Mark Wignall | Things OK, Mr Commissioner?

Human as he is, like the rest of us means that the commissioner of police could be mentally a bit uneasy at this time. If he is not, he ought to be. He is facing some strong headwinds.

In January a JCF police inspector attached to the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Branch (CTOC) was detained for drug trafficking.

CTOC is a specialised unit and obviously deals with sensitive information and intelligence, which the inspector, an officer, had access to. For how long the inspector was assigned to CTOC and for how long has he been involved in drug trafficking would be pertinent questions.

More importantly, how much sensitive information did he share with his fellow drug traffickers? And then as if someone deliberately hurled a dutty bag of obeah over the gates at the commissioner’s office, in the last week, a constable in the JCF stationed in St Mary was detained for the murder of a businessman in St Mary. Think of that. Murder.

It need not be said that the nation is woefully familiar with such happenings, and it is useful to remind ourselves that the policeman’s responsibility lies with upholding the Jamaican Constitution, apprehending law breakers and criminals, and protecting the citizens of Jamaica.

Remember that ethical and legal provision? Place that alongside the fact that such a person is involved in a heinous crime like murder. These two serious incidents have me thinking that maybe the JCF, overall, is still not close to being the highly trained, disciplined force the commissioner likes to refer to.

What ought to be of special concern to us is that these are two who were caught, but, how many more are there wearing the uniform of the JCF but are criminals or strategically aligned with criminals and sharing sensitive intelligence with them and killing fellow Jamaicans?

The drive to increase the size of the JCF very quickly begs a question. Although brighter members of the Force are always exposed to new training modules, how much proper vetting is going on of the new recruits and the current JCF members?

It is always good to be reminded that murders are still down. Thanks, Commissioner. At the other end, economic crimes are not. Economic and financial crimes have increased massively in the last 36 months. What we are learning from the overall info is that while the JCF has become an even better killing machine when it comes to gunmen, criminals have turned their attention to economic and financial crimes.

Economic crimes wreak havoc on businesses and individuals and deeply harm a society. Even with added training, is the JCF able to handle this surge of economic and financial crimes? The numbers do not show that it can.

Information from street level still supports the fact that although the trial and successful prosecution of Blackman and his cronies created a star in the DPP and Justice Sykes and drove fear into many gang leaders, it is no surprise that present extortion outfits preying on transport operators still ‘employ’ rogue cops as useful tools in the ‘friendly’ enforcement of collections.

WEALTHY MEN AND SEXUAL PREDATION

Gather as much of the male of the human species as you can, cobble together sex on tap and flowing wealth, then watch men, with little attempt at self control, make grand fools of themselves.

A bit of humour and awkwardness would reveal that some see sex as embarrassing to begin with. Think of it. It usually involves total disrobing and, honestly, not a lot of us look good that way. It also involves physical gyrations, definitely a laughing matter. Then we bleat and bray and say crazy things. And that is just a prelude to what comes later.

Add to that the complexities that socio economic realities bring to sexuality and a recipe for confusion is presented. At the base of the male’s sexual behaviour is a most troubling flaw. Even if not openly expressed, it is the belief that bowing to sexual opportunity is never a sin and naturally falls within the domain of the male.

Surprise: sometimes romantic love intrudes and wants its pound of flesh, but the woman doesn’t want to share the stage with an excess of the male’s primal, carnal tendencies.

A congregation of older wealthy men may find themselves gathering dust as their sexual expiration date approaches. Some of those men, out of fear of sexual irrelevance, will revert to aping the ways of the beast and feasting on what would never feast on them.

Wealthy men view the extremes of wealth and poverty in this country in their favour. Hence, fancy cars prowling inner-city pockets and older men sexually sniffing at girls while trying to cope with their fading sexual potency is not a new phenomenon.

But social complexities exist. Many poor inner-city teen girls, toughened by hard reality, are not too willing to dress sex in the faded colour of love. “Gimme some money and doan full mi head with no @!# love.”.

I once knew of a group of wealthy businessmen who regularly preyed on the various beauty contestants in Jamaica. They were religiously at each showing but not too interested in the first placers in the contests.

So even a seventh-placer has physical beauty and could be tempted to be, in the eyes of these men, concubines to be kept and enjoyed at will with a little more than lunch money thrown in. An unfavourable argument and she is thrown out and replaced by who came eighth. Sounds crude, but I saw it happening.

It may not be a guaranteed fix, but the male, especially the rich ones, needs a little voice inside them guiding their sexual excesses. Others care little about that because other powerful men occupying positions high on the totem pole of power are always willing to provide the miscreants with social hiding places while burnishing their names and reputation and sanctity.

By then the predator will long have been a prince or president.

Mark Wignall is a political and public affairs analyst. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and mawigsr@gmail.com.