DCP Clifford Blake’s Talk To Cops Exposes Why Crime Has Taken Over Jamaica…

CLIFFORD BLAKE’S TALK EXPOSES A DEEP ROT STILL IN THE SYSTEM, WHICH WILL HAVE TO BE ERADICATED IF THE NATION WANTS TO DIG OUT FROM UNDER THE CRIME AND TERRORISM IT FACES.

For years the Island’s traf­fic police have been accused of solic­it­ing and accept­ing bribe sul­ly­ing the name of the depart­ment and sham­ing their col­leagues in the process.
One of the many things police offi­cers are taught is that they are the very first judge of sit­u­a­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly as it relates to traf­fic offens­es and dis­cre­tion hap­pens to be one of the tools in their toolbox.
Because of that dis­cre­tion, the road­ways have become lit­er­al dev­ils high­way of death and a chaot­ic mess of con­fu­sion and lawlessness.

Many offi­cers have inter­pret­ed dis­cre­tion to mean that traf­fic infrac­tions are not crim­i­nal acts and so they should turn a blind eye.
Many offi­cers, as a result, have become like the three blind mice, see, hear, and do no evil on traf­fic, much to the cha­grin of many who crit­i­cise them for everything.
They com­plain that the police allow bus and taxi oper­a­tors as well as pri­vate motorists to do as they please on the nation’s road­ways. Others accuse them of being too harsh in hand­ing out tick­ets and seiz­ing vehicles.

In the end, the police on the streets are left in a no-win sit­u­a­tion in which if they enforce the laws they are wrong and when they exer­cise dis­cre­tion they are wrong.
The sad irony is that the more things change is the more they remain the same. Their very lead­er­ship tells them that enforc­ing the laws are wrong. That they should sup­plant their duty with [dis­cre­tionary guid­ance ], effec­tive­ly let­ting motorists off the hook, none of which are required of offi­cers in the exe­cu­tion of their duties.
This sup­posed dis­cre­tion in many instances leads to cor­rup­tion, fla­grant dis­re­gard of the nation’s laws and trou­ble for officers.

DCP Clifford Blake, the head of the police’s Strategic Operations Portfolio, as he addressed a batch of 35 police­men and women who grad­u­at­ed from a motor­cy­cle dri­ving and main­te­nance course recently.

I took the time to watch this video and I can tell you that I was gross­ly offend­ed by it. Let me be clear if the police are caus­ing peo­ple to pay exor­bi­tant wreck­er fees that is wrong and they should desist forth­with. However, Blake’s talk could be summed up as capit­u­la­tion and a ral­ly­ing cry for the con­tin­u­a­tion of the sta­tus quo in our country.

Why did his Blakes friend the pas­tor call him when the offi­cers did exact­ly what the law gives them the author­i­ty to do, which was to seize the unli­censed motor vehicle?
What was on his mind, did­n’t Blakes friend the Pastor call him the Deputy Commissioner of Police because he believed that he could make the mat­ter go away?
I’ll tell you what, that’s exact­ly what it was.
Why was this woman dri­ving an unreg­is­tered vehi­cle regard­less of where she was going, church or no church?
What were the offi­cers to do, as far as Clifford Blake was con­cerned, were they to allow her to dri­ve the unreg­is­tered vehi­cle and kill some­one?
What would Clifford Blake say then, Wouldn’t Blake be the first to tell the media the pro­ce­dures offi­cers ought to have fol­lowed after they stopped an unli­censed operator?

The idea of using dis­cre­tion is a long time idea of polic­ing but it fur­ther dri­ves crime, cor­rupts offi­cers and embold­ens peo­ple to con­tin­ue to break the laws.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Clifford Blake, a man many believe should have been the Commissioner of police and may yet become Commissioner has demon­strat­ed in that speech alone that he is clue­less to law enforcement.

Small infrac­tions metas­ta­size into larg­er crimes. Stop the small things [cor­rect­ly] and you avoid the big things.
No police offi­cer, much less a senior com­man­der [for what his posi­tion is worth] should be in the busi­ness of telling offi­cers on the ground that they should sup­plant writ­ing tick­ets and remove unli­censed vehi­cles from the streets with their discretion.

It shows that for the few peo­ple left in Jamaica who haven’t giv­en up on a crime-free Jamaica in which cor­rup­tion is a thing of the past, they may as well throw in the towel.
For decades mem­bers of the JCF has done it Clifford Blake’s way and look where it has got­ten us.
It is not the fault of the police that the woman going to church was dri­ving an unreg­is­tered vehi­cle. She has a respon­si­bil­i­ty to reg­is­ter her car.
If we need to remove any­thing from the force it is the Clifford Blakes whose friends call them because of their rank with the express intent of hav­ing them over­rule the law­ful actions of offi­cers on the ground who are doing their duties in uphold­ing the laws as they are sworn to.

This must stop.
Clifford Blake has demon­strat­ed that he is unfit to be a leader of offi­cers and darn sure should nev­er be giv­en the job to lead the men and women look­ing for real lead­er­ship in the JCF.
Jamaica’s traf­fic cops should and needs to be far more deci­sive if san­i­ty is to be returned to the nation’s streets not less deci­sive and resolute.
Blake should be ashamed of him­self, traf­fic offi­cers have a job to do. Yes the job of the police is to serve and pro­tect but it is a damn law enforce­ment agency, not a day care agency,it’s time Clifford Blake receive that memo.