Orville Taylor | Protecting the protectors

Just imagine that your mother is a doctor, on the frontline in the middle of a pandemic or national emergency, while her family is left wanting.

Worse, while fighting to save the lives of many, including ungrateful patients, she falls ill and dies, or there is an emergency at home, and her child gets a seizure and dies before medical attention can reach her.

Think of the firefighter hosing down a property set ablaze by a careless individual, who totally disregarded all of the fire safety and protocols.

There is no Nero, and the fiddle was not yet invented, but the conflagration in another part of the city totally razes the house of this loyal public servant. The fireman is now homeless.

Nurses and doctors died during COVID, and in the aftermath of hurricane Melissa we are indeed facing a pandemic of a different sort, because the myriad impacts will continue to haunt us for years.

As stated in my sociology classes, we walk around in our lab. We are affected by the very social forces that we are analysing. When the economy declines economists also suffer from the vagaries of inflation. No matter how hard we try, unless we live elsewhere and have no relatives on this island; everything here directly or indirectly affects us.

However, frontline workers are special cases. They risk their lives on a daily basis in the interest of the public, and far too often there is no one to body guard the bodyguard.

We can add to the list members of the military, who from time to time are part of the process is of protection of the nation, including crime fighting.

Yet, two sets of workers; correctional and police officers, serve a constituency who at all times comprise elements who, given the slightest of opportunity with take their three points without blinking an eye.

FOREFRONT

Police personnel are the forefront of this, because unlike the correctional workers, whose client are brought to them and exist in a captive environment, cops are out there protecting, detecting and apprehending individuals, who have no compunction about taking the life of anyone, including the officers themselves.

This puts police officers in a special situation, and in a country like Jamaica, with one of the highest homicide rates in a democracy, the murder rate of police officers is actually higher than the overall murder rate for the nation.

Data for the first two decades of the 21st century, show that the American counterparts of the Jamaican Constabulary are exposed to a homicide rate which was essentially the same as that of their country on the whole. Thus, relatively speaking, compared to Jamaica, being a police officer in the USA is pretty safe job.

Never mind the conversations or narrative about the hostilities between the constabulary and one hand and Jamaicans for Justice and the Independent Commission of Investigations. Doubtless, there are police officers who seriously cross the line and engage themselves in criminal activity, including unjustified killing of civilians. Notwithstanding that, this is generally a case of the adage of bad apples and the bunch. Most police officers, like most people in this country are decent individuals who want to do their work and go about their lives in a fashion consistent with the laws of the land and the rules of basic human decency.

TARGETED

Yet, police officers are the one set of workers who are not only exposed to lethal force from the public they serve, while on operation, but they are directly targeted during downtime. Many of whom are killed in execution style. This is a high risk occupation, without question

Last week several police officers lost their lives. One as a result of a motorist who allegedly had complete disregard for the rules of the road and the two brutally murdered while carrying out their duties.

The last two, dig me deeply, because there was a macabre kind of irony involved. It took me back to several years ago when one of our best homicide investigators assigned then to the Major Investigation Division, discovered that his very own child was found dead at the hands of criminal when he, the police officer was on duty.

Then imagine now the grief of a career police officer who spent around three decades training police officers and finally creating a line of succession with his junior about two take on the baton.

Yet in all of this, even in times of peace and without the risk of murder, police officers suffer the highest rate of social pathologies of any occupation on the frontline. They are at higher risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and all stress-related illnesses. Poor Officer Dibble is at risk of family dislocation, which affects not only them but also their spouses and children. Indeed, the most unpopular name for a police officer is Joe and even the members of the fire brigade can help in such circumstances.

In pursuit of their livelihood, stress and other factors can lead to elevated levels of sexual dysfunction even among young police officers.

Speaking from the horses or maybe the foal’s mouth, a police offspring, recent graduate of the Department of Sociology Psychology and Social work on my plantation, Candice Wray, published some telling data about the impact of stress and suicidal behaviour among police officers themselves. Although a few years old, the data revealed that 51 per cent of police were emotionally fatigued. Although only three per cent actually contemplated carrying out the act, a total of 12 per cent were at risk of performing it.

Say a small prayer for ‘Squaddie’

Orville Taylor is senior lecturer at Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com