Only in this country!

Justice has fled this country. Good, strong policing, underpinned by the respect for citizens' rights and status as human beings, has also fled this country. Only you, me and the long-sufferers of police abuse, victims of miscarriage of justice, along with the recipients of token sympathy and empathy from politicians, remain in this country.

This country is seemingly in the bad books of the Almighty, ostracised like a child on the playground whose protesting bowels have moved involuntarily. Flies of the species 'police extrajudicial killings', 'unlawful disposal of court evidence', 'anaemia in public prosecutions' and a relatively new one, 'lotto scamming', are buzzing around this country's backside, desperate to feed off the mess.

In this country, seemingly anything and everything goes. Kill a helpless man on video, then walk free. In this country, you can dress up in police garb and grab your gun, then go to a yard and crack the skulls of a few law-abiding citizens. Only in this country could the penalty for that be to simply remove said policeman from front-line duty until the controversy dies down in the media.

In this country, the criminal justice system is seemingly controlled by defence counsel, who use their training and perspicacity to run rings around our police personnel in cases where some of this country's most vile and wicked are brought before the courts.

In this country, it's difficult to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), given that the investigations done on its behalf by the constabulary often have more holes than a mesh merino.

Only in this country could three gainfully employed men be killed by the police in extraordinarily controversial circumstances in a staid, rural community and the minister of national security take all of six days to visit the area. Only in this country could an opposition party issue a press advisory, saying its leader intended to visit the family of the slain men.

Again, only in this country could something so sensitive be publicised before the fact in the manner of an advisory to the media, shamelessly asking for their cameras and microphones to follow you around as you hug and shed a tear or two with grieving family members. Only in this country would persons be vexed with you, were you to see that as a most foul way of extending political support.

Only in this country could police feel the need to fabricate cases against nefarious criminals, given that witnesses are too petrified to assist. And only in this country could the police, so desperate to rid a community of a 'badjohn', charge a man with committing a crime at a time when that same man was in their company as part of his bail conditions.

BIZARRE BAIL

Only in this country can criminals be offered bail by magistrates when evidence is submitted to prove the rise in violence and criminality whenever they are free to roam the streets. And only in this country can the police fail to submit the requisite evidence yet hope to convince a magistrate to deny bail to an accused criminal.

Only in this country can an accused policeman's colleague be charged with securing vital evidence in a high-profile murder trial where the public has seen video footage of the crime in question. And only in this country can that evidence go missing, leaving a huge gap in the case being marshalled by the ODPP.

Indeed, only in this country can citizens not be surprised or outraged that a colleague of a policeman facing a murder conviction 'mishandles' or 'misplaces' evidence that can send the policeman to prison. Again, only in this country would the citizenry be shocked and amazed if the individual 'misplacing' or 'mishandling' such crucial evidence is punished.

Only in this country have citizens sat by and watched criminals take over their communities, even as they blame police for not rooting them out after they become established. I'm not a fan of this prayer breakfast business, but I wonder how different the realities would be in this country if more of us had a personal Jesus.

Selah.

George Davis is a journalist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and george.s.davis@hotmail.com.