Well, over a year ago, Horace Chang told the Jamaican people quote,” you haffi give Tony a chance.” The statement was made amidst continuing escalating homicide numbers and other crimes. Horace Chang is a medical doctor who is also the national security minister.
In the same breadth, Chang is a member of parliament for one of the most dangerous crime-ridden garrisons in Saint James and the entire country.
Law-abiding Jamaicans had no choice in deciding whether ‘Tony’ deserved a chance to remain in the cushy job of Police Commissioner. The cabal that makes decisions on those matters had already given him a fresh three-year contract. He was reaffirmed to a job he is not qualified for. He was never a police officer, nor has he any training in law enforcement or law.
Antony Anderson was head of the Island’s military, a force of roughly 3’000 soldiers. The Island’s prime minister elevated him to national security adviser, a post that was a first for Jamaica and created just for him.
Despite Antony Anderson’s lack of policing bona fides, the Services Commission approved an $18 million annual salary package for him, one that exceeded the salary of any former police commissioner.
Not only did the Service Commission approve the comparatively hefty pay package for Anderson, it resisted revealing the details of the package, under the guise that there is a need for privacy, even though the Jamaican people are footing the bill.
Under pressure by media entities using the freedom of information act (FOA), the Commission caved and released the details of Anderson’s pay package.
It is important to remember that Antony Anderson is on his second contract, and his contract includes provisions for his performance to be assessed. It reaffirmed his duties as the operational commander of the force. Still, it expressly noted that he was to undertake other jobs stipulated in terms of reference and performance targets negotiated with the permanent secretary in the Ministry of National Security. Anderson must also comply with any agreed performance appraisal system the PSC requires and provide the commission, parliamentary committees, or other authorities with reports as directed.
[Performance targets], the only way Anderson can rationally continue in his job is if those targets mean he must to perform poorly. Based on whats happening in Jamaica with violent crime.
There is an inexplicable well of goodwill for Anderson, even among former members of the force and the wider society. This goodwill never existed for former police commissioners of police, and that has kept Anderson at the head of the Constabulary even as his record of performance becomes more and more abysmal.
Former members, too, have consumed the proverbial cool-aid, falling for hype and charisma, where data-driven performance was the requirement for former commissioners who came up through the ranks.
I have no animus toward Commissioner Anderson; I intend only to lay bare the facts for the Jamaican people to come to their own conclusion on this existential matter of violent crimes.
I am sure that were I given a job for which failure was not a problem and paid $18 million annually, I would do my darndest to keep that job. It is not Anderson’s fault.
His boss, Horace Chang, who studied medicine and whom a former colleague reminded me once referred to the police as glorified security guards, is reaping the same rewards of holding a job for which he has zero qualifications.
However, in Jamaica, a degree in one thing qualifies the holder for everything!
Speaking at a nonsense conference headlined From Force to Service put on by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute in partnership with the Institute of Criminal Justice and Security in September of 2018, Horace Chang said the following;
The JCF was largely designed to protect the interests of property owners, “where we trained them for six months in military drill, gave them some discipline, gave them a big pine baton and a Lee Enfield rifle, and then we complain that they shoot or beat up somebody.”
“Now we have to reorient that, retrain and restructure the force to accommodate the young professionals who are interested in law enforcement.”
This guy could easily be talking about some dogs, but he was talking about the Islands police officers..…..
Horace Chang backtracked and blamed the media in the ensuing brouhaha from the police and its rank-and-file union.
Chang told the union that the media reporting made it seem like his comments were about the current members of the JCF, as opposed to the system and structure of the force.’
In other words, Chang told them, do not believe your lying ears; believe what I tell you.
And so, we face this existential crisis of our country being the most murderous of all the countries within the Caribbean and Latin-American region, which is the most violent region on our planet. In the most violent region on Earth, Jamaica is the most violent.
As Jamaicans, we must come together to save our country in the face of the blatant abdication of duty by those elected to lead.
I continue to speak to the damage that the University of The West Indies continues to do, not just to Jamaica but to Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, and all across the Caribbean with its leftist teachings that coddle criminals.
Throughout Jamaica and the Caribbean, the same strain of leftist garbage can be found in the leaders that institution turns out to destroy the region with liberal leftist policies that aid and abets transnational criminals.
The brainwashing from that single institution now dominates all aspects of national life. This includes not just law enforcement but the kinds of laws written and passed and how they are enforced.
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, black achiever honoree, and creator of the blog mikebeckles.com.