The Tribune

Several years ago I witnessed a fatal car accident in the Cable Beach area. Because I recognised the vehicle, I abruptly left my dinner at a neighbouring restaurant and shot across the street to assist the sole occupant who unfortunately turned out to be a friend. In my anxiety I asked a policeman, who had arrived on the scene shortly after me if the driver appeared to be dead; to which the officer replied, “What it look like?” My friend was unscathed because the airbag had deployed.

There was no way that I would know this by looking at her. A few days later, her autopsy report revealed that her spine was severed.
Police brutality transcends things physical and takes in instances equivalent to that of the curt policeman who lacked empathy for me, a concerned and grieving citizen. Suffice to say the things we revel in as a society often times involve agitation and conflict. We draw huge audiences and make new friends easily when conflict and gore is incorporated into our social commentary, generally this may be true.

Are we then to expect different from our policemen and women who are products of this society and underpinning negative culture? Ever stop to think that bullied, teased, neglected and ostracised children filter into the Royal Bahamas Police Force as adults? Imagine how dangerous power and the authorisation to use necessary force can become when given to an officer who has never fully recovered from his childhood trauma. He now has a gun vest and a distinctive uniform. Is there a profile for an abusive police officer? Perhaps his childhood may render some clues.

Because I am convinced that ours has morphed into a desensitized and violent culture over a generation, certainly the police brutality phenomena cannot be any at all a new thought for the masses. Has our collective blind-eyed posturing cemented this cancer that exists within the ranks of our police force? Tribal justice in the form of the eminent beating for suspects registers comfortably with many Bahamians. This is nothing new, so why the increased focus? I suspect it became undeniable with the recent back-to-back deaths of healthy detainees.
According to an unnamed law enforcement contributor to The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register out of New York, “The old saying ‘power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ comes into play here; officers have the power to take away someone’s liberty and that gives them a tremendous responsibility. At times, it becomes power gone mad.”

Embedded within the force are careless officers who have come to know violence as a ‘cooler’ for the unmitigated and unaddressed trauma they may have faced.

The Tribune newspaper recently reported that Corporal Trevor Cox was arraigned on March 28 for causing harm to detainee Carrington Dean after beating photos appeared on Activist Rodney Moncur’s Facebook page over the Easter holidays. What is concerning is that the accusation against the corporal has come even as police officers are aware of the intense national scrutiny.

Moreover, the officer that met me at the scene of the car accident, the one who did not recognise that his perceived power was less important than his ability to sympathize, he and so many of his peers need to see their work as specialised, and as such should process all Bahamians and society alike with respect.

This responsibility does not rest squarely on the officers only, but on each member of society to uphold.

Keep thinking though, you are good for it.