NOTES - the Peter O'Connor column

That heading is my acronym for “Notes on the Emergency”, and this is a collection of thoughts on the state of Emergency we are currently enduring—the good, the bad and the ugly, to borrow from old Clint Eastwood movies. 

And of course, the SoE, four weeks old tomorrow, has provided us with many examples of the good, bad and ugly—and indeed the silly and the stupid.

First, I want to speak about the police, and the army, although I know a lot less about the army and their action in all this. I am proud of our Police Service. When the SoE was announced, I was seriously concerned whether our Police Service would rise to the occasion. 

This concern came from the fact they were conducting acrimonious negotiations with the government for increased salaries, and they had been working under appalling physical conditions for years. However, the police officers have been working full time and overtime to perform the duties expected of them. Their demeanour, announcements and general performance has been competent and loyal. And all of that is part of the “good”.

The “bad” in respect of the police performance appears to be in their roughing up of suspects arrested or detained. The extent cannot be really verified, I believe, but the truth is that police brutality in our country has been an acknowledged fact for decades. 

Certainly the political drama surrounding the SoE brings out political protest against brutality because opposition politicians, who had no problems with police misbehaviour for years under their governance now call media briefings to condemn it. 

I too condemn it. But I am also aware that these same police have been verbally abused by the criminal elements who taunt them that no witness will appear in court against them, and they will walk free to kill and rob again. One must sympathize with police officers who know who are committing the crimes, but cannot be convicted. This is why the police would have released those videos of ongoing crime in Nelson Street. Most of us simply do not understand.

And I support the fact that the police are using the SoE to arrest persons with outstanding warrants, even as the arrestees get support from those who should know better. 

I met former NY Police Commissioner Bernard Kerick when he was here a few years ago. He reduced crime in that City. He told a group of us that he opposed Mayor Guiliani when the mayor called for zero tolerance on all crime, including “minor crime”. 

Kerick told us that sixty percent of persons held for ‘jumping turnstiles” in the subways had warrants out for their arrest. 

You did not pay your traffic ticket or your child maintenance? You are a criminal, and you wil pay your dues now. No excuse, no whining, and no TV appearance with our own silly mayor being dumb enough to support you. 

The arrests are a “good, the mayor is a “silly”. And for his call to citizens to “oppose the SoE”, Lois Lee Sing is dubbed an “ugly”. He is lucky he was not arrested, and should thank the PP government for their benign treatment of him.

Rowley and his remnants have become as inconsequential as yapping dogs. At first we checked to see at what they were barking. Now, as they call media briefings to howl at every shadow, and at every “wrong” which they cheered when they committed them, the population no longer listens. No one even cares who Keith Rowley is claiming made death threats against him. It is all so reminiscent of the “death threats” which Manning used to conjure.

So, do we need to have this Emergency? 

 As I began this column I received an e-mail from a reporter with one of our dailies. That person was responding to comments I had sent to Kirk Waithe (Fixin’ T&T) in response to Kirk’s call for an end to it. 

This is part of what that reporter wrote to me: “……. Have you ever smelt fresh blood on the streets, Mr. O’Connor? It’s a smell one never forgets…. It’s a smell I would wish to forget…….. The police/regiment brutality I will continue to faithfully but carefully report though, because everyone lies these days. I cannot however privately agree with the ending of the current SoE.

“As a reporter I’ll keep my thoughts to myself, but almost every working, mortgage paying, child rearing, taxpaying, hardworking individual I have interviewed since August 21st have said they feel a bit safer in their homes”.

Thank you, young Reporter, for helping me maintain my own perspective, even with the doubts we should all still harbor.

We face two grave dangers: Being overrun by crime, and becoming a people who may forever live under Emergency.