From the moment that Terrence Williams was installed as the head of the neophyte agency INDECOM, he made it clear by his words and deeds, that among his other negatives, he had an extremely narcissistic trait.
Now, I do believe that we all have a certain degree of narcissism in us, not sure where ambition ends and narcissism begins.
However, as far as Terrence Williams is concerned, I am no psychologist, but I thought the narcissistic traits in the man were so obvious, the custodian in his office could figure it out.
[Phychology Today] had this to say about [narcissism]: Narcissism does not necessarily represent a surplus of self-esteem or of insecurity; more accurately, it encompasses a hunger for appreciation or admiration, a desire to be the center of attention, and an expectation of special treatment reflecting perceived higher status.
Terrence Williams was appointed the very first head of the fledgling INDECOM that was first authorized in 2010. His mandate was to provide independent oversight of the JCF, JDF, & Corrections Departments.
This oversight was badly needed, not just because of the numerous charges of corruption and criminality leveled at the police in particular, but because it was necessary to have an independent investigative service that would give credibility to the good officers.
Terrence Williams misunderstood his mandate and instead embarked on a renegade vendetta-laden mission against the nation’s preeminent law enforcement agency.
He showed up wherever there were press conferences given by virulently anti-police lobby groups, and demonstrated that there was no difference between their stance and his.
But as if associating with virulent anti-police groups and jostling for microphone time with them to demonize the security forces was not enough, Terrence Williams picked fights with the Nation’s Director Of Public Prosecution, making scurrilous claims that the [DPP] was not harsh enough on errant cops.
Not just that, Williams insinuated that the DPP was systematically dragging her feet in prosecuting cops.
The fact that (a) the DPP’s office struggles mightily with staff shortages and is deluged with a sheer volume of cases, & (b) the three sessions at the circuit level makes it impossible to clear enough cases from the court dockets as anyone would like, © cases get held up by both the defense and prosecution side, none of that mattered in Terrence Williams’ narrative.
Terrence Williams went ahead and arrested cops he said had run afoul of the laws, (good), only that he did not have the power to do so, even though he demonstrably knew he had no such power given to him under the Law.
When Terence Williams was rebuffed by the local Appeals court he petitioned the UK Privy Council for the power to prosecute cases against the police, even though he knew that the law gave him no such power, he said as much when he declared that the Parliament promised it would bestow the power on his agency at the next review.
Since Terrence Williams knew unequivocally that he had no power to arrest police officers why would he pursue the matter to the privy council to prove something he and the world already knew?
Narcissism!
Terrence Williams fought with the Police, needlessly, he fought for powers to search the JDF facilities at Up Park Camp, he fought to empower criminals in the prisons when they were appropriately dealt with by staff.
He took the DPP to court. His actions were challenged by police officers who fought back and they won in the courts.
I could go on and on about the tenure of Terrence Williams but I do believe I have made my point.
Like his patron Carolyn Gomes was eventually exposed as a fraud, so too has Terrence Williams been exposed eventually for the Jamaican people to see.
Unfortunately for the nation, the social experiment that was Terrence Williams was a fatal one. It has thankfully come to an end, but not without an incalculable cost.
In a desperate attempt to divert attention from his long list of failures, Terrence Williams points to fewer police shootings as a metric of his success.
That tells us who Terrence Williams has been working for.
The sad reality is that many cops laid down arms, many stopped caring, they were not about to engage the killers, they weren’t about to risk getting persecuted for doing their jobs in one of the world’s most violent places.
The flip side of that is that thousands of people died at the hands of murderous killers, who ought to have been in prison, or taken out.
That is the legacy of Terrence Williams.
Tragically, Terrence Williams barefacedly, or unashamedly, you decide, told local media that given a chance he would change nothing.
Those are the classic signs of a [narcissistic personality].
He lacks the most basic humility to see where he went wrong, to say I am human, I made mistakes.
It is for those reasons that I am glad to see the back of this incorrigible creature.
Mike Beckles is a former police Detective corporal, businessman, freelance writer,
he is a black achiever honoree, and publisher of the blog chatt-a-box.com.
He’s also a contributor to several websites.
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