Karamba: No one analyzes and says it better than you do. This is excellent work. I pray that you will find the time someday to put together into a book/monograph your writings on political events and home, and while you are it, do one for those who love your creative writing. Best wishes! Abdoulaye [log in to unmask] wrote: > > 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 > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------