Thursday, July 9, 2009

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A dangerous trend There is an overriding consensus that crime is one of the most serious problems facing the country today and it has been since the early 1980s when South American drug lords established a strong presence in these beautiful and once tranquil islands to facilitate the transport of illegal drugs into the United States. Drug trafficking created somewhat of a subculture in the country, one in which even teenage pushers were able to make more money in one day that their parents collectively made in one week. Such easy access to big money also influenced some persons who were criminally inclined to do whatever was required of them by the drug lords, and as a result, the murder rate in The Bahamas escalated to a level that would have been considered unthinkable just a few years earlier. Faced with the various challenges that accompanied the explosion in crime, a serious commitment was made by the Royal Bahamas Police Force not to allow the crime problem to spiral out of control. New law enforcement strategies were put in place and, as a result, there can be no question that over the years the police have done a remarkable job in maintaining law and order in this country. Occasionally, however, accusations are made about police brutality during criminal investigations. Some of these accusations may indeed have merit, given the fact that police officers are recruited from the general population, and even the rigorous training that they undergo before they officially become policemen may not exorcise latent tendencies by some of them to be overzealous. When there are complaints of police brutality, however, they are fully investigated by the Complaints and Corruption Unit of the force, and the officers involved in the cases that are found to be legitimate are dealt with appropriately, even to the extent of being dismissed from the force if warranted. That's the way it should be. Lately, however, a disturbing trend has developed where questions have been raised about whether or not the police should be allowed to investigate themselves, so to speak. The unmistakable inference here is that the police may not be inclined to find one of their own at fault. This seriously bothers us. What this amounts to is questioning the integrity of the leadership of the Royal Bahamas Police Force, the organization that is entrusted to maintain law and order in this country. It is even more disturbing when this suggestion is made by a member of Parliament, as was the case in the House of Assembly yesterday when Englerston MP Glenys Hanna-Martin, during her contribution to the Budget debate, got the opportunity to speak on a matter that led to her being suspended from the House last week for two sittings. Last Wednesday, Hanna-Martin attempted to speak on the controversy surrounding the death of a 15-year-old young man, who reportedly hanged himself while in police custody, but based on the rules of the House, the Speaker refused to allow her to speak on that matter because she did not give the proper notice. The brouhaha that erupted after Hanna-Martin persistently refused to take her seat after being ordered to do so by the Speaker, subsequently led to her suspension and the police were ordered to remove her from the chamber after she refused to leave. Fellow Progressive Liberal Party House members, however, formed a human wall around her, preventing the police from doing their job, and the House was suspended until the following day. Having served her two-day suspension, Hanna-Martin yesterday brought up the issue of the young man who was found dead in a police cell and called for an independent investigation, suggesting that it is not right for the police to investigate themselves. Why not? If there is a unit on the force that has responsibility for investigating internal matters of a criminal nature, why shouldn't that entity be trusted to conduct a fair investigation? To suggest that they cannot is an absolute insult to Police Commissioner Reginald Ferguson and all the officers on the Royal Bahamas Police Force who are committed to doing the best possible job that they can as law enforcement officers. We have got to be very careful not to demonize the police to the extent where they will be reluctant to properly do their job. To be sure, an absolutely fundamental aspect of fighting crime is that criminals must know that they will not be treated like choirboys during a police interrogation. This does not mean that the police should have a license to mistreat them, but there are acceptable guidelines of interrogation that in some cases may not be considered pleasant. This being the case, to cast doubt on whether the police can properly do their job without resorting to brutality is more than a disturbing trend; it's a dangerous one. Thursday, June 11, 2009