Message to rogue cops

WE SUPPOSE we must thank National Security Minister Martin Joseph for his assurance that there are no death squads existing in the Police Service. In issuing that denial during his contribution to the Budget debate on Monday, however, the Minister failed to inspire confidence that the Government had an effective strategy for dealing with crooked, corrupt and terrorising policemen who are responsible for a spate of civilian killings, acts of terrorism and conduct that give the Service a bad name. Joseph himself has disclosed in Parliament the alarming figure of 21 persons killed by police officers so far this year, an increase of nine against 2003. But of that number only one, Kevin Cato who was shot to death at a Pier I fete last January, has resulted in an arrest and only two, Galene Bonadie killed at Vegas, Morvant, last August and Christopher Kanhai fatally shot at Lalaja, Paria, in January have been scheduled for a coroner’s inquiry for which no date has yet been fixed.

Of all these killings, the Minister tells us that last week’s shooting of 17-year-old Sherman Monsegue is receiving special priority. While we ourselves agitated strongly for such an inquiry, we must still ask the question, why the priority treatment? It is because of the angry reaction of the Carenage community to this latest outrage in which an apparently unarmed teenager was shot by the police in cold blood? Why were the other incidents of police killings not treated with the same sense of urgency by the authorities? Were the victims not citizens of our country also, persons who enjoyed the same constitutional rights to protection by the State as other members of our community? Many, if not all, of these killings are crimes crying out to high heaven for justice.

Minister Joseph seems quite satisfied, however, to tell the country that investigations into some of these cases were not yet complete, that some were awaiting forensic reports and that, in a few cases, files had been sent to the Senior Superintendent or the Commissioner of Police for “transmission” to the Director of Public Prosecutions. The essence of the Minister’s dissertation is that these matters have to take their normal course. “One has to take the circumstances on the basis of the necessary evidence, investigations and whatever course of action needs to be taken, will be taken,” he observed. This is the kind of ritual right-sounding rhetoric designed simply to placate an anxious citizenry but which has now grown wearisome for its lack of concrete results. This is the record: 21 persons have been killed by the police since January and only one case so far has produced an arrest for manslaughter.

So there may not be a death squad, but this statistic clearly denotes that a crisis of crime exists within the Police Service that demands “special priority” treatment and that simply allowing matters to run their normal course is really shirking the responsibility to deal with the rogue elements. What results in addressing this problem have we ever had from “the normal course?” The history of that effort is a truly sad one, as the Service has shown itself inherently disinclined to seriously investigate and to discipline maverick policemen even in the light of severe condemnation from inquiries and commissions. Minister Joseph went on to give further reasons for the impotence, such as chronic understaffing, insufficient legal training for police prosecutors and the investigating unit’s inability to hire or keep good investigators. As far as we can see, the prospect of effectively dealing with this crisis is remote as the will at the highest level is apparently lacking. The rogue cops seem to have little to worry about.