A Message to the President

May 10th, 2010


Your Excellency, I would like for you to note that I have, as of April the 23rd, 2010, sent by mail, the following items to the Ghana Police Service and addressed to the Inspector-General of Police. The rationale is to get the police well trained to be able to arrest foreigners in our country committing serious crimes and Ghanaians who are abusing kids and women:

1. Basic Course Workbook Series, Student Materials, Learning Domain 3: Policing in the Community, Version 3.1
2. Specialized Investigators’ Basic Course Workbook Series, Student Materials, Learning Domain 63: Computers and Computer Crimes, Version 2
3. Basic Course Workbook Series, Student Materials, Learning Domain 10: Sex Crimes, Version 5.1
4. Basic Course Workbook Series, Student Materials, Learning Domain 9: Crimes Against Children, Version 6.2
5. Basic Course Workbook Series, Student Materials, Learning Domain 11: Juvenile Law and Procedure, Version 6.2
6. Basic Course Workbook Series, Student Materials, Learning Domain 20: Use of Force, Version 3.0
7. A USB disk (2GB). It contains all of the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training learning domains. (After I purchased #s 1-6, Officer Troy Holsonbake, the Academy Coordinator, advised me to stop making additional purchases and instead give a USB drive to him to copy the domains for the Ghana Police Service. (Mr. IGP, copyright laws apply, please.)
8. State of California 2010 Vehicle Code through the 2009 legislative session. (Mr. IGP, please turn to page 473 and read to the end of page 511. We shall be doing some exercises pretty soon.)

Included in the package is a Juvenile Justice Handbook, prepared and distributed by the County Probation Department and the County Juvenile Justice/Delinquency Prevention Commission (a 56-page document). I had it free of charge under the Chief Probation Officer’s kindness. The Chief has promised to assist Ghana in any way she can, for free, if we need her department’s assistance, including training Ghanaian probation officers. I think that, Mr. President, we need to take advantage of her promise and make very good use of the opportunity because ‘all days are not equal’. The Juvenile Justice Handbook is a step-by-step approach to handling juvenile in conflict with the law and delinquents from the time of apprehension to the end of the proceedings in a competent juvenile court. The role of police, probation officers at the juvenile level, as well as juvenile court judges and prosecutors are clearly itemized. In other words, it contains due process procedures for juveniles. The Chief has given the go ahead to Ghanaian authorities to download any information at her department’s web site to help Ghanaian children. Attached, I have downloaded a copy for your attention. I hope that you will make it available for our Attorney-General, Chief Justice, Probation Chief, Prisons Director, Ministers of Education, Youth and Sports, Women and Children’s Affairs, and our Majority and Minority leaders in our Parliament for study and enactment of laws to put the details into effective practice. We have a lot to do, Mr.President. I also think that Mr. Short, CHRAJ’s boss, should be informed.

