A WhatsApp message read out by Newsspin’s host last week caught my attention. Earlier, human rights advocate Mary Francis had phoned in and called out the DPP Daarsrean Greene for his continuing silence on several case files sent to him. “Yes,” said Francis, “he’s independent, according to the Constitution. So why are we hearing nothing from him on these matters?”
On the same Newsspin programme police malpractice was also cited, the latest example being a video that featured an officer beating a shirtless individual with what appeared to be a cutlass, while two other officers looked on. Only days earlier this newspaper’s publisher had stated in his regular column Writings on the Wall: “The RSLPF is widely perceived as uncaring, corrupt, incompetent, a law unto itself, growing increasingly dangerous.”
Francis’ reference to the DPP resonated with some of Newsspin’s audience, one of whom offered via WhatsApp: “Ms. Francis is right. Whenever the police want to brush you away, they say they’ve passed your file to the DPP. That’s how they get the public off their back. The DPP is for another topic.”
This week’s the STAR publisher’s article came to mind, especially the following lines that he got from an unnamed ghetto source: “Keep in mind the cops grew up with us, they think and act like we do.” The article also touched on at least one expert analysis of the police psyche, which claimed that what separates the police from criminals is a uniform that in effect permits them to commit crime with impunity. A shocking revelation that the earlier cited videotaped beating seemed to substantiate.
As for the dangerous public perception that the police always protect their own, it has been given further credence in recent times: months after Kimberly DeLeon was fatally shot at the home she shared with her police officer husband and their two young children, Mary Williams, mother of the deceased, has learned little that might justify her faith in the justice system. Even the public seems to have forgotten Kimberly.
As someone said during last Thursday’s walk for justice: “This is all leading to one place: more and more people are losing faith in the system. And what the system won’t do for them, they will do for themselves before long!”
A frightening thought!
