So the Tivoli Report is out; finally, after a reported M$367 expenditure, the three-member panel has made its findings known to the Parliament. I have not seen the report, and as such, I am restrained in my comments except on some salient points published in the Jamaican media.
Before I go into specifics, though, I wonder what could have been done with M$367 million outside the colossal waste of this inquiry? Well, I take that back one man’s waste is another man’s treasure; the fool and his money will soon part.
And, the part they have.
In January 2015, Desmond McKenzie, the Member of Parliament for west Kingston, said that the commission’s Chairman, Bajan, David Simmons, was being paid more than M$52.
Simmons, who came to Jamaica with an air of superiority, certainly will not need to worry about money for the rest of his life. He can go back home to Barbados ghetto rich and resume life as an honorary white man of the British Empire.
While we are at it, let David Simmons take some of Jamaica’s criminals back to his native Barbados, he seemed to like criminals and their way of life when he lived off the Jamaican dime. Let him take them back to Barbados and see how that turns out for them and him. As my grand aunt would say, “poppy show.”
At the time, McKenzie called for an end to the inquiry arguing, ” We need to know how much money it cost the country so far to put up the commissioner, what is his phone bill, what is his food bill, and how much money to rent the conference center and how much money for the support staff, all that was not in the disclosure, and we need to know now.”
At the same time, Desmond McKenzie made those statements; he revealed a rather poignant truth about his thinking. It should have given pause to any person who serves in the security forces or their family members who love and support them.
As someone who writes for the consumption of readers across oceans and not just Jamaica, I found the member of parliament’s words rather telling.
“When will the people get the opportunity to point out a police or a soldier? Over one week of operation, do you want to tell me that not one police officer or soldier has been arrested and charged for any offense against the people? You want to tell me that the behavior was so good that nobody down there can complain about their actions?”
Haha…
So there you have it, the enemy was not Christopher Dudus Coke, the international criminal. In Desmond McKenzie’s mind, the people we ought to be looking to imprison are the soldiers and police officers. But who is surprised by this? Both Political parties are little more than criminal enterprises.
TRADITIONAL DISTRACTION
Much of the talk among the public seeks to cover or deflect attention away from the events of 2010, which was the greatest threat against the constituted Jamaican state in history. A criminal Kingpin and his mercenaries picked up arms in a treasonous assault against the Jamaican state. That alone should give pause to the blind partisans, but it doesn’t.
They deflect attention from that momentous and critically-telling event, by creating a kangaroo panel to create a document telling us how badly the security forces operated.
No mention of the critical and horrific sequence of events that necessitated the actions in the first place. What they do is come up with suggestions of compensation to the people who for decades encouraged, nurtured, and protected the type of criminality which bred not just that individual kingpin Christopher (dudus) Coke, but an entire family and lineage of other kingpins.
Regardless of political affiliation, every Jamaican should be offended by this, but they won’t be.
It’s the police and military’s fault. Please send them to prison.
♦Was it the police’s fault why the stations were burned? ♦ Was it the police’s fault that police stations were strafed with high-powered weapons? ♦Was it the police’s fault that Max and his colleague were slaughtered? ♦ Was it the police’s fault why the community of Tivoli Gardens was barricaded and made a veritable fortress? ♦Was it the police who prevented community members from leaving the community, or was it the treasonous mercenaries? ♦ Was it the security forces that turned that community and others like it into virtual states within Jamaica, outside the control of the rule of law?♦ Was it the police who divided up the Island into warring factions pitting brothers against brothers and sister against sister, or was it the politicians you worship?
Just open the vaults, pay up, and apologize as well…
Apologize to the people and pay them, the sitting minister of justice tells the administration of which he is a key component.
Such is the country Jamaica; this is what they want to hide from International scrutiny while telling investors to come and telling diaspora members to return home to live out their lives.
What I find laughable yet instructive is that many of the proponents of the lunacy are, like myself, comparatively secure in adopted countries while advocating a regressive view that has had devastating consequences for the country since 1962.
Whenever the serious issue of crime comes up, they come up with a smoke screen: “the police are corrupt.” It is s straw man excuse that has worked for both political parties and their apologists since day one. Please show me a police department that does not have officers with bad character, and I say welcome to Utopia. We can eliminate bad cops and honor the good ones; we are not playing that hate game with you.
Let’s dispense with the bullshit the schools of higher learning are institutions of anti-police propaganda and anarchy.
For self-righteous apologists who want to talk about police corruption, let’s talk. Still, I will also talk about your earthly political Gods and their corrupting influences on the nation.
Let’s talk about the criminal lawyers who actually give new meaning to the term “criminal lawyers.”
Let us talk about some of the corrupt judges and other public servants.
If you want to talk about the corruption on the Island, let us do so, but let us include everyone, not scapegoat the poor police, you hypocrites. Let us have that conversation now.
Others come up with convoluted alternative metrics to convince themselves and the gullible that the crime monster on the Island is comparable to America, the default adversary they love to hate, just not their dollar…
Yet I have spoken to police officers, past and present, who have served in departments across the country, many of whom never needed to remove their service weapons from their holsters their entire career.
My neighbor is one of them. So go ahead and convince yourselves that America is just as violent as Jamaica.
Most officers who leave the JCF and continue a life in law enforcement in other countries do so with distinction. Those departments respect and honor what they do.
Others like myself who chose different careers after leaving do well for themselves.
Wherever Jamaicans live abroad, they dare not assault police officers, neither physically nor verbally. They know better, so they leave that bullshit at the Donald Sangster and the Norman Manley International airports before they leave.
Those who forget find their sorry asses back on the next flight. Even within the CARICOM community, other Islands have none of it. Threats of boycotts and lawsuits will not change the attitudes of Jamaica’s neighbors, who do not want Jamaicans and their criminal culture in their countries and do not want Jamaica to add to their crime statistics even with much crime.
Rather telling.
Following the criminal politician’s playbook by making scapegoats of the Island’s security forces makes goats of those so fooled.
.
.
.
.
.
Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, black achiever honoree, and creator of the blog mikebeckles.com.