When you erect a wall as a security measure and someone tries to breach that security, that is one thing. It is an entirely different thing when the persons building the wall, deliberately build it with a defect, which would compromise its ability to secure. The two may have similarities in that the former may be a subset of the latter as far as charges brought against these individuals are concerned. The latter is a bigger issue.

Paid to preserve

Police are paid to preserve the law. If they collude with criminal elements, or themselves instigate an illegal activity, this constitutes a defect in our national security system (a breach in the wall). This is a bigger issue than the case of an average citizen breaking the law, because whom do you call? In the case of the citizen, you'd call the police. But whom do you call when it's the police committing the crime? The result of this is what is happening in Jamaica today.

The solution is more than creating independent inves-tigating bodies, it includes a proper definition of the crimes committed by the police, which should not be the same as you would for an ordinary citizen. Or at least the charges and PUNISHMENT should be substantially more.

- Charles Evans charock01@yahoo.com Knockpatrick, Manchester Via Go-Jamaica