ACCORDING TO a report published in Thursday's Gleaner, Commissioner of Police Lucius Thomas in urging a group of young people to be discriminating in the persons whose lifestyle they choose to emulate, made an interesting statement. Intelligence reports, he said, suggested that some persons in the entertainment field were involved in gun-related and other criminal activities.
The commissioner's warning is clearly well-intentioned and needs to be repeated often. But we find his statement to be in the same league as his sub-officers' calling press conferences to announce major gun finds on the ports, when the persons who were supposed to retrieve the contraband have not yet been identified or caught.
A far more useful statement from Mr. Thomas would have been to say, such an entertainer has been arrested based on evidence and intelligence reports, and the matter is now before the courts or there has been a conviction. The point of his using that example would be to underscore that "crime does not pay" and that whoever is involved, however popular, they will be subject to the law the same as anyone else.
Beyond the passing reference to the presence of criminality within the entertainment industry, the commissioner should perhaps be focusing just as intently on the white-collar criminals and the associates of the so-called community leaders from various inner-city areas who, though not involved in any serious legal enterprise, seem to be able to acquire and display evidence of affluence in the form of luxury vehicles and palatial mansions across the island.
Lest we be mistaken in our comment, we state clearly people who are involved in legal enterprises have as much right as anyone else from whatever social background to live in any area and however ostentatiously they wish.
There are many in the entertainment industry and elsewhere who are undoubtedly doing well by dint of hard work and marketing savvy. Some of their associates will also do relatively well by virtue of the satellite jobs they do. Our concern is that with so many anecdotal stories suggesting extensive criminality, police intelligence seems not to be able to crack the pervasive racketeering and money laundering that exists.
We would urge the commissioner to work assiduously with his sub-officers to strengthen the investigative units of the constabulary force and then tell the country of the real success stories in nabbing the criminals.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
