To Serve and Protect?

After living in Jamaica for most of my long life, on only one occasion was I able to say something complimentary about the police, I suppose because I have been exposed to police officers in other jurisdictions, I have never accepted boorishness, crassness and belligerence as part and parcel of the thrust to "serve and protect."


The exception to which I referred above happened last year when I went to the Papine police station to report the death of a friend and was absolutely bowled over by the professionalism and politeness of the two cops on duty. So shocked was I that I felt forced to publicly comment on it several times. However, my latest encounter with two policemen on Ash Wednesday at 6.45 am , poignantly reminded me why I can never ever like, respect or trust those so-called officers of the law.


As arranged, I had picked up a young man in Barbican Square and was proceeding up Barbican Road when I saw a patrol car which I had glimpsed earlier, on the other side of the road, with its lights flashing. An officer made a gesture to me but I did not respond immediately as I couldn't believe that it was me they were trying to stop as i had done nothing,. The car then came up behind me and the siren blared so I stopped. Within seconds, a policeman was at the passenger window shouting to the young man beside me "Why yu move from behind the steering wheel when yu si wi?" It was with total astonishment and shock that I asked him what on earth he was talking about. He then shouted that he had seen me change places with the passenger and wanted to know why!


I actually thought I was in a movie since that this the only place I had ever seen the type of acrobatics necessary for a passenger and driver to change places in a moving car without crashing!. Shocked, we both denied that any such thing took place. When he turned to his colleague for him to confirm that what he was charging was true, I did detect that the other policeman was a bit reluctant before agreeing with him.


Realising that I could be in a precarious position, I immediately took out my phone and started to dial. That seemed to incense him even more as he shouted that I could always call the commissioner as he couldn't do anything about. Calmly I informed him hat I was calling my attorney for obviously this was a serious matter. On hearing this, he calmed slightly and mumbled that every time some people get stopped by the officer of the law "dem want bring lawyer into it." He then told me to produce my license and I did.


He looked at the license and as quickly as his surprise attack had been, so was his departure at which point I wrote down the license number of the vehicle, MPD 18. I spent the next few minutes trying to figure our what had just happened. Had this been some attempt at shakedown? Was supposed to be so frightened that I would produce some money? No it couldn't be, I decided for the usual approach when they are looking for rent or whatever, is to claim to be doing you a favor by not writing a ticket and expect a reward in return. Anyway, this approach has never worked with me as a I would rather rot in jail than bribe a cop!

Finally, I concluded that we must have just had an encounter with a heavily armed drunk man, mad man or a coke head. Now that is really frightening for I am not aware that the police force does any random testing on these heavily armed people who they send out daily to interact with the public? I suppose they simply dismiss the almost daily complaints by abused members of the public and the friends and relatives of those who they claim are killed or shot up by the police after attacking them with anything from a gun to a toothpick.

I am sending a complaint to the Police Complaints division but of course would never hold my breath in the expectation that this matter would ever be investigated, All l can say to the public is, beware when stopped by any member of this totally out -of -control organization.