#4331: command of the Police, Lyall comments (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: J. David Lyall <david@lyalls.net>

>Richard Morse wrote:
>> As far as the police are concerned, they're acting under orders. What
>> more needs to be said.
>
>   Now, if this is correct, then it is important and gives some 
indication
>as to how Aristide may possibly maintain internal security once he is
>President..

I thought that it had been perfectly clear for a long time that the
police are following orders from outside the government.
They wear LaFami buttons in public.

The real problem is what are the orders that they are given.
Many productive enterprises have been trashed while the
police did nothing. Early on this may have been excusable
as dechoucaj of the corrupt. Stupid, but understandable.

When farms put into production for domestic consumption,
producing a surplus and employing people are invaded,
equipment destroyed and the land parcelled out to squatters
who will never produce enough to feed themselves, much
less make a profit or produce a surplus (oops this sentence
is too long ) while the police refuse to show up at all...

This is wacko politics.

This has really happened to a significant number of places.
This year I met a gentleman who returned to Haiti from exile
in 1988. He put his families land back into production, bought
tractors and installed irrigation, employed many people.

After two separate attacks he has left the entire property
to the squatters who have destroyed all of the improvements.

He says the police can do nothing. They are under orders
when and whom to protect.