WE AGREE with the concern of Mr. Howard Hamilton, Q.C., about the dithering by the Jamaican authorities over the status of Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams, but part company with the Public Defender over seeming suggestion that there should be automatic reinstatement of the police officer.
Mr. Hamilton appears to imply that because Mr. Adams, like his colleagues in the Kraal murder trial, was acquitted in the courts, his reinstatement in the Jamaica Constabulary Force should have been automatic. Any such assumption would be, at best, simplistic, representing a failure to acknowledge attempts at cultural reform of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF). Indeed, the regulations governing the JCF are clear that acquittal in a criminal case does not mean reinstatement must follow as a matter of course.
The fact is that the JCF has, over time, developed a poor reputation as a paramilitary organisation with a jackbooted approach to policing that paid little or no attention to the rights of the citizens, especially if they are poor and live in inner-city communities.
Unfortunately, Mr. Adams has come to be identified with a form of policing with which many Jamaicans, as well as some of the country's international sponsors, no longer find comfort. Certainly, no court, and definitely not the jury that heard the Kraal case in which Mr. Adams was tried for the death of four persons, has ever found the senior policeman guilty of murder. In that sense, Mr. Adams may feel himself hard done by his continued sidelining.
But as Mr. Hamilton can explain, in corporate restructuring, it is often the case that the personalities associated with leading institutions into crises are not the ones presumed to have the competence to guide them out. Such is the case of Mr. Adams and many of the other hard men of the police force. Of course, Mr. Adams has not helped his own case by some of his remarks during the heyday of the notorious Crime Management Unit and his declarations subsequent to its dismantling.
The Government and the police chief now appear to find themselves between the proverbial rock and a hard place.
If the constabulary and the Minister of National Security knew that they did not want Mr. Adams back on the force - and they long knew they didn't - then the matter could have been dealt with long ago.
After all, Mr. Adams is a few years shy of retirement. He could have been paid and sent off. Or he might have otherwise been given responsibilities less demanding of his presence out in the streets. Instead, there have been dithering and passing the buck.
It is time to bring closure to the Reneto Adams affair. If the Police Commissioner or the Government has concerns about Mr. Adams apart from the specifics of the Kraal incident, they should deal with that matter squarely. The unseemly shuffling and dithering does not serve the morale of the JCF or public confidence any good.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
