PM security detail careless

THE EDITOR, Sir:

The recent confrontation between Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and Mr Vashan Brown, a Television Jamaica reporter, is very unfortunate and ought not to have occurred for a number of reasons.

I blame the prime minister's security detail 100 per cent for this incident. From what I saw, the prime minister was attempting to walk away when Mr Vashan Brown ran ahead of the prime minister, blocked her path and pushed his microphone, almost touching her face, while asking questions.

Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington should relieve members of the prime minister's present security detail of their responsibility, as it is evident that they were not giving the level of VIP protection to which the prime minister is entitled.

Whether we like Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller or not, we must accept that she is our prime minister and she is entitled to be accorded professional VIP protection.

Freedom of the press cannot be interpreted to mean that you can block the path of the prime minister and conduct yourself in a way to suggest that you will not allow her free passage unless she answers your question.

This was a rude and offensive act by Mr Brown, and he should be the one apologising.

Freedom of the press does not mean that those who work in the press are semi-gods to whom the rest of us are obligated.

The standard practice of VIP protection is that there is an inner perimeter which is strictly enforced and an outer perimeter which is less strictly enforced.

The prime minister's detail should have handled the inner perimeter around the prime minister in such a way that nobody could come within arm's length of her without her assent.

LINTON P. GORDON

Attorney-at-Law

lpgordon@cwjamaica.com

Ocho Rios, St Ann