Concerning Police Credibility
The Bahama Journal Editorial
There is ample evidence coming in to support a tentative conclusion that, a crime onslaught that has become endemic now threatens to undermine all efforts aimed at building today’s Bahamas on a sounder, more decent and truly honest set of foundations.
The elementary fact of the matter, then, is that our nation’s location and configuration lend support to the thesis that the Bahamas is in truth and in fact a smugglers’ paradise.
And so, in a dreadful kind of way, our country might well be that kind of place where when all else fails, the drugs trade and other smuggling type operations kick in by default, so to speak.
In addition, there is also –as most business owners and operators know so very well – a culture of thievery that is today pervasive; a space where apparently hard-working men and women routinely rip-off their employers.
This culture –so we are told- also pervades some rotten elements in the Police Force, the Customs Service, Immigration, the Prison Service – and other areas of the public service.
And then, there remains all that bounty that accrues to the vast majority of both public and private sector workers who steal time; and who therefore get paid for work they have not done.
This also applies to some of our police officers.
Some of this quite neatly explains how it arises that some of our fellow-Bahamians seem to be doing so very well in what are said to be ‘hard times’.
Indeed, there is a smattering of evidence to suggest that some of these people are benefitting from pain and suffering being endured by their hard-working, decent and also law-abiding brothers and sisters.
Clearly, then, our country is today reeling under hammer blows inflicted by criminals who are currently engaged in an orgy of mayhem – some of which comes packaged in with all that information concerning the rate at which homicide now makes the news.
Notwithstanding some of the bad news coming in, this country of ours owes some of its hard-working police officers – particularly some who now work on the front-lines; those nasty spaces where violence is rampant and where death sometimes approaches in a blazing instance of gun-fire unleashed.
Clearly, some of these fine officers are doing all they can to live up to the challenge inherent in the pledge they made to uphold the law.
We have absolutely no problem with these fine men; and indeed, we wish them well.
Our problem with the Force is today otherwise.
Here we would respectfully suggest that, whether officials in the Ministry of National Security or some in the top brass of the Royal Bahamas Police Force realize it or not, they have on their hands a problem of credibility.
Simply put, there are very many Bahamians who are convinced that, some police officers are corrupt; that some others are grossly inefficient – and that some of the reports they bring in to their senior officers are artful fabrications.
In addition, there are some Bahamians [perhaps a hardy minority of them] who are prepared to suggest that these bad apples [as they are sometimes deemed] are salted throughout the ranks of the force.
We have no reason to believe otherwise.
And for sure, while we have no way of proving any of the allegations made by people who speak to us, we do believe that, there is cause for concern.
That concern is grounded in the fact that, corrupted officers do a mass of damage not only to those of their fellow-officers who are honest, decent and law-abiding – but also to all other right-thinking and behaving residents and citizens living and work in this country.
Here the Police Commissioner might be minded to suggest to each and every police officer under his command should come clean even if as the saying goes, they have to come ‘rough-dry’.
Put simply, zero tolerance for any and all police misbehavior –whether or not that behavior reaches the level of ‘criminal’ wrong-doing - must become the mantra of the police high command, moving forward.
Anything else would be tantamount to failure.
Curiously, we now live in a place and in a time when such slogans and other palaver routinely slides off the lips of this or that highly-placed official; with absolutely no real effect on behavior on the ground.
Here we can recite so very many stories –most of them coming from usually impeccable sources – that speak of instances where police on routine patrol just as routinely shake down Haitian nationals and some equally unlucky others.
Indeed, we are hearing say that some Haitians in our midst are being bilked of some of their money by police officers on the take.
Today that beat continues; and as it does, the credibility of the Force is being further undermined.
January 20, 2011
The Bahama Journal Editorial
A political blog about Bahamian politics in The Bahamas, Bahamian Politicans - and the entire Bahamas political lot. Bahamian Blogger Dennis Dames keeps you updated on the political news and views throughout the islands of The Bahamas without fear or favor. Bahamian Politicians and the Bahamian Political Arena: Updates one Post at a time on Bahamas Politics and Bahamas Politicans; and their local, regional and international policies and perspectives.
Showing posts with label Bahamian police officers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bahamian police officers. Show all posts
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
When Police Shoot and Kill
The Bahama Journal Editorial
We live in a time that seems to suggest that there is a war going on out there; with the police pitted against some of their fellow-Bahamians.
With this in mind, today we suggest that, the time has come [and perhaps, some of that same time might have already come and gone] for those in charge of the Royal Bahamas Police Force to be up and doing with coming clean with all they know concerning matters that now routinely lead to the death of this or that civilian.
And for sure, as one incident yields to another in what seems to be a spiral of criminal and police instigated violence – some Bahamians are beginning to tire of what they say happens to be high-handedness on the part of some police officers.
While we are certain that policing is peculiarly stressful in these very hard times; we are also quite sensitive to complaints coming in to the effect that, police officers sometimes do overstep their legal boundaries.
Indeed, such has been admitted by any number of law-makers and bureaucrats who speak knowledgeably about the so-called ‘bad apples’ in uniform.
Here reform is badly needed; and for sure, there is also some indication that, the time might be ripe for the high command in the police force to review its policies concerning who should or should not be armed while on routine patrol in our heartland communities.
And so today, [and like a host of other Bahamians]; we are all ears as the police make it their business to come forward with a fully plausible set of explanations as to how and why it came to be that a young Bain Town man who was said to be gambling on the side of a street now finds himself quite dead.
We need some answers.