In addition, the IGP will make justice to the following news articles:
1. Polanski asks to be sentenced in absentia in sex case. I would like for the Inspector-General of Police, Attorney-General of Ghana, and the Ghanaian legislature to understand that Statue of Limitation of rape is 25 years to 50 years. Polanski‘s case is a typical example I can use here as a demonstration to Ghanaians. Also, whilst the IGP reads through domains 9, 10, 11, he will come across it, too. 25 years and 50 years for rape and forcible rape respectively. Forcible rape is all rape conducted by the use of force and all rape of children. Rape of a pregnant woman is forcible rape.
2. Hunt for new probation chief narrows (Los Angeles Times, January 25, 2010) Here, I would like for Ghanaian authorities to learn and understand the importance of probation and parole officers in Criminal Justice Systems across the democratic world.
3. Witness tampering alleged (The Fresno Bee) Ex-Fresno police officer Tafoya is on trial, accused of using excessive force, by Paula Lloyd. I would like for the Inspector-General of Police to learn that excessive use of force by peace officers is not permitted in democratic societies. Peace officers who excessively use force are prosecuted. Excessive use of force is a characteristic of despotic regimes only. This officer was not convicted, though. You will know why, later.
4. Dept. of Justice seeks Inglewood police reforms (Los Angeles Times). My intent is the same as # 3. But, here, the federal government steps in to seek training reforms. Therefore, I would like for our president to study it, too. I hope that Mr. IGP will deliver the content of this news item to our president for study and serious consideration.
5. LAPD traces final steps of teen left dead in car (I don’t recall if I included this paper).
6. Rape case reopens vigilante justice debate (The Fresno Bee <> Sunday, June 14, 2009, page A7). The way and manner Ghanaian Police officers are encouraging the Ghanaian public to participate in community policing is very dangerous indeed. Arrest can be conducted by citizens but those trained to arrest, are the best people to do so, and they are peace officers, not civilians, not soldiers. A rape suspect was arrested and beaten by citizens. Police later gave financial rewards to the arresting citizens. The same community turned against the police for not prosecuting those citizens who arrested and beat the suspect.
7. Detective stalked victim, father says (Los Angeles Times, Wednesday, June 10, 2009 A9). This is a murder case that happened in 1986. A policewoman killed her rival in Los Angeles. The investigators claimed the policewoman was not the killer, so charges were not filed against her. In 2009 however, new officers were assigned to reinvestigate the case. This was due to the efforts of the victim’s parents. The outcome is that the policewoman was the killer. She has been arrested along with those officers who initially investigated the case who are now on retirement. The fact of the matter is that, after reading the news item, Mr. IGP will make available for proper preservation all evidence of murder and rape cases that had no suspects, for future re-openings. Examples of such murders, include, but are not limited to, murders of women in Accra at dawn since the 2000s started to date, the killings of Colonel Enninful’s family, and the judges and the retired army officer. These cases were investigated out of fear, instructions from unlawful leadership and government, and lack of passion. Those victims were not political figures and therefore we cannot accept reconciliation as a solution to their murders. Police officers’ job is to be truthful in their investigations of cases at all time. At the time those crimes occurred, the oldest Ghanaian was just approximately 23 years old. We were young. We are now grown to run our nation. Osofo Asare and a policewoman were killed on February the 8th, 1982, in a church at Ejisu. (I did not witness the killings. I have never lived at Ejisu). On the following day, February the 9th, 1982, at about 11A.M., I was at Kumasi Kejetia roundabout when soldiers circled the roundabout and burned the remains of Osofo Asare. It could not completely burn into ashes because of lack of firewood. The soldiers sent the remains to Kejetia Roundabout after the killings primarily to exhume it during day break for everyone to watch. Osofo Asare was alleged to have had sex with a female member of the congregation married to a Major in the military in Kumasi. I don’t know where Osofo Asare comes from. Second, the Major’s wife did not report of a rape; therefore, a crime did not occur. What occurred was a civil case. Assuming that a crime occurred, Osofo Asare was arrested. The” due process” he went through was illegal; the “justice system” they passed him through was illegal. The policewoman attempted to rescue Osofo Asare and was shot by those notorious, illiterate soldiers who are worshipers of the“supreme god of Ghana”. We shall one day try them along with their supreme god of Ghana just to let them know that their god is not the God of Ghanaians. We Ghanaians worship the Almighty God.
8. U.S. Prepared to Sue to Force LAPD Reforms, by Jim Newton Scott Glover, Times Staff Writers and Matt Lait, Times Staff Writers, May 06, 2000. The I.G.P. will learn that U.S. federal government uses the courts to enforce city police departments to stop violating human rights.
9. Victim’s father told police of young officer’s threats. #s 10 and 11 are the same. A Los Angeles Policewoman killed a lady her former husband was married to.

Next week, I will be back with you to clarify my opposition to ‘ex-gratias’ in Ghana. Until then, Mr. President, please have a nice weekend. My dear Ghanaians, please stay united because unity is strong. We shall overcome.

By Mr. A. P. Gyimah, education expert, based in The State of California, U.S.A. Interest areas: education administration – secondary and post secondary, comparative education –Ghana and the U.S., human rights education, public safety education, and adult education. This author does not take children’s issues for granted at all. Contact address:Email: kwaku_poku@yahoo.com