Breaking The Effects Of Spiral Silence In The Police By The Vocal Minority, ACP/Dr.Benjamin Agordzo In Perspective

ACP/Dr.Benjamin Agordzo

The spiral silence and the vocal minority theories are two interesting media and political science theories that can put ACP/Dr. Benjamin Agordzo's delivery on breaking the cycle of political vigilantism at the Institue of Democratic Governance- IDEG into the right perspectives.

Both theories examine into details why the likes of ACP/Dr. Agordzo and few others will choose to be very vocal against all odds despite the threats that may come their ways due to their positions on the mode of appointing IGPs and the composition of police council which is politically bias.

The theories also best explain why the vast majority in the police remain silent on these and many more welfare issues at their discomfort and resign to fate and say "police de3 saaaa".

The spiral silence theory was developed by Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann, the German political scientist in the 1970s. The theory states that for the fear of isolation and social neglects, many people fear to express their opinions on matters affecting them.

The theory calls such people as the majority compliants or the silent majority who for the sake of inconveniences, prefer to remain mute even though they may be very uncomfortable with matters arising.

They are the majority compliants because they would not want to challenge the status quo no matter how inimical it is to their growth and development. They are are also the silent majority because they are fed up with the status and are hoping for a trigger so that they can also get along to change the system.

In the Ghana Police Service, the theory of spiral silence is very much applicable and effective. The effects of the spiral silence is very prevalence from all levels of command to the highest decision making body in the police at the police headquarters. In the police service, to express your views and opinions comes with a dire consequences more than isolation and social neglects that form the basis of the spiral silence theory.

To be vocal in the police, you will have to put up with blunts acts of vindictiveness and victimisations of all shapes and kinds. You will have to put up with punitive transfers to remote areas for you to learn some bitter lessons. You will have to put up with attempts and machinations to have you dismissed from the police service. You will have to bear with unreasonable and undue delays in your promotions or ranks. You will have to be at the receiving end of all forms of injustices just because you had the effrontery and the guts to be bold on issues.

It is almost a crime to be bold and outspoken in the police. You will be quickly be tagged as disrespectful and be branded with negative names. The system is rather a safe haven for sycophants, bootlickers and backstabers. They thrive well in the police and make leaders in the police service to abhor honest people who are bold to them even in a very humble way to tell them their wrongs.

Currently, one of the biggest problems facing the police service is the mode of appointing IGPs. It is the biggest administrative and operative challenges facing the police service but nobody is willing to speak about it because it is in the interest of some people who wield sizeable power to determine the fate of the vocals.

No one wants to go on collision course with people who are parambolating the corridors of Jubilee House seeking the blessings of the politicians to become IGPs. The general assumption is that they have what it takes to make and unmake people in the police.

The political appointment of IGPs has sharply divided the police service and cracked it deeper on partisans lines which is breeding a lot of mistrust in the police service. It is making more police officers to be politically bias and inclined in discharging of their duties than to be professional. More police officers are becoming loyal to political parties more than their oath of office.

It is much more problems when retiring IGPs are given contracts or extension of office. It makes potential IGPs who have invested in their ambitions to become IGPs very disgruntled and frustrated particularly when time and tide wait not for them. It worsens their hypertensive situations and make their diabetic conditions very complex.

The political interferences in the police is making police officers, both junior and senior ranks to have confidence in the politicians more than their own officers whom they have all sworn the same oaths to protect lives and properties. They run to the politicians for transfers and lobby for positions in the police. Police officers have rather become puppets in the hands of the politicians and are being manipulated anyhow to the satisfaction of the whims and caprices of the politicians so how can we solve the political vigilantism when the politicians appear to do us a favour?

This menace is monstrously scaring us in the face threatening the peace and stability of this country but the police have become spectators watching on as the vigilante groups keep organising themselves structurally. These vigilante groups are fast becoming vulnerable groups which can be explored by the terrorists groups lurking the sub-region but due to political interferences, the police has been rendered a toothless bull dog.

Until such time that the politicians are made to know that they have no business in interfering in the police mandate of maintaining law and order, we risk raising rebels and terrorists groups in this country considering how the vigilante groups are now attacking members of the government and the ruling party. That is exactly how terrorism and political and economic rebellions start.

In contrast to the spiral silence theory is the VOCAL MINORITY THEORY. This theory explains the cavalier individuals who do not fear isolation and social neglects unlike the majority compliants or the silent majority in the spiral silence theory.

The vocal minority theory compliment the silent majority theory by stating that people who are highly educated or have greater influence and few others cavalier individuals who do not fear isolation and social neglects are likely to speak out regardless of public opinion.

It further states that the vocal minority is a necessary factor of change while the compliant majority is a necessary factor for stability with both being a product of evolution. The theory calls the vocal minorities as hardcores or nonconformists who have already been rejected and neglected for their beliefs and have nothing to lose for speaking out.

The hardcores have the ability to reconfigure the majority opinion to bring about the desirous change they have been persistently voicing out for. The avant-gardes are the intellectuals, artists and reformers among the hardcores who speak out because they are convinced that they are ahead of times and one of such people is ACP/Dr. Benjamin Agordzo.

ACP/Dr. Benjamin Agordzo has stimulated a healthy discussion and all varied views and opinions are welcome. We are in the era of the vocal minority who have the support of the silent majority and such times are ripe times for revolution that we must not wait for it to happen because we do not know the form and shape it might take.

It is time to reconfigure the opinions of the majority compliants who fear vindictiveness and victimisations to bring the needed and desirous change in the police service. It takes the likes of ACP/Dr.Benjamin Agordzo who has bore the blunts of all shapes and kinds of vindictiveness and victimisations in the police to reconfigure opinions of the majority compliants who are being affected by the spiral silence.

The change we desire can only be reconfigured through a healthy discussion by the likes of ACP/Dr.Benjamin Agordzo who are the avant-gardes in the vocal minority.

It is coming gradually with high tides.