OUT OF the confusion and controversy surrounding the disbanding of the Crime Management Unit (CMU) and the reassignment of its mercurial boss, Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams, a new moral momentum seems to be emerging from a number of important sources.
At a graduation ceremony for 448 new police constables, Minister of National Security Peter Phillips denounced the notion that policemen can be judge, jury and executioner - a long ethical leap from the coy advice of former Prime Minister Hugh Shearer to the effect that policemen are not obliged to read the Beatitudes to suspected felons; or Dudley Thompson's crass remarks as Minister of Security that no angels died at Green Bay, referring to that infamous massacre in 1977.
Dr. Phillips, despite his previous endorsement of harsh and resolute action by the police, has unequivocally instructed the new recruits not to feel that they can brutalise and kill their brothers and sisters.
Sergeant Steve Brown, outgoing Chairman of the Police Federation, has also emerged as another voice of reason and common sense. The Federation has supported the decision of Commissioner Francis Forbes to disband the CMU and Sergeant Brown has suggested that for the proper management of the Force the Commissioner must be given wider powers to discipline its members including dismissal.
This is a position we have taken in a previous editorial in which we pointed out that the scope of the Police Service Commission is too detailed and restrictive. Corruption in the police force cannot be rooted out simply by transplanting it from one breeding ground to another.
The open and honest manner in which Commissioner Forbes has accepted help from Scotland Yard in getting to the bottom of what happened at Kraal is another refreshing change from the jingoism usually displayed in these circumstances. This has been matched by the equally straightforward response of Sir John Stevens, London's Metropolitan Police Commissioner, who has promised that the investigation will be completed in 30 days - a quantum contrast to the enquiry set up to investigate the Tivoli Gardens killings. The majority of Jamaicans, we feel sure, are grateful to Britain for its help.
It has been reported that over 1,000 new recruits have joined the police force in the last 18 months, presumably better screened for potential talent and the beneficiaries of increasingly improved training. On this basis we can hope that young Jamaicans can start seeing acceptance in the Force as the beginning of a satisfying professional career - not an excuse to acquire weapons and to use them in an exercise of raw power.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
