A few words with the police

Martin Henry, Gleaner Writer

Like other drivers, I find windshield wipers to be a bit of a nuisance.

But also people making direct sales pitches for everything from useless plastic trinkets to religious magazines. When I had a small office in a plaza some years ago, the peddlars would barge in, fling out their wares from the carton boxes they marched around with, and launch into a fast-paced rehearsed sales pitch before I could stop them. And even at my grand old age insurance peddlars are still making unwanted sales pitches to me. I got one by email the other day to set up a meeting.

And collectors of funds can be a nuisance too, from the nice kettle lady strategically planted at the door of the store so there is no escape to the insistent stop-light beggar, one of whom recently banged on my closed window to get my withheld attention - and money. When I banged back furiously on the window from the inside he was feisty enough to ask me, "yuh gwine bruck it?"

Traffic Division crackdown

Several windshield wipers were arrested last week and hauled before the courts by the traffic police in one of those sporadic 'crackdowns' against this or that, for which the Jamaica Constabulary Force is well known. The Traffic Division has discovered that there is a Towns & Communities Act on the books and to be enforced. The head of the Police Traffic Division, Supt Radcliffe Lewis, said the arrested service providers were charged for obstructing traffic, failing to move and keep on moving, and obstructing pedestrians under the Towns & Communities Act.

Today, I link arms with former public defender Howard Hamilton in defence of windshield wipers, while commending the police for their discovery of the Towns & Communities Act.

Supt Lewis told The Gleaner that the wipers, in addition to holding up traffic, throw water or spit on female motorists and use nails and knives to scratch the vehicles of motorists who refuse to give them money. "They will be charged for being a nuisance to the motoring public."

The 'they' worries me. I was of the view that it was individuals whom the police had reason to believe had broken the law, were about to break the law, or were aiding others to break the law whom they could arrest. The Lewis approach looks too much like "the good must suffer for the bad" approach under which so many of us, with our acute childhood sense of justice and fairness, chafed at school. The difficulty in identifying specific culprits is not a lawful justification for dragnet arrests.

The two main objectives of the traffic police in the crackdown against windscreen wipers appear to be removing "common assault" of motorists and reducing obstruction of traffic. In which case, apart from being more specific in targeting lawbreaking, it must be far wider in reach. All kinds of people all over the world target slow-moving urban traffic for doing business and earning a living.

And the biggest traffic management - and road safety - problem we face is motorists themselves using the roads in unlawful and dangerous ways. The police, like the rest of us, know categories of road users in which offences are particularly concentrated. And if they don't, they should ask the insurance people who mathematically calculate premiums by use category. The traffic police arresting traffic 'nuisances' would have to extend themselves well beyond windshield wipers. And while we are at it, let us not forget unlawful cellphone use while driving as a growing traffic management and road safety problem.

The crackdown has come at a time when wipers are generally far more professional and better organised - and are much more willing to accept "no" as an answer to their aggressive offer of service. I agree with Howard: These service providers, as disliked as they are, but hustling a honest living in a hard-scrabble economy which marginalises most citizens in town and country, should not be criminalised wholesale but should be helped to improve their service within the law.

And can we encourage the police, while they are in this wonderful crackdown mood, to more comprehensively enforce the Towns & Communities Act, including its derivative, the Noise Abatement Act? The spirit of these much-neglected laws is to protect the rights of citizens in their homes and businesses and in public spaces from being trampled upon by other citizens making themselves a 'bloody nuisance'.

Elsewhere, head of the Police Federation, Sgt Raymond Wilson, delivered blistering charges against the Government at the Federation's conference last Wednesday. As The Gleaner reported it, 'Cops fire at Gov't - Backing 'Dudus' proves support of bloodshed, says Police Fed boss'.

No political speech

As an aside, the paper has discovered fresh, creative subediting talent in writing sparkling headlines with journalistic literary flourish. Cheers!

Despite his disclaimer, that "this might sound like a political speech, but I guarantee you that it is not," the Federation chairman delivered an explosive broadside against the Government and political parties. The Gleaner report said, "The head of the body representing rank-and-file police personnel across the island has accused the Government of 'blatant corruption' and support of criminals at the expense of those tasked with enforcing the law.

"'We are forced," Wilson declared to his cheering audience, "to contend with an employer, the Government of Jamaica, whose motive seems hell bent on destroying the police force in an effort to steer away the nation's attention from their blatant political corruption and clear support for (a) criminal terrorist under the cloak of party support rather than they being the Government.

"'We are police officers," he said, "who are alerted one way or another to wrongdoing wherever it is and so, to hear the employer of the police through the voice of the prime minister of Jamaica declare that a certain support for fugitive 'Dudus' Coke was party support and not government support, it can only be concluded that the Government, or, might I say, a political party, has openly declared that they offer support to the creation of mayhem and years of bloodshed; the snuffing out of over 1,000 lives each year over the last couple of years.''

The Fed chairman also argued that the Government had "blatantly refused to enact legislation that attack power and financial bases" that lend support to criminality in Jamaica.

Part of the 'treason' of the Jamaican State, its Government and the political parties forming that Government in alternation, is exactly what Raymond Wilson was bawling out about: Supporting by commission and omission, criminal organisations against which the State security forces are then pitted in sporadic, inconclusive action at unnecessary peril of their lives. The State, Government and political parties cannot escape responsibility for the deaths and injuries inflicted upon police and soldiers by criminal thugs firing out of garrisons.

Now, these things have to be said - and dealt with - if we are going to clean up the system. But by a member of the country's security forces and addressing other members?

Love you Raymond and support the justice of the police's cause, but members of the security forces are servants of the State operating under orders and pledged to loyalty under command. The police force and army are simply not 'normal' organisations. A disturbing trend in the constabulary, which has not yet infected the army, thank God, is the indisciplined breaking of ranks to deliver public diatribes against the Government, and even against commanding officers. No armed force can operate effectively on this footing. And this is part of what is seriously wrong with the police force.

The Government is busy writing and passing new anti-crime legislation. We will know that the Government is serious about dealing with the number one problem faced by the country when the tight budget is pared in other areas and more resources are directed towards the police to double their numbers and to equip and pay them properly. Laws cannot enforce themselves.

Community policing

And a little las' lick for the police. 'Cop scores big with Tivoli kids', this newspaper reported on its front page last Wednesday. Sgt Nicholas Charlton, who is assigned to the Tivoli Gardens command post, became part summer Santa Claus and part clown at the back-to school treat put on for children of the community.

Touchingly nice. And a front-page story emphasising the positive in a war-torn community. But what happens when, God forbid, Sgt Charlton may be forced, under the rules of engagement of the force, to pull his firearm and shoot a father, older brother or uncle of one of those sweet little children?

Like Sergeant, I too believe in community policing. But it is not for nothing that it is called a force. A carefully controlled measure of distance and the awe it inspires is, I think, as important as close contact for effective law enforcement.

The army has long known the danger of merging with the civilian population. Even the uniform of the armed forces is intended to be a differentiator. Watch it, Sarge and commanding officers, community policing must not, in any way, compromise law enforcement which may include the use of lethal force.

Martin Henry is a communications consultant. Feedback may be sent to medhen@gmail.com or columns@gleanerjm.com