Police Officers and Our Young Men in Jamaica : Did the Police Officer Abuse his power here?

I was reading the comments of people responding to this video on you tube with a well known police officer and a school boy where the boy apparently refused to go on the bus and the police officer by all means use brute force to request a search of his bag and ushered him quite abrasively on to the bus. I too have seen children who are so intransigent that only crude tactics and verbal abuse can veer them into respect and response.

I understand that the police officers intentions were quite meaningful. I will not undermine the need for our children to be scold more often so that they can lead better lives as an adult. But we as a country already know that beating them, roughing them up, cussing them and doing all manner of evil has not done very much for this society.


I believe that if we should kill ten of these boys remember tomorrow twenty more will rise up if we do not find ways to campaign against the way we embrace certain convictions as a people. Police have been abrasive with young men and have been abusing their "powers" for years and yet we have not seen a change in the way our young men act. apparently we need to try something new. SEE you people up here are too busy rancouring over the wrong perspective and failing as always to see the bigger picture. we need a social intervention and we need it fast. i understand police officers are stressed, frustrated at the demands that are placed at their foot because parents and people like you up here have failed our children and then unoo expect police officers and teachers to guide them. UNoo just make sure that no police officer no do this to nobody fe unoo. LIke so many Jamaicans we all think that what happen to other people cannot happen to us...show mercy, if you do not, mercy shall be eternally far from you...gain a higher consciousness...


It is not our job to render violence for violence because violence only begets more violence. Do you know why crime will never be eliminated because when a police or a gun man murders someone family member, there are people in that family who will harbour resentments or hatred towards the offender and also will feel inclined sometime in the future to take a vendetta. The officer may have responded the only way he knows how to.


We know that parents have failed our children but this did not stem only from the previous generation. It is something that has been evolving over years of socialisation and came to fruition now. Parents are teaching their children, the only thing that they know because in truth, parents lack foresight. They do not know or see how what they teach their children will affect this society in the years to come.

We have a culture of people who for the most part have socialized our children to loathe the police officers because of years of abuse of power and extra judicial killings. On the other hand we understand that the police officer may have overused his authority in this situation and this has past professional into what may be considered unconstitutional. He had well meaning intentions and I get the message that he was trying to bring across but he apparently did not use an approved tactic.

I have heard people scream many times when they have conflicts with others about "a that's why gunshot cant stop buss inna this". I too have been caught guilty of this sometimes because people have a way of rubbing you and then adding salt to your grievous injury. We do not understand that children do not become what we want, they become who we are. The boy was saving face before his friends and the police was also exercising his authority before the other adults who were witnessing. No one was taking any losses.

We are quick to disrespect the police officers but how many of us have indirectly taught our children to hate the police man but respect the gun man. Our children have embraced the notion that only bad men are revered obviously by the way we are quick to publicly decry a police man yet none of us would dare video a murder and post it online.
None of us would show any temerity to openly decry the murder or abuse of our children by vicious citizens in our society but yet we are not afraid to show our face in decrying the acts of a lone policeman. We definitely need a social reformation. I bet if the police man had roughed up a notorious member of our communities, no one would dare openly denounce the actions of the policeman. When I renounce violence I try not to spare anyone. What is good for the goose is also good for the gander...

I know our police officers are under pressure. The monstrosity of crime continues to rear its head and they seem to not be able to curb it or kill it. They know that people are putting the blame on them for not being able to stop crime.But crime and violence is not a police officers thing or a politician thing. It is a family and community thing. I look at these babies and wonder what they will become as adults which one of them might be paid by some crook to take my life. I know that these teenage mothers do not know any better than they did at twelve and therefore cannot possibly teach their children any better. We need a social campaign! We need a reformation now. We need to censor certain entertainment in our society and we need to do it fast before this gets out of hand.