A Quote To Meditate On

“To tamper with the King James Bible, based on some imagined manuscript evidence, is like adjusting Big Ben to somebody’s private watch.”

The Wall Street Journal

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The Balboa Police Station Building

The Police Division has been in the Canal Zone since the construction of the Panama Canal in 1904.  A disciplined core was needed to maintain law and order in a territory full of people from different nationalities and humble backgrounds.   The population in the Canal Zone increased abruptly in 1906 as a result of the importation of European laborers by the Panama Canal Commission.

William F. Kessler, Chief of the Police Division in the Canal Zone,  explained the situation in an Internet article dubbed, “A History of the Canal Zone Police”:

“The European laborers were restless, suspicious, and excitable. They had a different class of temperament than that of the West Indian laborer.  The number of arrests for intoxication, disorderly conduct, fighting and crimes of violence increased as the number of European laborers increased.

On the whole, the West Indian laborer was docile, law abiding, and had confidence in the ability of the government to treat him fairly.   These characteristics made the maintenance of order among the West Indian a lesser police concern.”

The Canal Zone Police Division was established in 1904 for the purpose of preserving the integrity of the United States interest in an unfamiliar and challenging setting.  As a result of the Panama Canal Treaty of 1977 which terminated the 1903 Isthmian Canal Treaty transferring the Canal Zone Zone to the Republic of Panama, the work and responsibility of the Canal Zone Police Division ended on  March 31, 1982.

Having outlived its utility to the international waterway, the Canal Zone Police disappeared from the Panamanian landscape like its former police districts which had been covered by the flood waters that had created the Panama Canal.  However some of its building still exists in the former Canal Zone.

During a recent visit to the town of Balboa on the Pacific Side, I encountered the building that used to accommodate the Balboa Police Station next to the Y.M.C.A. Building.  The structure is basically intact.  It is now occupied by the Administration Department of a monument dedicated to a Panamanian political leader (e.g., Dr. Arnulfo Arias Madrid).

Below are two photographs of the Balboa Police Station.  Here we go.

The former Balboa Police Station located at Balboa in the former Canal Zone. The building looks lonely and inactive; very different from the period when it was occupied by the Canal Zone Police Division. (Credit: Omar Upegui R.)

Another view of the former Balboa Police Station. It was sad to see how vacant and solitary the structure was. No activity at all. That is not the way I remembered this building during the period I worked for Texaco Antilles at La Boca Tank Farm. (Credit: Omar Upegui R.)

The crime rate at the Panama Canal Zone was almost nonexistent.  Now that Panama took over the Canal Zone, the area is not as safe as before.  I guess, there is no such thing as a free lunch.  Good Day.

Source:  A History of the Canal Zone Police – William F. Kessler

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Photograph of the Day: Sea of Clouds

(Credit: Pixdaus.com)

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