Being Compared To Security Guards May Not Be A Pejorative For JCF Anymore

Recently, Minister of National Security Horace Chang stat­ed that when his par­ty took pow­er they inher­it­ed, a glo­ri­fied secu­ri­ty guard com­pa­ny, (speak­ing of the Jamaica Constabulary Force(JCF)).
I was unsure how to process that state­ment.
On the one hand, the JCF’s lead­er­ship have been woe­ful­ly lack­ing, derelict, incom­pe­tent even, in exe­cut­ing the lead­er­ship the agency needs.
Furthermore, even with the woe­ful lack of resources giv­en the depart­ment, the high com­mand has not demon­strat­ed the kind of for­ward think­ing nec­es­sary to max­i­mize the resources at its dis­pos­al.
But the JCF has nev­er been about hard results, its focus through­out its exis­tence has large­ly been about form rather than sub­stance.
Sure, the agency can put on a smart drill parade to impress the Island’s bour­geoisie and the poor commoners.

Officers of all ranks can be count­ed on to look smart in their imprac­ti­cal colo­nial-era uni­forms, per­form­ing all kinds of tricks and some­times stun­ning feats to the delight of the upper class.
All of this is rem­i­nis­cent of the spec­ta­cle of the old Roman amphithe­aters in which glad­i­a­tors per­formed to the death, to the delight of the upper class. 
But when the time comes for the JCF to be a mod­ern evolv­ing law enforce­ment agency which has strate­gic goals and test­ed strate­gies to go after crim­i­nals that is where the agency falls short.

On the oth­er hand, the men and women who do the grunge work can­not be fault­ed for the incom­pe­tence of their lead­ers.
Poor things many would not even under­stand that the lead­er­ship of the agency do not care about them and are only in it to secure their own inter­est.
Nevertheless hav­ing thought through the Minister’s state­ment I wrote a response and I stand by that response today.
Regardless of how Chang’s state­ment was viewed, his words could have been more art­ful, less dis­re­spect­ful.
In seek­ing to make polit­i­cal hay out of the fact that the pre­vi­ous admin­is­tra­tion had not done due dili­gence to law-enforce­ment, the sor­ry lit­tle man threw in a lit­tle uncalled for dis­re­spect to the men and women of the force.
Understandably, the ran­cid bel­li­cos­i­ty inside these lit­tle par­ti­sans makes decen­cy and respect impossible.

Now hav­ing said that, pejo­ra­tive­ly com­par­ing Jamaican police offi­cers to [secu­ri­ty guards] may not be such a dis­re­spect­ful thing after all.
In many cas­es, the guard’s uni­forms are bet­ter and more prac­ti­cal than that of police offi­cers.
Many are paid bet­ter than police offi­cers.
Their inter­est is para­mount to their employ­ers, who do not put them out there on their own with­out a sup­port struc­ture.
Their employ­ers are not part of the process of com­mis­sion and omis­sion which places their inter­est and well-being in jeop­ardy and expos­es them to prison and ridicule for doing what they are sworn to do.

In the recent death of [King Alarm]secu­ri­ty guard Lincoln Graham in a shootout in Portmore St Catherine .King Alarm exec­u­tives act­ed in a way that the Police High Command could only dream of.
Responding to the shoot­ing death of their col­league and employee.

STATEMENT FROM KING ALARM

“We con­firm the trag­ic and most unfor­tu­nate fatal shoot­ing of one of our ded­i­cat­ed secu­ri­ty offi­cers.”
“Preliminary inves­ti­ga­tions sug­gest that offi­cer Graham dis­played remark­able brav­ery in the car­ry­ing out of his duties, and ‎he sad­ly paid the ulti­mate price for his brav­ery and hero­ism.”
“Officer Graham’s hero­ic actions, in the face of the most adverse of cir­cum­stances, no doubt helped to pro­tect the lives and prop­er­ty of oth­ers, and he died doing what he pledged to do many years ago — serve and pro­tect.” 
“We at KingAlarm have already reached out to Crime Stop and encour­age those with infor­ma­tion relat­ing to this heinous crime to share it anony­mous­ly with them by call­ing 311, or to do so direct­ly with the Jamaica Constabulary ‎Force (JCF), which has already com­menced inves­ti­ga­tions.” 
“We thank our clients, mem­bers of the pub­lic and col­leagues from with­in the secu­ri­ty indus­try for their out­pour­ing of sup­port dur­ing this dif­fi­cult time, as we mourn the untime­ly pass­ing of a mem­ber of our KingAlarm family.” 

When has the JCF ever stood up and made a state­ment as force­ful, con­cise and unequiv­o­cal as this when a brave police offi­cer gives his life in ser­vice to his coun­try?
Does the lead­er­ship of the JCF even know how to put togeth­er a state­ment of this cal­iber?
That is the ques­tion.
I’m begin­ning to think that what Horace Chang meant for harm and dis­re­spect may actu­al­ly be a badge of hon­or.
I salute all police offi­cers, mem­bers of our mil­i­tary and secu­ri­ty offi­cers.
You are the good guys who put your lives on the line in defense of oth­ers, even those who do not deserve it.
Horace Chang being front and cen­ter, a recip­i­ent of what he does not deserve.
As you strive to secure the coun­try this hol­i­day sea­son for both the just and the unjust, remem­ber your fam­i­lies.
Make sure that what­ev­er you do, give enough thought to the well being of your own fam­i­lies, it is up to you to look out for their wel­fare.
No one else can be count­ed on to do so.