Earlier on in the new you heard the PM praise COMPOL Chester - but Jules Vasquez wasn't about to do that last night when he appeared on UNCUT.
The exchanges were sharp and sometimes accusatory - especially so when they got to the subject of ACP Marco Vidal - the third in command of the Department - who was suspended under a cloud of controversy last year when his Strike Team was accused of involvement in the landing of a drug plane. Now, Vidal is quietly being offered an early retirement after - our sources say - an investigation into possible wrongdoing was never produced.
But the Compol says it was produced - and it showed only a minor infraction. He and Jules had it out on that subject - here's the fiery exchange:
Jules Vasquez
"You said what a tough commander you are and how you correct people but I will challenge you on that, you have your favorites you don't correct. Mr. Vidal was one of them."
Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"Do you not have favorite people?"
Jules Vasquez
"In life I have favorite people."
Chester Williams
"Jules it is human nature that no matter what, we are going to have favorite people..."
Jules Vasquez
"You are one of my favorite people."
Chester Williams
"Bwai I wouldn't want be your enemy (laugh) but while we do have our favorite people, I always say to those ones that are my friends, I tell them that the fact you are my friend, I'm going to deal with you 10 times harder than I deal with the ones that are not my friends because you are not going to say oh, because you are the commissioner friend you get - no. They will say, you see how the commissioner deal with his friends, I have a brother in police you know and if you were to interview my brother and ask him how I treat him, you will ask the question if he is my brother but I said to him, nobody is going to say because you are the commissioner brother you get special treatment, they will say the commissioner treat his brother rough. So my favorite people are people who work, people who are going to go out, work their butts off to make sure that the people of this country are safe, they are my favorite people."
Jules Vasquez
"And indeed Mr. Vidal was legendary for his work."
Chester Williams
"He was a worker."
Jules Vasquez
"Would you say because of his extreme work ethic that you were perhaps not as vigilant as you might have been because you know that you don't have to worry about Mr. Vidal, he the work."
Chester Williams
"Certainly like I said Jules before, Mr. Vidal is a worker, Mr. Vidal is a no nonsense person, that's the type of person I know him to be and you know him to be that as well right and as much as there may be a lot to say out there about him, there is nothing to show that he was ever involved in any of what his team was involved in."
Jules Vasquez
"I don't know if that is the case, I have not seen the investigation."
Chester Williams
"Whether you know or you don't know Jules, you are going to say that because you strive on negativity, okay that's what you feed on."
Jules Vasquez
"Sir I strive on facts, you to tell me how you feel, I don't feel the man do this..."
Chester Williams
"If negativity were to be done with tomorrow, you would be dead."
Jules Vasquez
"(laugh) not at all sir. Facts, we want facts, show me the report. There is no report, you cannot show me the report because there is none."
Uncut repeats tonight at 8:00 on Channel 7 or you can find the full episode on our Facebook page.
