Commentary by John Lindsay: Police are sadly misguided

I'm not quite sure what the police are thinking here.

The "give us more or we're gonna give you less" aspect is of course, clear enough.

That said, is it their collective opinion that they are currently giving the country an overall sterling service, with world class and commendable levels of achievement in law enforcement results, for which they are each and every one, (a) deserving of credit and (b) all being underpaid?

Then they are sadly misguided.

While I am sure that the overall "system" needs serious revision and improvement, so that more criminals are caught and arrested, prosecuted and after due process found guilty and punished, can there be anyone, civillian or police officer that does not know that the force has more than its fair share of the lazy, of crooks and of morons.

The job of police officers, DONE RIGHT, warrants both respect and good pay and conditions.

But at this point the country has had far too much experience of the "other kind" of police officers and what is laughingly referred to as "service", to have any illusions about their presence in the TTPS, or their impact upon its performance.

I sincerely hope that under the upcoming "new management" a fundamentally needed and urgently needed undertaking will be the sorting of the gems from the dross.

As far as I am concerned, paying more to all officers, irrespective of their worth, integrity or performance, would be not only a monumental waste of taxpayers money, but also a slap in the face to those officers that deserve it.

What I'm hearing by this second asinine threat in three weeks, is equivalent to standing in front of a stove and saying "Give me some warmth and then I'll consider putting some wood in you".

If people were not being murdered, raped, injured and robbed on a near daily basis, while you posture and threat, this would be a joke.