MORE POLICE BRUTALITIES, MISREPRESENTATIONs AND COVER-UPS!

MORE POLICE BRUTALITIES, MISREPRESENTATIONS AND COVER-UPS!

The Commissioner of Police, Gerard Waye-Hive is now developing the knack of appearing on SBC TV, the day after a political incident, to apportion blame into an art. Barely twenty-four hours after the said incident at ‘Bisnak’. Commissioner Waye-Hive took to our screens and was able to give us a full account of who in his opinion were to blame for the disturbances in the vicinity of ‘Tip-Top’, last Sunday (early evening). No surprise in that he associated the culpability squarely on the shoulder of opposition supporters who had gathered there to cheer the SNP/DP motorcade going by after the political rally earlier that day at Bel Ombre. When asked if the police had arrested anyone, Mr. Waye-Hive without batting an eyelid look into the camera and said that the investigation is still on going and that no one had been arrested for the disturbances he claimed occurred after the Bel Ombre political rally.

In last week’s issue this newspaper featured an article about a similar incident which took place, on the Sunday before last, at exactly the same spot. We investigated this incident thoroughly before it went into print, we spoke to residents in the area, and people involved in the incident and even police officers who were at the scene that particular Sunday. But we could not mention the fact that we spoke to officers last week for obvious reasons. This week after hearing from the Commissioner we did the same, only this time we did not speak to any police officers. The Commissioner of Police it seems did not do the same. Instead of stating the fact he proclaimed an opinion on the matter. We are making this assertion because the Commissioner himself admitted that the investigation was still ongoing, nobody had been arrested and the residents had not been spoken to, by the time he made his statement on national television, the SBC TV.

The Commissioner of Police is not qualified to speak the way he did in the news at 8 pm on Monday, this week. We say this because it was impossible for him to pronounce a balance view on the incident, which took place at ‘Bisnak’ last Sunday. He had only heard the views of his officers, a one sided view. What about the people he is pointing the finger at and the residents affected by the incident, don’t they get to have their say? Mr. Waye-Hive was merely defending the actions of his officers. He is setting a dangerous precedence one with the potential of endangering lives. The officers, who go out on the field to deal with situations such as what took place last Sunday, might foster the belief, that whatever happens the Commissioner of Police will defend their actions, a dangerous trend for a head of police to set.

We hope Mr. Waye-Hive did what did this week out of in-experience; we do not believe it was deliberate on his part to mislead the population. We are convinced that Commissioner Waye-Hive is aware of the fact that he is the head of a police force not the head of a battalion……..There are vastly remarkable differences between the army and the work of a civilian police force.