Karamba,
Indeed - The Gambia Police Force today,at best is in a state of chaos.
Compared to the force when Evans,M'Boob and Jarra(to name a few) were at the
helm.What a difference.
Police officers on patrol in badly faded thread bare uniforms,lookimg really
mal nourished is a clear indication of how much or little they can do for
anyone.
A police force that cannot protect its citizenry is a recipe for anarchy,
"thugery" and vigilantism. Witness the prelude in the arson attacks,
kidnappings and cold blooded murders on our once peaceful and laid back
streets.
The terror is all too REAL !!!
Dagmar


>From: [log in to unmask]
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: A shell of a Police department
>Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 21:51:09 EDT
>
>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
>
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