The saying goes that those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Called out for their alleged inaction in the recent disturbance at Somerset Cricket Club, the Bermuda Police Service hit back through senior officials, including the Commissioner of Police, making it very clear that their job is not to act as bodyguards for sports clubs.

The likes of Michael DeSilva also said that it is the clubs’ responsibility to peruse their playing line-ups and to determine who might cause them grief when travelling away from home for matches, and then take the appropriate action by excluding those personae non gratae.

You would think that anyone required by law enforcement to wear an ankle bracelet should fit that description. You think? Again, you couldn’t make this up.

A united front has been formed, with DeSilva supported by Assistant Commissioner Martin Weekes in laying the onus on the Bermuda Football Association, and, by extension, the clubs for policing their own product.

However, it is difficult to demand change of others, such as Somerset Cricket Club and Western Stars Sports Club, when right under your very own noses much of that same antisocial behaviour persists.

It is a worrying sign of the times when Police Field can be said to be a venue to steer clear of because of wanton drug abuse and other criminal offences that are not conducive to having the family on a day out.

What has taken place over the years is the ultimate “two fingers up” to the police, whose headquarters overlook the ground, and to the BFA, which took residence in the Clyde Best Centre of Excellence in June 2015, that those who have little regard for authority can not only come and go as they please, but also blaze their “self-medication” with impunity.

What gall.

The police — better still, their members — have had enough and have threatened to withdraw use of a facility that has been open to football for much of the past half-century.

Weekes said in part in his letter to the BFA, which since has been shared with all media: “ ... with a view to setting standards at our own club premises, the Bermuda Police Service wishes to inform you that, going forward, we will operate a ‘zero tolerance’ attitude to persons we have identified as persons involved in gang and criminal activity, utilising the Police Field.

“Officers will be in attendance at games played at Police Field going forward and will work with club officials to identify these persons and to inform them that they are not welcome to play at the Police Field. I wish to make it clear that the Bermuda Police Service is not targeting any club or team in particular and will apply this policy to all teams and indeed all sports currently played at Police Field, with a view to making sure that the Police [Recreation] Club is a safe place for families to come and watch football, and a place that Police Club members and their families can enjoy at the weekends.

“Additionally, in furtherance of our aim of ensuring that Police Field is a family-friendly environment, and due to complaints from Police Club members and their families using the club of open drug use by spectators at BFA fixtures, we will also be enforcing a zero-tolerance policy towards the use of illegal narcotics within the Police Headquarters complex. Police officers will be on hand to enforce this policy during this weekend’s game.”

What to take from this?

For one, the BFA can no longer dig its head in the sand and say that football does not have a drug problem, let alone a gang problem. The police have now said so publicly and are making a very public show of determining what should happen next.

The easiest problem to tackle is the spectators who bring drugs into the grounds; they are to be made unwelcome and dismissed or arrested if found in possession of illicit drugs.

Then comes sorting out the players involved in degrees of criminal activity. It is one thing for clubs to be giving at-risk citizens an alternative to criminal life; quite another to provide a platform while turning a blind eye. A different form of laundering.

Boulevard Community Club won many plaudits some years ago for tackling the gang and drug culture within the club and for driving players away who refused to cease and desist. With the revelations that as many as four of their present-day team members have been warned off by police at home matches, it is safe to say that what Lou Matthews put in place has not stuck.

They may soon be looking for a new place to play if the police cannot clean up Police Field quickly enough. So, too, Paget Football Club.

The zero-tolerance policy that the police now wish to enforce should be commonplace throughout all clubs. Drug-testing should be a way of life if we are actively to promote clean living, community and family.

The clubs must do their part and not be held hostage to fortune.

“Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you’re living?”

Some may say it’s a bit rich evoking the memory of Bob Marley in this context when much of his life and his music was an inspiration to uplift the oppressed and downtrodden.

But we Bermudians — black Bermudians, in particular, as those who most frequent these events — have some tough questions to ask of ourselves. Until we are prepared to get in one another’s faces and say that enough is enough, the minority will continue to make life hard for the majority.

Here, it affects adversely what is meant to be a fun event — football. A sport for the family, regardless of the standard. And not the hospital pass Mark Wade would have wanted when he took over from Larry Mussenden two months ago.

First the behaviour of our citizens necessitated the culling of the Police cricket team — we have seen how adversely that has affected our overall standards and national team selection processes — and now we run the risk of losing the facility altogether.

The clubs, although not entirely blameless, are between a rock and a hard place — no pun intended.