MAYBE THERE is a case to be made that Les Green was a tad insensitive. However, the police federation is way over the top in asking for Mr Green's resignation. It would be of no value to Jamaica to see the back of Les Green at this time.

Les Green, we remind, is a Scotsman, one of a number of Britons who were recruited by the former administration to help reprofessionalise the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) after most Jamaicans had grown fed up with, and the ineptitude of, their police.

Mr Green is an assistant commissioner of the JCF in charge of major crimes. By the accounts of most people who work with him, by instinct and skills he has honed through diligent and painstaking effort, is perhaps the best policeman in the JCF, to be ranked with any anywhere.

Green's great sin

Important, too, Les Green turns his face hard against corruption, an issue over which he now finds himself being sent to the doghouse and further, by the police federation. His great sin was his remark to CVM Television on the weekend that some of the policemen who are killed in Jamaica have died because of their own involvement in criminality. In other words, they were corrupt and paid a dear price for their behaviour.

Here is where it is possible to accuse Mr Green of insensitivity. Days before the remark, a constable, Delroy Brown, was shot dead in the St Andrew community of Seaview Gardens. He was the ninth police officer murdered so far this year.

We do not know whether Mr Green meant to imply that Delroy Brown was corrupt and that this caused his death. ACP Green did not make a specific allegation against Mr Brown.

If he did not mean to, and is satisfied that no so such tag should be attached to Constable Brown, Les Green should apologise for any hurt that he may have caused to Constable Brown's family and friends.

However, the probability of misinformation and/or misinterpretation of events relating to Constable Brown, notwithstanding, the essential truth of Les Green's declaration is incontrovertible, and Sergeant Raymond Wilson, the chairman of the police federation, knows it.

Good intel, no evidence

Indeed, Les Green is not the first senior cop to talk openly about corruption in the JCF. Lucius Thomas, when he was head of the force, did. So, too, has Thomas' successor, the current commissioner, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin. The difference is that Mr Green has said that some police officers have been killed because of corruption.

As Sergeant Wilson is probably aware, the police often have good intelligence on criminal networks, but not evidence of the kind that will stand up in a court of law, which does not make the information any less true.

Just as an example, a seemingly upright policeman might be killed and a colleague 'discovers' huge wads of unaccounted for money in his/her premises and other belongings. That cop's death might be traced to connection to the underworld, but without the actionable evidence. Indeed, this is part for the reason why this newspaper has called for greater authority of the police chief to hire or fire senior staff.

Mr Green should go nowhere. There is too much work to be done it the JCF. Commissioner Lewin, too, should stand his ground. He is hopefully good for another decade.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.