When considering reported police misdemeanour, we have moved from the proverbial odd rotten apple to a whole lot of guavas with worms.
Police corruption in T&T is indeed a known factor, but, as with everything else, we have to overdo and considerably enlarge the problem.
Police officers who commit crime are an embarrassment to the government, regardless if who is in power at any given moment. This is not a problem for the Prime Minister, the Minister of National Security or the Attorney General to fix. Their hands are tied.
I would want to believe that it is only the police on the ground can "fix" themselves. They need to look in the mirror, all of them.
The reputable members of the Police Service have to stop playing blind. Fiscal greed and complaints of undue police brutality have become the order of the day. The Police Services Social and Welfare Association is a tiger with dentures. Dentures that do not fit properly, and which are removed when it suits.
The "few bad eggs" talk is for Humpty Dumpty. Every single batch of recruits knows which officers among them are prone to causing problems. The same thing applies to prisons officers but we are not going down that road, not today.
This police union can now be alleged to be the proverbial loving mother who says, "My boy is a good boy. He is just following bad company."
The "noise" emanating is that the police union does not like the Police Complaints Authority to have sufficient control over them. They expect respect at the expense of the reputations of the PM and all members of National Security. One hand cannot clap. Stop asking for cameras when every single policeman must first look in the mirror. Who is protecting and serving whom?
The name of the game is "police and thief," not "thief and the police."
Lynette Joseph
Diego Martin