EDITORIAL - Suspend cop in X6 murder probe

The Jamaican police are known, too often, perhaps, to take serious and precipitous action. But raiding the homes of fellow members of the constabulary is not among them.

Indeed, the police are notorious for - if not ignoring - being slow to respond to the infractions of colleagues. So, when they do act, you take it seriously and can presume they have good grounds for their suspicions.

It is in this context that we note last week's raiding of the home of a yet-to-be-named, but a reported senior member of the constabulary in relation to the murder of young Khajeel Mais, who was allegedly shot by the driver of a BMW X6 while Khajeel was travelling in a taxi. Both vehicles may have been involved in a fender bender.

The speculation, apparently, is that the senior policeman may have withheld information about the shooting, or may have even helped the alleged shooter to hide information.

This newspaper has no facts about these allegations and, therefore, has arrived at no conclusions. What we do know is that these are serious allegations to make about anyone, and especially a senior police officer.

The issue, therefore, cannot be just swept under the carpet and for everyone to pretend that the incident didn't happen - unless it didn't. In which case, the police should say so.

If, in fact, the home of a senior police officer was raided, he would, therefore, have been suspected of a crime which is under investigation.

If he has been cleared, the police should say so, and give their reasons for this.

On the other hand, if an investigation is ongoing, we would be flabbergasted if this officer remains on the job where, it would be reasonable to presume, he would have greater opportunity to interfere with the investigation.

In other words, once an officer, especially of high rank, becomes the subject of a serious investigation, to the point where his home has been searched, he should be suspended from his job until the matter is fully resolved and the outcome properly reported.

The alternative is that those who raided the police officer's home, and those who ordered the raid - who we can only assume would be of senior rank - acted maliciously and with bad intent.

Either way, the public should know.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.