By LISA S. KING
FN Asst. Editor
lisa@nasguard.com
PLP Senator Jerome Fitz-gerald said yesterday that he believes Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade is being set up by jealous persons with an agenda.
Fitzgerald made this claim while appearing on the Love 97 radio talk show, "Issues Of The Day," where he told radio listeners that he believes Greenslade was used as a 'scapegoat' to establish a policy which the police force does not even have.
The senator said unlike some who are of view that it was inappropriate for Greenslade to accept the gifts, he does not believe the gifts should have been auctioned off by the Police Force because the senior officer did not have anything to do with planning the event. Furthermore, he did not ask for it or lobbied for it. A committee of his peers got together and raised funds to give him gifts they felt he deserved for his service to the residents of Grand Bahama.
"He had no idea where the funds were coming from and the fact is, he like many others were surprised at the extent to which the community in Freeport as well as the officers went to show their appreciation of him," Fitzgerald said. "Again that is a testimony to the popularity and trust the community had placed within him."
Fitzgerald said what makes the whole issue a big concern to him is when the event was held, the Commissioner of Police Paul Farquharson was there, senior members of Government were there and at the time, he said no one raised an eyebrow. If they did, they did not say anything.
"It just seems so coincidental to me that this all came about when it was known that the Deputy Commis-sioner of Police Mr. John Rolle was retiring from that post and then some five to six weeks later a report comes out about these gifts," he said.
" I believe that this has happen because of some form of jealousy or there might have been for a number of reasons I believe, a move to discredit or assassinate the character of a fine young policeman who is definitely qualified to be the next Commissioner of police.
" In fact, I believe that one of the reasons why the banquet was held was because he was being moved to Nassau to be more in the mainstream to one day assume the position of being the Commissioner of Police, and now it seems as if there are those who may be on a course to disrupt that."
Fitzgerald said over the years, he has observed where the police has on numerous occasions received gifts without looking for any favour, particularly because the budget allocated to the Police Force is not always adequate enough to cover some its necessities.
He noted that when plans for construction of a new senior officers mess unto the Police Command Centre in New Providence was being announced, it was the donations from public and private organizations that made it all possible. All of the individuals and companies making these donations, he said, are known by the police force. However, he said ACP Greenslade does not know who made donations to purchase his gifts.
"I do not understand why they are trying to discredit him (Greenslade) when he does not know who gave the gifts, and now they are saying that his gifts should be auctioned off because there might be some alliance on his part to one of these people whom he does not even know, who may one day come forward after committing some crime," he said.
"Hundreds of Nassauvians donated money to the police to help refurbish one their buildings, are you saying that hundreds of those Nassauv-ians who committed a crime can now come up and say listen I donated to that building and as such I should not be charged.
"It just seems to me that this argument does not fly and furthermore if that is the case, then the police need to come up with a policy and say listen, either we are going to accept gifts or we are not and if we are then these are the circumstances in which we are going to accept them," he said. "I believe that they have used Greenslade in my view as a scapegoat for whatever policy they do not even have."
Some people argue that the gift given by citizens in New Providence was to the Police Force as a unit and not to one particular individual as it was given to ACP Greenslade, which they believe as a high ranking officer, his position could be comprised.
"Yes that is the argument being put forth. The only problem with that is Greenslade does not know who donated the monies in order to get the gifts," Fitzgerald said.
