe me, I shudder at the thought of those people one day teaching our kids. Both my parents, now retired, were teachers so that profession means a lot to me. A lot of what I learnt growing up was taught by my parents so it is embarrassing what obtains these days.

With the police, however, the embarrassment is even greater because these are the people who have been entrusted to 'reassure and protect' us. I am sure there are many good officers within the JCF, but I fear there may be as many bad ones too, and that should be something we should all be concerned about.

These rogue cops are not just a poor reflection of the JCF; they are also a bad reflection of all of us.

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