Perspective: Major Anderson Needs to Shed ..

The Police Commissioner designate  Major Antony Anderson has some house cleaning to do.  He has his hands in many pies.  As Commissioner designate he has until March 19 to shed some of the load he has.  For starters he has the Chairmanship of the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA) to shed. Then there is the National Security Advisor (NSA) position he currently and substantially holds.  After all he is not a superman. Also there could be a conflict of interest as some of these positions impinge on each other.

Full Time

We need especially at this time a full time Police Commissioner to reshape the Police Force and restore much needed credibility … to eradicate the long and deeply held perception that the force is corrupt to the core.  There is promised legislation for the 1867 Police force to transform it to become a new “Police Service”. There is the deeply held view that the “squaddie” mentality has insulated wrongdoers from punishment.  The wrongdoer and the top man were in the trenches together and have secrets for each other. Is this true?

Hon. Robert Montague disagrees with the corruption perception of the police.  We will discuss this further in this post.

FLA

Members of the police force were fingered recently in the Force Orders as not paying the required fees to renew the license for their private weapons.   (vision post ” Indiscipline In Uniform”) Justice must be done and appear to be done.  There has to be transparency … so Major Anderson must leave the FLA as he transitions to be Police Commissioner. We are sure he will do the right thing as the dust settles. He is considered to be someone of unquestionable integrity.

Hon. Robert Montague

Speaking at the ground breaking of a new Police station in Port Maria, St. Mary yesterday … the National Security Minister has chided those who label the police as “corrupt.” He said the actual corruption is 5 percent. INDECOM says it is 3 percent.  So whom do we believe?  Perception sometimes get greater acceptance than facts. Over to you Major Anderson.

On the 19th of March Major Anderson will take over as Police Commissioner … we wish him well. Will he shed the FLA and the NSA by the 19th March 2018?  We hope so.

Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie is Senior International Correspondent & Photojournalist for Vision Newspaper Canada.