Samuda hits back at Wilson ... But senior officer stands with defiant cop

TWO DAYS after head of the Police Federation peppered the Bruce Golding-led administration at its annual conference, General Secretary of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Karl Samuda yesterday hit back with a scathing broadside against Sergeant Raymond Wilson.

Samuda's response comes on the third anniversary of the JLP's victory at the polls.

Condemning the statements made by Wilson, the JLP general secretary said his comments were a "shameful display of political bias and unprofessionalism".

He warned that public servants should at all times avoid making political statements, particularly in the context of the present industrial relations climate.

Samuda scolded Wilson and urged him to exercise professional restraint and "good sense in these very challenging times for all Jamaicans".

"... The good men and women of the police force deserve the very best representation, and Mr Wilson should not embarrass them with ill-considered and inappropriate comments," Samuda concluded.

However, Chairman of the Police Officers' Association (POA), Superintendent Michael James, told The Gleaner on Thursday that Wilson's comments were not inappropriate.

In a Gleaner interview, James said the federation's chairman was juxtaposing the lack of legal representation for JCF members charged while carrying out their duties against a situation where funding was found by a political party to lobby the US government on behalf of an alleged drug lord.

"If it is the truth and it comes across painful, so be it. We are not going to resile from what we have offered ourselves to do in representation," James said.

Not for the weak at heart

The POA head said he expected sharp criticisms, but indicated that the job of leading the federation was not for the weak at heart.

"It is not a job for the weak hearted. You have to be prepared to face some of the tough issues; it comes with the territory," he said.

He said that once the comments were "truthful and not disrespectful", there was no need to be perturbed by the comments from the cynics.

Wilson told delegates that the Golding administration had shown scant regard for the welfare of the organisation's members.

"We are forced to contend with an employer, the Government of Jamaica, whose motive seems hell-bent on destroying the police force in an effort to steer away the nation's attention from their blatant political corruption and clear support for (a) criminal terrorist under the cloak of party support rather than they being the Government," Wilson said.

He also commented on the the controversy surrounding the extradition of ousted Tivoli Gardens strongman Christopher 'Dudus' Coke and the accompanying revelations about the governing Jamaica Labour Party's engagement of a US law firm to lobby on his behalf.

"We are police officers who are alerted one way or another to wrongdoing wherever it is and so to hear the employer of the police through the voice of the prime minister of Jamaica, declare that certain support for fugitive Dudus Coke was party support and not government support, it can only be concluded that the Government, or might I say, a political party, has openly declared that they offer support to the creation of mayhem and years of bloodshed - the snuffing out of over 1,000 lives each year over the last couple of years," Wilson said.