There Is A Difference Between Needed Oversight Of Cops And Failures Which Emanated From Poor Background Checks…

For years since the INDECOM Act was passed this writer has said that the law is bad , it is costing lives, it is driving crime upward.
Many good people have pushed back at my arguments understandably , they were just happy that there was now some real oversight of what they saw as an out of control police force.

Why Would Jamaica’s Security Forces Stick Their Necks Out .….….…

The truth is that among the good peo­ple, were some who weren’t as right­eous. They want­ed as much shack­les on the Police force as pos­si­ble. Without minc­ing words , it’s impor­tant that we call it as we see it.
There is no deny­ing that the police depart­ment has done much to bring onto itself some of the pick­le it has found itself in. But we also know that the polit­i­cal direc­torate has done even more to ren­der the force impotent.
https://​mike​beck​les​.com/​m​o​r​e​-​p​e​o​p​l​e​-​l​e​n​d​i​n​g​-​t​h​e​i​r​-​v​o​i​c​e​s​-​t​o​-​t​h​e​-​c​a​l​l​-​t​o​-​r​e​v​a​m​p​-​r​e​v​i​e​w​-​r​e​-​a​u​t​h​o​r​i​z​e​-​t​h​e​-​i​n​d​e​c​o​m​-​a​ct/
They cre­at­ed with­in the JCF the pos­si­bil­i­ty for the chil­dren of their friends in cer­tain cir­cles, to enter the depart­ment and attain the rank of assis­tant com­mis­sion­er of police with­out ever mak­ing an arrest or hav­ing the slight­est idea how to fill out a charg­ing affidavit.
The sto­ries my sources relate to me are many. People giv­en posi­tions of lead­er­ship yet hav­ing to ask the peo­ple they are lead­ing how to do the leading.
Owen Ellington was an enabler of this pol­i­cy. Many used these assis­tant Superintendent posi­tions as rest stops to con­tin­ue their stud­ies then move on after they receive their grad­u­ate degrees.
Of course the aver­age “Grunt” who play by the rules, can­not get time off to attend a sem­i­nar much less attend college.

It was dif­fi­cult for some­one like me who sup­port law enforce­ment to be heard amidst all the noise ema­nat­ing from the hoopla, that final­ly some­thing was being done to the wicked evil police.[sic] Speaking of the INDECOM Act.
Now, nev­er mind that over­sight is always need­ed , the police already had over­sight. Oversight which was far more effec­tive but far less acri­mo­nious . Oversight which was car­ried out by police and civil­ians com­bined that did not endan­ger police.
The prob­lem was nev­er a lack of over­sight for police as many believed . It was a fail­ure of recruit­ment and effec­tive back­ground checks.
https://​mike​beck​les​.com/​f​a​c​t​s​-​o​n​-​t​h​e​-​s​i​d​e​-​o​f​-​t​h​o​s​e​-​o​p​p​o​s​e​d​-​t​o​-​i​n​d​e​c​om/

It must be under­stood that when a police offi­cer goes out and join with oth­er crim­i­nals to rob and harm cit­i­zens that’s not a mat­ter for over­sight. When police offi­cers catch them they are treat­ed like every oth­er crim­i­nal. When Cops com­mit crimes that’s not some­thing which requires an INDECOM type investigation.
It is a fail­ure of recruit­ment, train­ing, super­vi­sion among oth­er things.
To con­flate the entire­ty of what police offi­cers do when they fall afoul of the laws is to ignore facts and embrace demagoguery.

Just As Oversight Was Warranted For The Police It Is Warranted For INDECOM.…

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO MERIT TO THE ARGUMENTS MADE BY TERRENCE WILLIAMS, THAT IF OFFICERS DO THEIR JOBS PROPERLY THEY HAVE NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT !!!!

When Terrence Williams say police offi­cers have noth­ing to fear if they do their jobs with­in the laws he is speak­ing as an igno­rant bystander who was giv­en much pow­er by a bunch of igno­rant law­mak­ers who did not do due dili­gence before they passed a bad law .
Scenario # 1
Police go into gar­ri­son com­mu­ni­ty and con­front heav­i­ly armed men.
Men lay down fire.
Police take cov­er return fire.
Criminal gets killed , friends lay down cov­er­ing fire and retrieve the weapon.
By the time the police take con­trol of the scene the oth­er shoot­ers escape with the weapons.
The police are left with a dead man and no gun.
Community comes out on Don’s orders and cries murder.
Cops have body no gun.
Police gets charged , sus­pend­ed , five years with­out any income, .
Who feeds his family?
Who pays his legal bills?
Were these offi­cers in the wrong?
https://​mike​beck​les​.com/​f​i​g​h​t​i​n​g​-​w​i​t​h​-​p​o​l​i​c​e​-​o​f​f​i​c​e​r​s​-​c​i​t​i​n​g​-​t​h​e​-​i​n​d​e​c​o​m​-​a​c​t​-​i​s​-​s​i​l​l​y​-​a​n​d​-​d​a​n​g​e​r​o​us/

Scenario #2
Police offi­cer tries to write a taxi dri­ver a tick­et after who refus­es his com­mand to move from an ille­gal­ly parked position.
Driver refus­es to hand over his dri­ver’s licence and starts to fight the officer.
Crowds quick­ly con­verge , egging the offend­er on.
The offend­er strug­gles with offi­cer and tries to dis­arm him of his weapon.
Officer man­ages to pull his weapon and neu­tral­izes the threat to his life.
Crowd alleges murder.
Media sells the sto­ry as “cop kills unarmed hard work­ing cab­bie”
Officer is sus­pend­ed with­out pay , los­es the weapon he has to pro­tect his life. Charged with Murder on con­coct­ed lies.
Loses his salary so he is unable to find legal fees to secure qual­i­ty defense.
Unable to feed his fam­i­ly, unable to pay his mortgage/​rental.
Was this offi­cer in the wrong?