Indeed, while we are not quite sure as to precisely what did go down in Bain Town this Saturday past, when a young man died [purportedly at the hands of a policeman]; we are nonetheless prepared to suggest that fear played a major part in skewing the perception of both the policeman and the man he allegedly killed.
As one man tried to run away from the police; he was felled by a bullet coming his way from the muzzle of a policeman’s service revolver.
In time, the rest of this story will be told.
But for now, take note that, something has gone so badly awry in this land that, police and the citizenry are seemingly locked in a mire of mutual incomprehension.
Evidence in support of this conclusion comes from any number of sources; some of these inclusive of reports attributed to the police and to some of our citizens, particularly from any number of people who live in our heartland communities.
On the one hand, we have situations and circumstances where police are convinced that this or that neighborhood is said to be infested with drug dealing, street-level prostitution and a host of other so-called ‘deviant’ activities.
And for sure, there are all those other reports that are proud to report that, while there are problems arising in some of our heartland communities; none of them reaches that level of panic as suggested by some observers who might have other ideas.
Here suffice it to say that, we are absolutely convinced that much that we hear about what is happening in these communities is comprised of a tissue of lies, some stereotyping and a host of gross generalizations.
Evidently, this juxtaposition neatly explains how –in case after bloody case – the police shoot someone or the other who – on examination – turns out to be somebody’s good child.
But for sure, in a situation where fear prevails, misperceptions will and do arise. And so today, we have a situation on our hands where fear, dread and criminality run rampant; with some of our adolescent youth little more than, rapists in the making; murderers in training and thieves in their infancy.
This they do when they are called to provide bail for this child or that child who is –as the saying goes – held in the protective custody of the state.
Something is dreadfully wrong with this picture.
Clearly, then, nothing real or good can come from this latest outrage so long as the police and the people are seemingly at loggerheads.
Here we go further as we note that, things can only go from bad to worse in this land of ours so long as some of our youth [particularly some of those young men who live in the so-called ghetto] see the police as part of an oppressive Babylon.
By the same token, our police officers must come to the realization that, things are not as bad in these heartland communities as some of the stereotypes surrounding them might, would or could suggest.
November 24, 2010
The Bahama Journal Editorial
We live in a time that seems to suggest that there is a war going on out there; with the police pitted against some of their fellow-Bahamians.
With this in mind, today we suggest that, the time has come [and perhaps, some of that same time might have already come and gone] for those in charge of the Royal Bahamas Police Force to be up and doing with coming clean with all they know concerning matters that now routinely lead to the death of this or that civilian.
And for sure, as one incident yields to another in what seems to be a spiral of criminal and police instigated violence – some Bahamians are beginning to tire of what they say happens to be high-handedness on the part of some police officers.
While we are certain that policing is peculiarly stressful in these very hard times; we are also quite sensitive to complaints coming in to the effect that, police officers sometimes do overstep their legal boundaries.
Indeed, such has been admitted by any number of law-makers and bureaucrats who speak knowledgeably about the so-called ‘bad apples’ in uniform.
Here reform is badly needed; and for sure, there is also some indication that, the time might be ripe for the high command in the police force to review its policies concerning who should or should not be armed while on routine patrol in our heartland communities.
And so today, [and like a host of other Bahamians]; we are all ears as the police make it their business to come forward with a fully plausible set of explanations as to how and why it came to be that a young Bain Town man who was said to be gambling on the side of a street now finds himself quite dead.
We need some answers.
Indeed, while we are not quite sure as to precisely what did go down in Bain Town this Saturday past, when a young man died [purportedly at the hands of a policeman]; we are nonetheless prepared to suggest that fear played a major part in skewing the perception of both the policeman and the man he allegedly killed.
As one man tried to run away from the police; he was felled by a bullet coming his way from the muzzle of a policeman’s service revolver.
In time, the rest of this story will be told.
But for now, take note that, something has gone so badly awry in this land that, police and the citizenry are seemingly locked in a mire of mutual incomprehension.
Evidence in support of this conclusion comes from any number of sources; some of these inclusive of reports attributed to the police and to some of our citizens, particularly from any number of people who live in our heartland communities.
On the one hand, we have situations and circumstances where police are convinced that this or that neighborhood is said to be infested with drug dealing, street-level prostitution and a host of other so-called ‘deviant’ activities.
And for sure, there are all those other reports that are proud to report that, while there are problems arising in some of our heartland communities; none of them reaches that level of panic as suggested by some observers who might have other ideas.
Here suffice it to say that, we are absolutely convinced that much that we hear about what is happening in these communities is comprised of a tissue of lies, some stereotyping and a host of gross generalizations.
Evidently, this juxtaposition neatly explains how –in case after bloody case – the police shoot someone or the other who – on examination – turns out to be somebody’s good child.
But for sure, in a situation where fear prevails, misperceptions will and do arise. And so today, we have a situation on our hands where fear, dread and criminality run rampant; with some of our adolescent youth little more than, rapists in the making; murderers in training and thieves in their infancy.
This they do when they are called to provide bail for this child or that child who is –as the saying goes – held in the protective custody of the state.
Something is dreadfully wrong with this picture.
Clearly, then, nothing real or good can come from this latest outrage so long as the police and the people are seemingly at loggerheads.
Here we go further as we note that, things can only go from bad to worse in this land of ours so long as some of our youth [particularly some of those young men who live in the so-called ghetto] see the police as part of an oppressive Babylon.
By the same token, our police officers must come to the realization that, things are not as bad in these heartland communities as some of the stereotypes surrounding them might, would or could suggest.
November 24, 2010
The Bahama Journal Editorial
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