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Stress and the Police job

The recent story of a police officer shooting at the door of his ex, or unfaithful, lover, should come as no surprise when you hear that there are no social workers working within the Windward Islands Police Force. It's not the first time an officer has displayed unstable behavior and decision making, nor, if the club and gun rumors are true, the first time authority has been abused with a display of arrogance and egotism.

Power corrupts, it is well known, which is why a healthy democracy must have transparency and accountability from it's government and public officials. Police and Law Enforcement officers have a great deal of power, which requires a higher level of supervision and management. The big picture here is not this officer, or the others before him who have 'screwed up', the Big Picture here is the failure and almost criminal neglect of responsibility from Dutch and NA politicians, in particular David Dick and Hirsch Balin, to fix the problems of St. Maarten and it's justice system.

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Glenn Carty, President of the Chamber of Commerce does have a point when he said that more police officers will not solve the problems with crime, it wouldn't. There are many aspects of crime and criminal behavior that need to be addressed, education, training and jobs, more active and expanded youth and sports facilities, structured and helpful social and family services and assistance, just adding more police and expanding prison cells is not a solution in itself.

We do need more police, no question there, but just like above, there are other aspects of doing so that need to be addressed first. For example ethnic diversity, salary structures, training, management and equipment to name a few. Here we are in 2008 and our Police Force don't even have a counselor or social worker? Isn't that just a little ridiculous and downright outrageous?

Police Officers face a great deal of stress, much of it unique to their job.

10 REASONS LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS ARE DIFFERENT - And how these differences impact on their stress!

While I hope this officer never gets his gun back, at the same time I think we in our community should open our minds to look at the deeper reasons and culprits behind the event. In the same way, we should ask ourselves if our education and employment situation is behind the rise in youth gangs and youth crimes.

All roads appear, at least to me, to lead to the Federal and Dutch Governments and their politicians who continue to apply band aids to a serious and dangerous situation, public trust and confidence in the Justice and Law enforcement system continues to be eroded on a regular basis. This incident can be laid at their feet, if this officer had had a social worker to talk to, or if a social worker had been able to observe there were problems, it might well have been avoided, like so many other of these breakdowns.

Dr. Voodoo.

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