INDECOM Boss Understands The Value Of Media-whoring.….

The stark real­i­ty is that this whole notion that police offi­cers doing the right thing has noth­ing to fear from this mon­strous crim­i­nal empow­er­ment law is ridiculous .
I say to the rank and file police offi­cers , as long as your free­doms are threat­ened and they refuse to see what you face shoul­der your weapons.
Let the bod­ies pile up . Let Terrence Williams go out and deal with it.
Committee chair­man Wykeham McNeill said that “if the prob­lems between both par­ties are not resolved the coun­try could see ris­ing crime rates”.
I won­der what rock this idiot has been liv­ing under,?
The coun­try could see ris­ing crime? This inane and total­ly moron­ic state­ment typ­i­fies what many of us already knew , these guys are woe­ful­ly obliv­i­ous of what is hap­pen­ing around them. When was crime not rising?

Conversely , here’s what Juliet Holness wife of the Prime Minister and mem­ber of par­lia­ment had to say.

“When you speak to offi­cers they tell you: They don’t give a darn what we are say­ing to them and what an MOU says because at the end of the day ‘my pay is what will be affect­ed. I am the one who will have to sit down at home until this is resolved and pos­si­bly I will have to find addi­tion­al mon­ey to pay an attor­ney, so it is safer for me to col­lect my pay and shut up my mouth and don’t stick my neck out if I see any­thing going wrong and go to my home because of INDECOM’.”

Jamaica Got To Where It Is By Ignoring Facts And Embracing This.….

It was utter dis­re­spect of the police , mil­i­tary and the men and women of the cor­rec­tion­al depart­ment why the gov­ern­ment of Bruce Golding with the acqui­es­cence of the oppo­si­tion PNP passed this mon­strous law on the demand of Jamaicans for Justice Carolyn Gomes and the pha­lanx of oth­er peo­ple who make a liv­ing on the blood of dead cops.
Then they gave a National hon­or to Gomes. That National Honor is a mill­stone around the neck of Carolyn Gomes .
It is tar­nished with the blood of dead cops. It ought to be like a dead weight tied to a drown­ing man around the neck of Carolyn Gomes. It should haunt her for as long as she live.-

Imagine the arro­gance of draft­ing leg­is­la­tion which will sig­nif­i­cant­ly impact the lives of peo­ple who are tasked with plac­ing their lives on the line for the pro­tec­tion of oth­ers with­out ask­ing their opinion.
Imagine the sense of elit­ism which pre­cedes the notion of draft­ing and pass­ing leg­is­la­tion sole­ly on the say-so of a spe­cial inter­est group.
Well this is Jamaica at it’s best, lazy, incom­pe­tent, dolts mas­querad­ing as lawmakers .
In this medi­um I point­ed out that the law can­not ade­quate­ly serve the pur­pose which it was sup­posed to pri­mar­i­ly because the mem­bers of the secu­ri­ty forces did not get to add their input.
We made it clear that the law would cost lives.
It has.
We made it clear the law would embold­en criminals.
It has.
We made it clear that the law would increase crime .
It has.

Committee mem­ber Fitz Jackson added that INDECOM reports to the Parliament and as such the PAAC, in its full report to the House of Representatives should pro­pose an inter­ven­tion strat­e­gy to address the senior cop’s con­cern. “None of us are God unto our­selves,” Jackson said not­ing that the INDECOM Commissioner has to be account­able to the Jamaican Parliament.

In our relent­less push to bring this to the atten­tion of the Jamaican peo­ple I have con­sis­tent­ly said that the very idea that INDECOM would agree to a mem­o­ran­dum of under­stand­ing between the agency and the police depart­ment is a tac­it under­stand­ing at the min­i­mum that the law is bad.
That some­one of the char­ac­ter of Terrence Williams would want to be par­ty to a MOU is a seri­ous sign that he wants the grow­ing real­iza­tion that the laws is inher­ent­ly bad to go away.

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As I said then it is appease­ment to those who are call­ing for the repeal of the law.
As I said then and con­tin­ue to believe today a MOU can­not fix this hor­rif­ic law. The Law should be repealed.
That the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) of Parliament hear­ing tes­ti­mo­ny of the rela­tion­ship between the two agen­cies now rec­og­nizes that a MOU can­not fix these struc­tur­al issues is encouraging.

What is need­ed now is lead­er­ship at the high­est lev­el. As the chief of defense staff said the law was enact­ed with­out zero input from the secu­ri­ty forces . Acknowledging what I have been say­ing for years. This INDECOM laws is a fraud­u­lent one sided piece of leg­is­la­tion which should nev­er have been passed.
Sure there has to be vig­i­lant over­sight of those in whom we have invest­ed great pow­er, politi­cians , police and all oth­ers. What we can­not do is ask peo­ple to risk their lives and limb to pro­tect us then imprison and ruin them when they act.
No one’s inter­est is served by the INDECOM act except Terrence Williams and criminals .
The Act must be repealed.