EDITORIAL - Some advice for Sergeant Wilson

A genuine dispute exists between rank-and-file members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and the Golding administration, over unpaid salaries owed by the Government to members of the JCF.

The Police Federation, the union of police officers, is within its right to take action, within the law, to resolve this dispute in their best interest, and to make public statements about it aimed at winning public support for their cause.

It is, at the same time, the right of individual police officers, in accordance with Section 22 of the Jamaica Constitution, to hold views about the attitude and behaviour of the Government, which they can freely express.

The foregoing notwithstanding, this newspaper believes that the sensitive and critical position of the JCF as a guardian of the Jamaican state places a special burden - beyond what is required by law - on its members, particularly those in positions of leadership, to be careful about utterances that may be deemed political or partisan.

Our concern is that, in such circumstances, there is risk of returning the JCF to days, such as those of Inspector McBeth, when the force was split along political lines. This would only further weaken the JCF's effectiveness as a crime-fighting and crime-prevention organisation.

That is why we were made uneasy by the tone, as well as some of the specific remarks of Sergeant Raymond Wilson, the chairman of the Police Federation, in his address to the organisation's annual conference on Wednesday.

Mr Wilson and the members of the federation are understandably angry at the unilateral imposition by the Government of a two-year freeze on public-sector wages, including the JCF, and the lack of clarity about what will happen to increases that were previously agreed on.

That is the matter that the Police Federation continues to pursue. Nonetheless, Sergeant Wilson stepped on to dangerous ground when he directly linked that dispute, particularly Government's declaration of its inability to pay, with the administration's nearly yearlong foot-dragging before the eventual extradition of Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, and what was interpreted by many as deliberate efforts by members of the administration and the ruling Jamaica Labour Party to keep Coke out of the hands of the Americans.

Not political

He said: "We are forced to contend with an employer, the Government of Jamaica, whose motive seems hell-bent on destroying the police force, in an effort to steer the nation's attention from their blatant political corruption and clear support for a criminal terrorist, under the cloak of party support rather than being the Government."

Of course, Sergeant Wilson himself recognised the danger, warning his audience that "this might sound like a political speech", but assuring them it was not.

We give Mr Wilson the benefit of the doubt, but would suggest that, given the platform from which he speaks, he tempers future allusions to the Coke-Manatt affair and his accusations about the role of Prime Minister Bruce Golding in the matter. For, inasmuch as others may have perfected the physical skills of Janus, Sergeant Wilson does not yet possess the ability to speak in his role as a trade unionist without it having a bearing, in the same set of circumstances, on his position as a policeman.

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