Dear Editor,
As I was walking into Telem I met a gentleman who greeted me joyfully. He congratulated me on my letters to you and then told me that via you I should have asked government if when government implement 'zero tolerance' if government is going to get rid of the tinted glass on government vehicles also?
I explained to him that more than twenty years already there is a law governing tinted glass on motor vehicles all the police have to do is enforce the law. Then he asked me what actually does zero tolerance mean? I told him to look it up in the dictionary or google it, then he will interpret it how he absorbs it.
He told me that I am giving him homework. I said to him the term is ‘discipline’. The more you discipline yourself to "check out " things for yourself the more you are educating yourself. He said to me. You right because when you referred to the garbage situation and you mentioned the proportion Sint Maarteners to non Sint Maarteners I explained my son who was wondering if you don't like foreigners, that that is not the case. It is because when everybody have to do the same thing.
If seven greens and three pinks have to contribute the same amount individually, the amount that the greens contribute will be more than the amount that the pinks contribute. But what got me is when he said to me.
All about people are talking about all the experienced policemen have retired and the young police officers don't know how to speak to older people. So he suggested the following to me. Encourage the young police officers while working to follow classes that would be needed to further their studies to become Inspector of police and how to lead a police force.
During that time they would have acquired the experience of the police on the road and if selected to go to police academy would have learned the ropes being a policeman on the road as well as how to run a police force.
I told him that I had never looked at it that way but, my only fear is that when they get that HAVO diploma they might want to look for something else to do if being a police officer is not their calling. I told him that I will send this idea to you, because as the Dutchman would say "Nee heb je ja kan je krijgen." (No you have, yes you can get)
Russell A Simmons
