On Monday the leadership of The Gambia Police ruefully and publicly confirmed what many a citizen has long ago concluded: Citizens have totally lost faith in them as an institution to do the basic job that characterizes their very essence viz-a-viz enforcing laws that every Gambian is supposed to live under. For the Police losing the general publics' confidence is the functional equivalent of an institutional obituary that gravely endangers our very society. Afterall in this day and age no nation can remain viable if the basic notion of equal protection under the law becomes a constitutional relic and law enforcement degenerates into selective application and vindictiveness. The Gambia Police today is beset by a myriad of problems so endemic that even a new gov't may have to break it up and rebuild it. At the heart of their problem is the total lack of a leadership cadre that is professional with institutional loyalty and training to set forth a course that can evolve a department that is equipped to fulfill it's mandate. The problem is Yahya Jammeh is not interested in such a police force precisely because he knows as someone who is essentially turning the gov't into a criminal syndicate, a professional police force would by dint of their duty stand in his way. Consequently he has devised a two pronged approach that relies on purging the department of officers perceived to be unenthusiastic supporters and replacing them with lackeys whose only interest lies in undermining the department and perpetuating themselves. They spend most of their time ensuring that legitimate investigations are stymied, innocent people are framed while criminals as long as they have gov't sponsorship are free to ply their trade of terror and intimidation. This poor leadership translates into sagging morale for the poorly paid rank and file who concentrate on scrounging a living by shaking down regular people for small bribes and not devoting the time and effort that effective policework demands. The President further undermines them by making it tacitly clear to them that their very existence as an institution is in question, all in a cynical ploy to sow uncertainty and fear of job loss making it all the easier to manipulate and control them. To drive the message home he allows vigilantes and thugs that he himself organizes to arm and parade themselves in police stations in a brutish show of force that is meant to humiliate the police. He provides these thugs with the very resources such as guns, vehicles, radios and cell phones that the police desperately need. Typically this is the mode in which tyrants operate. On the one hand they actively undermine law and order while at the same time setting up illegal outfits such the ones Picka and Baba Jobe run to take advantage of the vacuum created by the gradual breakdown in law enforcement to sow fear and visit terror on the population. They know they can count on the biggest guarantee of all; state protection and ultimate impunity, courtesy of Yahya Jammeh. As a result unless one or more groups of these thugs gets greeted by a hail of bullets from the machine gun of someone they come to kill in the middle of the night, Gambians can count on zero or mediocre police protection. They can however count on indolent and specious press conferences from Sarjo Jallow, Pap Cheyasin Secka and the rest of that crowd. They make me sick! We are supposed to remotely stomach their insincere pronouncements of contrition or outrage over activities that the gov't in which they serve is directly responsible. The responsibility for what is happening to our country lies squarely on their feet and they ought to shut up and live with themselves. Karamba ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface ----------------------------------------------------------------------------