Dear Editor,
The policeman who shot Kelvin Fraser made a very serious mistake. It must not happen again. Therefore it behoves us to get to the cause of this grievous error. Did the policeman’s superior instruct him in the correct amount of force to use in pursuing an unarmed youth? Or was he certified in such procedures by some training? If no, then the interrogation by the Police Complaints Authority must proceed higher. If yes, then it is the fault of the policeman.
However, I always imagine a divine court being held somewhere some time for such incidents. In spite of omniscience, the judge proceeds with the evidence so that all can plainly see what laws were broken, because everybody is on trial, not just those we choose to accuse.
The youths were allegedly molesting a female. Kelvin Fraser was not in school when he was supposed to be. Was this the first time he missed school on his own authority?
The problem is that for the highest authorities, the buck stops not with them, but with Burnham, or colonialism, or capitalism, or globalism, or some circumstances. They can even change the laws retroactively to ‘cover’ their illegalities. What they fail to see is that their enterprise and inventiveness in avoiding, bending, or breaking the law, is keenly observed and understudied by those immediately under them.
This is now happening at every level of administration and society. The second and later generations of lawbreaker have to grapple less and less with any conscience they might have, because the pioneers have made it easier, and the climate becomes more permissive. Outbreaks of lawlessness follow eventually from initially isolated instances. In this instance, potential rebelliousness in youth breaks loose. At first only a few were unauthorisedly out of school. Then a segment of the school was truant. Or did the headteacher give permission for the students to go on the road during school hours and travel standing-room only in a truck? The tragedy is that the genuine police officers now have it harder when they do their job correctly and arrest the truck driver and the organisers of the protest. And let us see if the Ministry of Education will do the right thing too, or succumb to their teachers and children’s rule-breaking.
Yours faithfully,
Alfred Bhulai
