The Editor, Sir:

In light of the Minister of National Security Derrick Smith's embarrassment at the corruption in the police force expressed on the Television Jamaica's evening broadcast on Sunday, March 16, 2008, I feel obliged to write about my experience at a recent police funeral held for the late Deputy Superintendent of Police Keith M. Barrett.

though it is very sad, I, like the majority of Jamaicans despise police officers. I've seen them working on the streets in the fog of corruption rumours, in the wake of police shootings, amid the shouts of 'we want justice.' I couldn't like them, I never had any respect for them, wouldn't help them, and worst, I feared them. I listened to the news every night and wasn't sure who was pointing the right finger. I asked myself "Could police officers really be involved and be at such a level of corruption?" I heard about it every day from bus conductors, taxi men and even their own colleagues. Yes, I am ashamed of my own answer. I covered them all with one cloak, thinking that every single police officer was only a gunman in uniform, corrupted and just downright evil.

Eyes washed

March 15 was my first time at a police funeral. I felt the need to attend because the gentleman, and that he was, was a leader at my church. I never once thought of him as a police officer as I was never given the opportunity to see him in his police uniform. It was as though I visited an optician as through the nine tributes, the eulogy and the remembrance I was able to realise that all police officers were indeed not the same. It was as though I had my eyes washed. The tributes had one coherent thread that wove the seeming kindness, humility and integrity of the man, and though I paused to wonder if it was because he was dead, I was compelled to rebuke myself and recall the kindness he had shown me as a pastor and leader of my church.

I left the funeral service with a new found knowledge and a realisation that I had consumed all the media had to offer that was geared towards one perception; and even before my own two eyes I never stopped to selectively pinpoint the police officers who in a world that had become blatantly corrupted and criminal, stopped to do some good.

So a cry to members of the Jamaican society: let us help community policing to start working; turn to your brother, your husband, your father, your mother, your sister and your wife and say "despite everything, you did a fantastic job today" because who knows, a police officer might just have saved your life - for tomorrow.

Keep the faith

Members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, respect us as we express our appreciation for the job that some of you are doing, and to those who are making things worse, watch out, your family could become a part of the murder statistics. Chin up, Police Commissioner Rear Admiral Lewin! Keep the faith!

I am, etc.,

SARA-LOU MORGAN-

WALKER

angelkiki_2006@yahoo.com

Kingston 19

Via Go-Jamaica