We observed an unwilling Police when they shut their doors in the face of a security threat in traditional Accra last weekend. They literally turned their attention elsewhere when an embattled King Tackie Tawiah�s representatives called their attention to a burgeoning trouble in the bowels of Ga.
That the police would fail to respond to a distress call of that graveness, as it were, is beyond our ken.
By the time the complainants gave up hope of receiving a contingent of police to wade into the act of illegality being committed, some portions of the city, where a rampaging youth traversed, were littered with empty cases of live ammo.
Even this clear evidence of a breach of the law did not prick the conscience of the police to squirm, let alone rush to the scene of the illegality. They were merely responding to an order from above to stay aloof as the Tommy Okine and National Security-led gang perpetrated their game-plan.
It gives credence to our position that some police officers, at the twilight of their career, are ready to do the bidding of politicians, regardless of how untoward these were.
We have stated it before that some police officers cannot be trusted to discharge their duties professionally and their body languages amply show this. The recent confusion which engulfed the Ga Mantse chieftaincy proves our fears and points at an uncertain political future.
Our young police officers, who have just begun their professional career, can only look on perhaps amused, at how politicians are toying with their superior officers, some of whom are too willing to follow those in power sheepishly.
Politicians, it would interest police officers to know, would use them for their dirty jobs in the promotion of their political projects.
When these however develop into challenges, as they would most likely do in future, the politicians would abandon them, leaving them to their fate.
We are light years away from the ideal situation where police officers can counsel politicians regarding unprofessional missions when these infringe upon the law. Recently, there have been proposals to have the police become autonomous as a way of obviating the likes of the situations which prompted this commentary.
Whatever the merits of the foregone proposal, it is our take that there is something fundamentally wrong with policing in the country and unless this is addressed, we stand the risk of a major security breach in the future.
With election 2012 about a year away, the thought of how a police service constantly bullied by politicians in power can stand up to these challenges is the worry of many a Ghanaian. How would our police react to a demand by politicians to turn their attention from a polling station breach?
Our answer to the above-mentioned question is not a heartwarming one, given lessons learnt from previous similar situations in the country.
We shed tears for the young police officers whose future in the force is being destroyed by those who, by the positions they have assumed today, have become de facto politicians, ready to turn the service orders upside down to satisfy some people in the seat of government. But for how long can such a situation last? Only time will tell.
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