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Police act badly. The public loses confidence in police. Police behave worse. The public’s trust in police drops to an all-time low. It’s a dangerous, vicious cycle.
Police need to understand that whether in public or even in their own home, they should act with a degree of decorum, restraint, and decency. It is not good enough for an officer to say they act with correctness whilst on duty, because they are always on duty in the eye of the public, and it is a matter of common decency to be that upstanding person at all times even when standing in the shadows.
I was appalled to read the front page of “The News” newspaper of Sept. 23, 2016. A group of people was attending the High Court on Tuesday morning prior to attending a ceremony to mark the opening of the new law term when a very nasty incident took place.
The group involved were Grant Connell, a leading and successful young Vincentian criminal lawyer, Commissioner of Police Renald Hadaway, Divisional Commander Elton Jackson, and another very senior officer. They were joined by Head of The Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Superintendent of Police, Ruth Hazel-Ann Jacobs. Mr Connell said in a pleasant and subdued respectful voice, “Good morning SOP Jacobs”, to which she looked at him and said with a severe degree of anger and disrespect, “Satan, I rebuke you”.
She said this with anger and the group of senior officers said nothing. So Mr. Connell asked the Commissioner of Police if he was just going to stand there and not rebuke Superintendent Jacobs for her rude outburst. Chief Hadaway found it impossible to do that and in choosing to stay mum took the side of the rude, out of place CID chief. Connell walked away in disgust.
According to a new US study in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, this “crisis in police legitimacy”, the police bad behavior is not only detrimental to the general public, but also to the future of policing as a whole.
In social science circles, the level of trust placed in police officers by the public is known as “legitimacy.” When police act respectfully, in the public’s eye, their legitimacy goes up. When they act on brash, rude and nasty, often racialised or even class decision-making, their legitimacy goes down.
Despite lawyer Connell being a white man, I am not suggesting for a moment that this was a racialised matter.
I must question the suitability of any police officer from a mere constable to a chief of a police department or even the chief of police who act in such a way in public, in private or during their official duty. Because such a person shows that they hold grudges, spite and malice making them unsuitable for any position whatsoever in the police force. If they can hold grudges against lawyers, those grudges can overspill to a lawyer’s clients simply for just being a client of that lawyer.
It is well recognised that the public’s loss of trust in police authority has a direct correlation to higher crime rates. My worry is if such a person has such venom and spite in her, are prisoners or detainees in any danger from this person?
I am not even sure if her behavior constitutes a criminal offence, if the boot was on the other foot I am sure it would be and Connell would have been arrested on the spot. Insulting behavior likely to cause a breach of the peace they would call it.
Jacobs claims abuse and rudeness from Connell in court, but there is a route to deal with that if it is true and it certainly is not acting like a mad woman outside the High Court. If she does not know right from wrong and cannot behave properly at all times, send her home and pension her off.
Peter Binose
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Right! this trend is also in the USA. Police are not professional anymore. We also have a problem in the US Media. When a Black Man get shot it is all over the news. If a white man gets shot it is not news-worthy. This causes the illusion that no whites are shot by police. Blacks are unfortunately more targeted and profiled by police but the media encourages more violence. SVG is going the wrong direction when the government allows the police to be disrespectful. I remember the days when working for the government meant you were held to higher standards of conduct, in SVG if you are in government you can get away with lower standards….very sad!
Connell looks like a mulatto to me, a member of the red Connell part of this privileged family.
See photo of Connell below proving that he is of mixed racial descent:
http://i0.wp.com/static.iwnsvg.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Grant-Connell.jpg
Peter, are you sure you observed this incident?
There is probably more racial bias towards someone of mixed race.
Even yourself David could not help yourself from calling the man a “mulatto” which today is classed as offensive. It is just as offensive as calling a man a “nigger”. Mulatto is a word Gonsalves likes to use when he describes the Lucian PM.
We know you are an Atheist and an Arnhim hater, and a Ralph admirer. Can we now apply the term racist to your CV.
What is wrong with you David you are always looking to cause mischief with your malicious approach. You are certainly not a Social Scientist as you like to claim, you are more of an anti-social twerp.
Get yourself a life and get that jealous streak under control again.
I never said I was there I said I read about the incident in the News Newspaper, and used some of its content.
I never once claimed I was there.