If These Senior Officers Are Incompetent Why Keep Them .….

BALTIMORE

It is total­ly with­ing the norm for Police depart­ments to make sub­stan­tive change fol­low­ing major inci­dents which neces­si­tat­ed out­side inves­ti­ga­tions of their department.
In fact just Wednesday the US Justice Department issued a scathing report against the Baltimore Police Department. The Justice Department inves­ti­ga­tion com­menced after a young black man Freddie Gray died in police custody.

The report released a syn­op­sis of the prob­lems with­in the Baltimore Police Department under an Executive Summary which included .
♦Unconstitutional Arrests.
♦Unconstitutional stops and search­es and arrests.
♦Racial dis­par­i­ties in enforce­ment with evi­dence sug­gest­ing inten­tion­al dis­crim­i­na­tion against African Americans exac­er­bat­ing com­mu­ni­ty distrust.
♦Overly aggres­sive tac­tics unnec­es­sar­i­ly esca­lat­ing encounters .
♦Use of unrea­son­able force.
♦Unreasonable force against juveniles.
Unreasonable force against peo­ple with men­tal disabilities.

Among oth­er uncon­sti­tu­tion­al actions against African American cit­i­zens of that city .
Baltimore’s may­or Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Police Commissioner Kevin Davis stood chas­tened as a jus­tice depart­ment offi­cial read out in full, the list of the Justice depart­men­t’s find­ings in the actions of the Baltimore PD.
Both the Mayor and the Police chief promised to work assid­u­ous­ly to ensure that the BPD can once again be a trust­ed , respect­ed police depart­ment which serves the needs of all cit­i­zens, equi­tably and justly.

KINGSTON

The com­mis­sion which heard evi­dence in what tran­spired in Tivoli Gardens in 2010 issued among oth­er rec­om­men­da­tions ‚that some senior police offi­cers not be allowed com­mand in the future.
The three pan­el com­mis­sion led by David Simmons a for­mer senior judge from Barbados , con­duct­ed an inquiry which was patent­ly hos­tile to Jamaican law-enforce­ment from the onset.
With that said, it is rea­son­able to assert that the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) has cre­at­ed for itself much of the ani­mus it expe­ri­ences today, exact­ly because of incom­pe­tence, nepo­tism and cor­rup­tion. Animus which allowed an out­sider to come into the coun­try and dis­play open dis­dain and dis­re­spect to the depart­ment and it’s officers .

The JCF for it’s part announced it has moved to reas­sign from oper­a­tional duties, two senior offi­cers, as rec­om­mend­ed by the Tivoli Commission.
Among the com­mis­sions response, this par­tic­u­lar recommendation.

“Where the accu­sa­tions of extra­ju­di­cial killings on the part of the secu­ri­ty forces were found by this com­mis­sion to be cred­i­ble, and where per­sons were iden­ti­fied as being in dere­lic­tion of duty or were admin­is­tra­tive­ly or oper­a­tional­ly incom­pe­tent, we rec­om­mend that these per­sons should nev­er again be allowed to lead or oth­er­wise par­tic­i­pate in inter­nal secu­ri­ty oper­a­tions,” the com­mis­sion wrote.

If these com­man­ders were cred­i­bly found to be in dere­lic­tion of their respon­si­bil­i­ties, the JCF is with­in its right to reas­sign them.
However, there are more than enough rea­sons to believe that the com­mis­sion was lit­tle more than a kan­ga­roo court which was set up to appor­tion blame to one par­ty for the loss of life in Tivoli Gardens.
Additionally, the JCF has a his­to­ry of throw­ing it’s own out to the dogs at the slight­est protest from spe­cial inter­est groups opposed to the rule of law on the Island.
With that said ‚this writer shed no tear for any senior mem­ber of the force who find them­selves being abused by the sys­tem. Let them have a taste of what the young offi­cers they push around and abuse dai­ly feel.

Speaking to a Gleaner’s Editor’s forum ‚Deputy Commissioner of Police Clifford Blake revealed yes­ter­day that the two senior offi­cers — who were among five serv­ing mem­bers sin­gled out for sting­ing crit­i­cism by the David Simmons-chaired com­mis­sion — were trans­ferred to oth­er areas of the JCF in the last two months. Head of the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), Terrence Williams, who was also a guest at the forum, ques­tioned whether the two offi­cers — in their new roles — would be super­vis­ing police per­son­nel car­ry­ing out oper­a­tional duties.“I’m say­ing no,” Blake insisted.

If there was evi­dence to sup­port the alle­ga­tions as alleged by the com­mis­sion the JCF should not reas­sign incom­pe­tent senior offi­cers. If they are unable to car­ry out their duties oper­a­tional­ly why keep them on?
It offers the depart­ment the oppor­tu­ni­ty to remove them from the pub­lic’s pay­roll, as young con­sta­bles cor­po­ral and sergeants would be let go.
The Baltimore Police com­mis­sion­er report­ed to the nation that his depart­ment has already begun the task of fix­ing itself , that process he explains involve remov­ing errant offi­cers from its ranks.
The JCF should use this unfor­tu­nate episode to do some house clean­ing of it’s own.
Keeping incom­pe­tent senior offi­cers on the pay­roll to warm desks does a dis-ser­vice to the country.