Bermuda Police Service Suspends Blogging Police Officer

Another Reason For Small Island Bloggers To Remain Anonymous…

A Policeman has been suspended from duty after posting allegations of “misdeeds” in the Bermuda Police Service on his internet blog.

The Royal Gazette reported on P.c. Allan Palmer’s Crushing Fools site earlier this month, after he wrote a message urging the community to unite against violence.The St. Vincent father-of-three, who describes himself in his online journal as an “independent thinker”, posted another message on January 23, titled An Abuse of Power Stepping Back into the Stone Age of Policing.

The posting – since removed from the site – claimed that “ambitious people” within the Island’s Police service are trying to take it back into the dark ages by silencing officers such as himself and “perverting the course of internal justice”.

P.c. Palmer claimed there was a tight-knit “mafia” of Barbadian officers who attempted to manipulate issues to make sure things go their way. He alleged that he began to have a bad experience in Bermuda Police Service (BPS) after raising concerns about a “practice that was sanctioned by the … Barbadian Mafia”.

… from The Royal Gazette Blogging Policeman Suspended

Blogs, Police Officers and Drugs

As we related in our previous article on this subject Four Bermuda Blogs Shut Down – The Case For Anonymous Blogging Gets Stronger, we live on a very small island. The writers at BFP would be fired in a nanosecond if our identities became known. At least two of us would lose our mortgages and our homes. It would take about two weeks.

Constable Palmer should have stayed anonymous – like our police friend who advised us on the Ronja Juman blank search warrant.

Tomorrow, in honour of Constable Palmer, BFP will publish an article telling about how and why officers of the Royal Barbados Police Force target tourists for drug arrests – and leave the dealers alone.

Peter Wickham: “BLP and Owen Arthur…Created A Climate Of Oppression…”

Peter Wickham Says What He Thinks And The Nation Actually Prints It!

Although I firmly believe that the BLP and Owen Arthur served this country well, I am also convinced that more recently they created a climate of oppression (as was the case in 1986) that made people like me uncomfortable…

To be sure, this is not intended to be a partisan statement on my part, but is instead an indication that I now agree with a comment that was made by a member of the CBC staff to me recently. He said: “I prefer to err on the side of the BLP, since I have always found that the Dems are less vindictive.”

Peter Wickham in the Nation News article: Climate of Oppression

Barbados News Media Is Like An Abused Woman…

Friends, did you ever know an abused woman who had forgotten what it was like to live with a man who didn’t belittle or hit her? Did you ever know a woman who was always afraid of not pleasing her man?

Barbados and the Barbados media are like an abused woman who has just been set free from a brute of a husband.

Oh, the marriage started out just fine, but as the years went by a dark side of the BLP and Owen Arthur came to the forefront. The news media became afraid to print the truth. They started self-censoring and some of the so-called “journalists” even threw their lot in with the apparent victors – Prime Minister Arthur and the BLP.

Now that BLP government has gone down in flames and the Barbados news media has been exposed as having zero credibility, there will be a period before journalists truly accept the fact that they gained much freedom on the day that the BLP was tossed by voters – no thanks to the lapdog news media itself, of course.

Albert Brandford & The “Inbred” Insult To Prime Minister Thompson

In a second piece in the Nation News, this time a letter to the editor, Peter Wickham points out that no journalist would have dared to attack Owen Arthur the way that Albert Brandford recently used the word “inbred” in an attack against Prime Minister David Thompson.

Once again, Peter Wickham’s letter highlights that things have changed under the new government, and he criticizes the Nation News for its conduct during the recent election – but this is only a start at what is needed. (See The Nation News: Unfortunate words by Nation’s Brandford)

The Barbados News Media Must Declare Itself Guilty As The First Step To Gaining Credibility With The Public

If the Barbados news media think that they can now hold their heads up and instantly regain their credibility with the public, they will be sorely disappointed. Even if they now provide effective and balanced journalism in respect of the new government – that proves nothing. As Peter Wickham’s friend pointed out, the DLP are less vindictive than the BLP, and I believe that the current government will not seek to retaliate against its critics in the news media: at least not for the first term because they do not wish to be tarred with the same brush as the previous BLP government.

There needs to be a whole lot more of public “mea maxima culpa“ introspection by the Barbados media.

That the Nation News would publish Peter Wickham’s article and his letter to the editor is a small, positive, sign – but it is nothing compared with what the Bajan public deserves.

So here is a place for the Nation News to start on the path to recovery of its credibility…

Let’s see if The Nation has the decency and courage to investigate the Ronja Juman story – because every day that the newspaper refuses to acknowledge the need for a public enquiry on the Juman matter is further proof that the Bajan news media cannot be trusted by citizens.