Police reform for justice

A police service in disrepair will find difficulty in serving and protecting with pride.

Our new Deputy Commissioner, the highly professional, qualified and experienced McDonald Jacob, pledged “in the next three years to fix the police service, to re-engineer the service and allow young officers to emerge as leaders.”

Some lessons can be drawn from the tragic murder in May 2020 by a police officer of 46-year old George Floyd. The “I can’t breathe” episode is well known. In ten days' time, Derek Chauvin, the 44-year old police officer, will face sentencing by the Minneapolis judge.

So for us here who have an interest in trial delays, it is noteworthy that this complicated trial took about a year. Floyd’s family got a US$27 million civil suit settlement.

The repercussions are well known, especially the flagship “Black Lives Matter” crusade. Police abuse of force was cited against Floyd and several other blacks, including the killing of 26-year old black woman, Breonna Taylor in a botched drug raid by police last year March in Kentucky. Her family got US$12 million.

So for us here who have interest in excessive use of police force against citizens, it is noteworthy how seriously citizens and the courts there take it.

It is remarkable how a white officer’s knee, brutally put upon a black man’s neck, shook up America and caused the rest of the world to awaken to a new urgency against racial injustice.

Big issues behind the Black Lives Matter protests still remain unsettled. However, the most important consequence in America now is the increasing number of laws being seriously considered for police reform at the federal, state and local levels.

America is struggling to get over the numerous incidents of fatal police brutality and that stormy January attack on its revered Congress. The country wants to breathe again.

True, some of the blacks whom police killed were suspected of various offences, but were not animal-profiled – called “monsters” or “cockroaches” by the Police Chief or Attorney General. Any proof of that was properly left for the judge.

So for those of us here who profess to have an interest in justice and in fact who are paid to guard and protect citizens’ constitutional rights, it is noteworthy how quickly justice is served up there and how the US Attorney-General, in taking his oath, properly declared to his country: “I am not the president’s lawyer, not the government’s lawyer, I am lawyer for all the people.”

Chauvin’s lawyers have filed appeal on grounds of alleged juror misconduct, pretrial publicity and an “unlawful verdict.”

Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, said: “The publicity here was so pervasive and so prejudicial before and during this trial that it amounted to a structural defect in the proceedings.”

He added that “the 12 jurors felt threatened or intimidated, felt race-based pressure during the proceedings.”

So for those of us here who have an interest in jury behaviour and the tension between a fair trial and a free press, it is noteworthy that pretrial publicity has become a ground for appeal.

The legislative attack against the excessive use of police force and police immunity is now before the US Congress in the form of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021. The senate bill was drafted by Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrat Senator Cory Booker.

So far the Bill has passed the House of Representatives by 220 Democrats vs 212 Republicans and now noisily before the Senate.

The general objectives of this Policing Act are “to combat police misconduct, excessive force and racial bias in policing.” The act itself says its aim is: “to hold law enforcement accountable in court for misconduct, improve transparency through data collection, and reform police training and policies.” Body cameras are now mandated, community policing to be improved, no choking or beating, police immunity decreased and “no knock and enter” modified.

So for those of us, here in and out of government, who profess to like our police service, it is noteworthy what it takes to make a police service highly professional, accountable and fit-for-purpose in serving and protecting the population. And not to throw recommendations in the government dustbin.

I think 59-year-old DCP Jacob knows this.

The country needs to breathe again.