THE EDITOR, Sir:
ON A recent trip to Jamaica I was stopped by a policeman, who I shall assume, had strategically placed himself on some incidental location along the Old Harbour road. This cop, whose identity (#7608) I will not withold (considering he is a public figure) indicated to me to stop by means of stepping on to the paved road surface in front of speeding eastbound traffic, placing himself in danger of being mowed down by the 'confused' motorist who tries to figure out 'who?' exactly he is indicating to pull over.
I found out soon that I was to become the unfortunate victim, after he waved the other motorist on. I remained seated behind the wheel after coming to a halt at a spot to which he pointed. I waited behind the wheel for a couple minutes while he rested nonchalantly propped up on one elbow his back against the patrol car. Nothing happened. Nothing was happening.
Suddenly he sauntered forward as I watched his approach in my rearview mirror. He demanded of me to "Come out a di car " in a rude and crude, manner. I obeyed.
His request was to "Gimme yu driver's licence an yu papers." I complied.
He wanted to know how long I was in the island for and when would I be leaving the country. He said I was 'towing' the vehicle in front of me... and it was a ticket offence with a fine of $7,000 or more. He further pointed out that he knew that I would not be here to pay the fine and it would be necessary to designate someone to follow up on court preceedings relevant to this matter.
He promised to let me 'off' but I would of course have to 'let off something'.
I explained to him that I was broke at the time. This he did not believe and lessened the on-the-spot fine to a request of a 'drinks money' (drinking on thejob?), I insisted that I was broke. My documents were returned with a fair warning to be careful. I took his words of caution in a very ambiguous manner... because I drove into Kingston slowly and carefully watching out with an eagle's eye for the nation's cops and criminals... not necessarily in that order or separate from each other.
I am etc,
PAUL DOUGLAS
pdouglas07@aol
