Mark Wignall | Should we be scared of the police?

Recently, there was a ‘road rage’ incident involving members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF). One JCF member shot at another JCF member during the incident. Most unbelievable. Squaddies shooting at each other like they are enacting some movie scene from High Noon. Or, they are angry young men, heavily strapped from opposing ‘war zones’ in two inner-city areas suddenly meeting up in Cross Roads or Half-Way Tree.

One would safely assume that JCF members were trained in conflict resolution. I am no angel when it comes to an understanding of police and what some are capable of, but I am still forced to ask, where did that training go during the incident? The institution whose members are sworn to uphold peace and calm in Jamaica, shooting at each other because of bad driving?

Certainly, the behaviour of the shooter calls into question his fitness to serve. Seems to be a loose cannon to me. Should he even be allowed to have a gun? This speaks to a lack of discipline and reckless behaviour. At times, it is easy to use Minister Chang as a convenient beating stick, knowing that this country is filled with multiple other problems, but Security Minister Dr Chang proudly announced last year that there is a new JCF. Seems like the same old JCF to me, Minister.

Before I could recover from the squaddie shootout, it was revealed that the JCF formation MOCA was conducting raids in Kingston and a JCF superintendent had been arrested. Reports are that unaccounted-for cocaine was found at a police warehouse and that the cocaine was connected to the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Division.

The superintendent used to be assigned to the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Division (C-TOC). In January of this year, an inspector from C-TOC was arrested when he was stopped and cocaine packages were found in his car. The Gleaner reports that C-TOC had some 40 members and that, after the January arrest of the inspector, the commissioner of the JCF disbanded C-TOC and the members of C-TOC were reassigned to other formations in the JCF.

So, if I have this correctly, a specialised formation formed to fight organised crime had members involved in the cocaine trade. Words escape me. When I ask how does this happen, I feel like a fool. I know of stuff close to this happening before, way back in the 1970s involving the Hunts Bay Police Station, but with a twist.

There was a find of hard drugs on the docks and the police photographer was summoned. “R..., but mi nuh tek picture a dis last week?” The drugs were already captured, stored at Hunts Bay and, apparently, were being reshipped from the station.

Where is JCF leadership? Involved in something lucrative, I guess. This I will say. The two incidents are very serious and we should be very concerned. I am troubled by how quiet the commissioner of police is as of August 28. Silence is not the way to deal with these serious institutional problems. The public is watching, and the silence has them unsettled. A strong leader needs to go beyond relying on news reports to clear him. He needs to face the nation, let us know he recognises the problem and is in a position to confront it, and ensure he moves out ahead before serious matters like another major drug find arise.

Hard drugs and guns are birds flying in the same formation.

IS MR YORK’S LIFE IMPORTANT?

Many years ago, especially in the 1980s and early ‘90s, when I used to move around and mix closely with ‘bad man’ police and gunmen in extremely violent inner-city pockets, some police had this tendency to carry their ‘kills’ spread out across the front of the jeep and drive around as if to display who’s bad, who has the most lethal shot. I hated it all, but it was the best I could do while entering the belly of the beast. And entrance there was most important. I couldn’t say what the police told me and I had to keep my mouth shut based on the utterances of the residents.

I can remember in one instance, before a young man was peppered with bullets, the police told me to remain in a corner of a little shop because, “we a go fi him”. A few minutes later there were female shouts of “Murder, murder!”, rapid gunfire, and the body, dripping with blood and twitching, was in its usual display spot. I’ll never forget an elderly woman walking up to me and saying, “Journalist, him a murderer and rapist but yu caan sey a mi sey so.”

Reports are that, on Sunday, 30 August, a dance was held in a community in St Catherine by the name of Harkers Hall. I know Harkers Hall. I first went there when I was a teenager. While the dance was in session, a Mr York was “searched and removed from the dance by the police”. Mr York’s body was subsequently found with “multiple gunshot wounds”.

Did the JCF kill Mr York because he had first shot at them? Irate residents blocked the main road.

Let us back up a bit. Squaddies shooting at each other. C-TOC disbanded because of an inspector being arrested for possession of cocaine in his care. A former superintendent of C-TOC was arrested last week because of cocaine packages at a police warehouse that were unaccounted for.

Questionable killings by the JCF of young black men in communities all over Jamaica in a bid to reduce the murder rate, which has been reduced substantially.

The reduction in murders is a good, solid achievement. I am certain many Jamaicans are thrilled at the reduced murder rate. They have a right to be. The criminals were terrorising Jamaica and its people.

Mark Wignall is a political and public affairs analyst. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and mawigsr@gmail.com