Anyone with an iota of good sense concerning the long history of policing in a society that was once slave-based and where in the aftermath of slavery, the constabulary’s focus was put on protecting the people who owned property.

Peace and justice, love and dignity receded giving way to a brutally-efficient scheme of things where Law and Order became the social mantra that seemingly mattered most.

Inch by inch – man in uniform assumed that his post gave hum billet to beat and permission to abuse those said to be in beach of THE LAW.

Sad to say, that malign spirit hangs like a nightmare’s pall over today’s police force; thus all those occasions when this or that out-of-control cop decides to take the law into his own hands.

In this regard, we are today quite certain that Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade is himself quite appalled at some of the dire news coming his way from not only some in his immediate circle, but also from some of the things so very many so-called ordinary Bahamians are saying about some of the men and women on the force.

We are also quite clear in our mind that Greenslade and his immediate entourage on the force are good, decent, law-abiding citizens.

It is also quite self-evident that they are now caught in the middle of a public relations mess after two young men died in police custody over the weekend.

For better or worse, this situation is being fueled by some of what any number of Bahamians have to say about those so-called ‘rogue’ or ‘rotten-apple police officers who have decided – for whatever reason – that they would succumb to the mystery of evil; thereby making a mockery of the oaths they took when they became members in good – standing of the nation’s constabulary.

Clearly, some of these thugs are extraordinarily good as liars; with some of these mendacious ones routinely lying not only to the Police Commissioner and his high command and to themselves.

On occasion, we have described these errant ones as being nothing more and nothing less than thugs in uniform.

In this regard, memory-retrieved reminds us of that gruesome time when a Bahamian woman was allegedly killed by a man she knew; and as we also recall, the killing was chillingly savage.

This was made even worse by the fact that it seemed as if someone or the other on the police force leaked an official police report and gruesome photos of the woman’s mutilated body.

This was then and is now repulsive.

The public still wants and needs far more than this.

Like them, we want the culprits who did the heist of the photographs and the police report to be hauled before the courts.
While we readily admit that we are agnostic concerning this matter, we are minded to insist that this one does raise any number of questions and that the attentive public is now watching and waiting and hoping that – in short order – they would be given answers that make sense.

We were promised by none other than the Police Commissioner that the persons or persons who did this dastardly deed could face termination from the Royal Bahamas Police Force and even criminal charges.

We are merely assuming that the men and women who are called to cordon off a crime scene, take reports and make photographs are all honest – and therefore, who would raise the alarm were they to find a rogue in their midst. Evidently, no one has seen fit to either confess or to say that he knows who did the thing that led to the publication of some of the most savagely gruesome pictures that could be seen in so-called ‘real life’.

The Police Commissioner apologized – and yet again, and after a cursory examination of our archives we find information that reads as follows: – “The commissioner said he is embarrassed over the breach of the force’s policies and procedures and yesterday apologized to the victim’s family…”

Today, we would want all and sundry to know, feel and appreciate that we are – each and every one of us – called to uphold the laws of this land.

Evidently, this should apply with the fullest of force to the men and women in uniform and in plain clothes who have sworn to do no less.