OMG Just Shut Up Already!!!

I seri­ous­ly yearn for the day when a major inci­dent will come to light in Jamaica and police offi­cers’ names will not be mixed up in the scan­dal with every­one else.
But if the past is pro­logue, my yearn­ing will remain just that for a very long time to come.
My oth­er wish would be for the police; the ( big-shut) kha­ki-clad idiots, in par­tic­u­lar, would learn to keep their damn mouths shut around major inves­ti­ga­tions like the one sup­pos­ed­ly under­way in the church killing in Montego Bay.
What about this new-age police makes them so hun­gry to see their names in the media?
There is now infor­ma­tion com­ing to the fore that at least one senior police offi­cial has been a part of the Mobay cult of char­la­tan Kevin Smith.

Evidence has also sur­faced of police out­rid­ers escort­ing a Smith motor­cade in Montego Bay some time ago that the police will also need to explain.
Why does the Police feel the need to give a blow-by-blow account of what it is doing to the media? I always won­der where they find time to speak to the media if they are doing their jobs with the due dili­gence required to gain con­vic­tions in court?
Because of how the police oper­ate, all of the evi­dence they gath­er is pub­lic knowl­edge even before crim­i­nal charges are filed. For those rea­sons, it is chal­leng­ing to gain con­vic­tions in the already pros­e­cu­tion hos­tile courts. Assistant Commissioner of Police in Charge of Area One Clifford Chambers please stop talk­ing to the media and allow the inves­ti­ga­tion to proceed.

AT THE SAME TIME

Year after year, we are told that the Jamaica Constabulary Force is being mod­ern­ized, that the old ways of doing things are out the door, and new ways are in. We have been told that the for­mer head of the JDF, and the nations’ first nation­al secu­ri­ty advis­er, General Antony Anderson, was brought in as police com­mis­sion­er, specif­i­cal­ly toward mod­ern­iz­ing the force.
But it is results that mat­ter when the video does not match the audio when the data does­n’t not match the hype, the nation was told by Horace Chang, the min­is­ter of National Security, that quote “wi mus gi tony a chance.”(Tony being Antony Anderson).
I cer­tain­ly do not car­ry any water for the police high com­mand; God knows I do not care whether those career cops make it to the com­mis­sion­er’s chair or not.
My posi­tion has always been that since the pow­ers that make the deci­sion have the right to choose some­one from out­side the depart­ment, it may be wise to cre­ate a ‘chief of depart­ment posi­tion’ and make the com­mis­sion­er’s posi­tion a civil­ian position.
I have repeat­ed­ly said that doing so would relieve some of the morale issues that arise when­ev­er some­one is select­ed to head the depart­ment from out­side it.
Having said that, the same pow­ers nev­er did care what police offi­cers think, nei­ther have they ever cared to ask how they may pro­ceed with mat­ters that direct­ly impact their per­for­mance, so there’s that.
At the same time, it real­ly mat­ters very lit­tle to me because, for the most part, the high com­mand is a( pop­pyshow)group, and many from the rank and file past and present don’t have a clue whats, not in their Interest.

MEANWHILE, OVER IN HAITI
Gangs have pret­ty much tak­en over parts of that coun­try, kid­nap­ping large groups of peo­ple, demand­ing huge ran­soms, and threat­en­ing that coun­try’s lead­ers. Ask your­selves what pre­vents the very well-armed gangs in Jamaica from doing the same thing? Absolutely nothing!
In fact, we have seen that gangs of well-armed thugs have suc­cess­ful­ly kept mem­bers of the secu­ri­ty forces at bay for pro­tract­ed peri­ods of time. We also know that crim­i­nal gangs are smart; they look at the oper­a­tions of oth­er crim­i­nal enter­pris­es in oth­er geo­graph­i­cal loca­tions and learn from what they are doing.
Unfortunately for the Jamaican nation, one fool ‑or should I say a few fools made a piss-pot load of oth­er fools on the crime front.
A baby doc­tor Carolyn Gomes con­vinced the nation that strong police actions against crim­i­nals were def­i­nite­ly a no-no. She was reward­ed for it with nation­al hon­or. Look at Jamaica since we were told that there would no longer be any name-brand cops.
The Country’s lead­ers also stu­pid­ly tore down the bul­warks of the nation’s defens­es, a‑la the Mobile Reserves, to please the United States or receive a few dol­lars from the Americans.
At the same time, Jamaica was decon­struct­ing the police appa­ra­tus that effec­tive­ly dealt with the ter­ror­ists to please America; America was giv­ing their killer cops more and more pro­tec­tion even when they com­mit murder.
Stupid is as stu­pid does, so now Jamaican lays there [hop­ing] that events occur­ring 90 miles away in Haiti will not come to its shores.
Hope, how­ev­er, is not a strategy.

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Mike Beckles is a for­mer Police Detective, busi­ness­man, free­lance writer, black achiev­er hon­oree, and cre­ator of the blog mike​beck​les​.com.