Kristen Gyles | Weed out the criminals within

Here’s a rather bewildering story:

1) Police enter a Westmoreland community and request $300,000, which the citizens pay over to the police.

2) Police return and say they want $500,000, which is also paid over to the police.

3) Police return and say they want $1 million dollars, but the neighbourhood kitty is now dry.

4) Police return in unmarked vehicles and start firing shots.

5) A man from the community is injured, who is rushed to the hospital.

6) Citizens block the road and come out with placards protesting that the police should leave the area.

Some say Jamaica is not a real place. The capital of the real Jamaica might be Kingston but the capital of the unreal Jamaica appears to be Petersfield, the community in which this movie was staged.

This is the order of events that took place in the community two weeks ago, according to community members. One person summed everything up by saying, “When dem come and cyaah get nuh money dem kill yuh wid kick and lick.”

Unsurprisingly, the police have a different account, which is that they were carrying out an operation in the area when they were confronted by a group of men who opened fire on them. In fear for their lives the police returned fire. Seemingly undisputed and unaddressed, however, were the allegations of extortion.

As if all this wasn’t bizarre enough, in response to the entire ordeal, a representative from the Westmoreland Police Division reminded the citizens that they should not be giving the police any money and that instead, they should report police who are involved in extortion by calling 311, 811, 119 or their pastor.

CALL POLICE TO REPORT POLICE

If it wasn’t so serious maybe I could have laughed. The police are antagonising the people, so they should call the police to report the police, or better yet, talk to their pastor or ‘someone they trust’. If the police aren’t ‘someone they trust’, who will they trust? And if who they trust is their mamas, how will the coalition of community mothers help them?

We would have been tempted to assume this was a one-off event, until another report surfaced about allegations of corruption in Dexter Street, another Westmoreland community.

Corruption is one of the biggest hindrances to Jamaica’s progress. Corruption is helping to fuel crime and is helping to perpetuate inequity on gross levels. Jamaicans work hard. Jamaicans are not lazy and contrary to what some think, it is not only formally educated people who work in offices that work hard. Others, too, work hard, with what they have. So yes, extortion is a big deal.

What systems are in place to address the matter of corruption among police?

The Inspectorate and Professional Standards Oversight Bureau (IPROB) has been doing its thing, and I’m sure the entity has been working arduously to ensure that the police are held to account in cases of misconduct. However, as is the case with most government agencies, timeliness doesn’t quite appear to be its speciality.

In a similar case of police corruption in Trelawny, two officers came upon a goat thief who was transporting his loot. After discovering the rightful owner, they tried to charge him $70,000 for the return of the goats. The incident happened in September of 2019 and the police were arrested and charged in December of 2020. More than one year later.

Realistically speaking, if the citizens in Petersfield had reported the corrupt cops to the IPROB, the matter would have been addressed months after, at best – months during which they would very likely face continued victimisation from the very same cops and their cronies.

Yet again, there is the matter of Nzinga King’s hair which was allegedly cut by a policewoman. Since August last year, a whole lot has happened and yet nothing at all. First, IPROB had been commissioned to probe the matter, then INDECOM apparently took over. The baton was then passed to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for a ruling to be made and now the ODPP needs more information.

WAITING ON theSUPPOSED JUSTICE

If this is the kind of multi-step, multi-month process that is required when police are accused of misconduct, let’s not act surprised when citizens are hesitant to report police, especially in instances where they feel their safety may be compromised while waiting on the supposed justice. The waiting and red tape aside, there is a strong culture of distrust among citizens towards the police.

Much of the distrust may be unfounded. However, for some police officers, it appears the weapons they carry have made their heads giddy and they adopt a rather oppressive demeanour when dealing with ordinary people. Frankly, there seems to be a greater zeal for confiscating market goods from street vendors and hiding behind bushes on the highway with speed guns, than there is for targeting hardened scammers and murderers. Since the day I was born, poor people selling clothes on the roadside have never threatened my life or livelihood. Thieves and murderers do, however. So forgive me if I can’t help but making a distinction.

Any perception that the police are working against ordinary citizens instead of for them and with them won’t foster collaboration. There are numerous devoted and committed police officers who serve with integrity but their efforts are being stymied by the few criminal minds in their midst. Greater collaboration is needed but it has to start with a stamping out of corruption within the force. Criminals can’t fight crime or, at least, won’t.

Kristen Gyles is a free-thinking public affairs opinionator. Email feedback to kristengyles@gmail.com.