We are to blame for corrupt cops

Ihave been writing this column for more than 20 years and I am certain that I have written on this, what I am writing about today, but it bears repeating. Often, when a member of the police force is implicated in a crime, we all point the accusatory finger saying, ‘We told you the police force is corrupt’. I honestly don’t know whether the police force is corrupt or just some members of the force are corrupt but what I am sure of is that like in every organisation, there are corrupt members. To say that the entire force is corrupt would be a stretch because I know some very good policemen who I don’t believe are engaged in anything nefarious, but I don’t know if they are the norm or mere aberrations. Whatever the case is, it is unfortunate, and the number of incidents of policemen being involved in criminal activities is concerning. However, for that and other dysfunctional behaviour we see from some of our law enforcement officers, I blame the wider society — parents, teachers, pastors, businessmen, and general members of the public.

NOT ACCEPTABLE

You see, without us embracing behaviour that should not be acceptable in civilised society, we have corrupted the police force or those members within it who are corrupt. Just look around. Look at how taxi drivers and bus drivers behave. Look at how we treat each other, breaking out into fights over nothing, killing people because of greed, robbing elderly citizens of their pensions in the lotto scam, and dumping our garbage on the street and in our gullies. We are a society bordering on anarchy.

And where do our policemen come from? Outer space? No. They come from this very society that we have created for ourselves by embracing discourtesy, indiscipline, and dishonest behaviour.

Many of today’s policemen grew up seeing these things around them every day and have come to accept them as the norm.

These norms become ingrained over time and will not be changed by six months of training at Twickenham Park. The kind of behavioural change we expect from our policemen and women takes years or consistent retraining.

So when a policeman plots to scrap vehicles in the very station yard in which he works, or a policewoman cavorts and sleeps with criminals, or a policeman gets entangled with criminal networks, robbing people of over $400 million in goods and murdering people by the dozens, we really shouldn’t be pointing fingers at the police.

We should be pointing those fingers at ourselves. Merry Christmas! Send comments to levyl1@hotmail.com,