JCF not going ‘soft’, says retired senior lawman
Retired cop Radcliffe Lewis has cautioned wrongdoers from mistaking a more civilised Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) for ‘soft’.
“They must stop it and cooperate with law enforcement because they can’t win. One thing I want to advise them, the lion is now resting, for the good and the betterment of this country, and I don’t want you criminals to wake him,” Lewis told
THE STAR.
Lewis was reacting to news of a 17-year-old boy and his mother being arrested in connection with a threatening phone call and extortion demand on the Freeport police in St James.
“Threats made against police officers by criminal elements are not unusual and this will continue to happen. What is important is that when something like this happens, the culprit or culprits must be brought to justice,” he said. “The criminals and in particular this one (the boy), I think, are emboldened ... and I think this is based on what is being shown on videos where police officers are having a challenging time to the indisciplined elements in society, where police officers are actually being physically attacked to the extent that people are saying that the police are retreating, or that they are becoming useless. But it is not so.”
UNPROFESSIONAL CONDUCT
Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson has warned members of the JCF that unprofessional conduct is unacceptable and promised sanctions for those who break the rules. Lewis said that this “is good for the country”.
“A lot of people usually complain about police brutality and extra judicial killings and so forth. You have less report against police misbehaviour. You have less police shooting. As a matter of fact, for the longest while I have not heard anything about police corruption, so that is radically on the decline also,” he said. “They (police) are employing measures to control crime, which is good, and I don’t think it can be better. It is very good now as it relates to crime control. A lot of people is saying that crime is out of control and all sort of things. I have seen where crime was worst before than now. We have past years where murder was over 1,600, over 1,500 and it almost reached 1,700 one year.”