Soca Warriors Online Discussion Forum
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Organic on February 08, 2007, 05:13:53 AM
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Lawmen suspects in kidnap victim's killing; family seeks protection
Richard Charan South Bureau
Thursday, February 8th 2007
Three police officers are suspects in the murder of businessman Chaitlal Singh, who was silenced by bullets to the face and chest on Tuesday.
Homicide officers were last night looking for the officers and a fourth man, who they believe were possibly involved in the killing.
Singh was the victim of criminal gangs and corrupt policemen in the past. But he was fearless to the end, his family said yesterday.
His brother-in-law Pundit Rajesh Tewarie said: "He said he would leave everything in God's hands. He was charitable with his money and his service and believed he would be protected."
Investigators were asked yesterday to provide protection for Singh's wife and daughter.
Singh, 41, died fighting back. The two men who killed him did not hide behind masks. They came to his furniture and appliance store at St Mary's Junction, Freeport, at around 3 p.m.
Singh was in the store with his 14-year-old daughter. There were no customers. One man grabbed the girl by the head and pulled her away. The other shot Singh in the chest. He moved to fight back and was shot in the face and chest.
The men left in a cream coloured car which was seen travelling along the Waterloo Road, Carapichaima.
Singh was no stranger to crime. In June 1995, he was the victim of extortion by two police officers who framed him by planting fake cocaine in his car and demanded $100,000 in hush money.
Singh reported the matter, and constables Leon Wiggins and Vijai Bhola were convicted and jailed for six years.They began serving time in December 2002. Singh's testimony had withstood defence challenges in the trial, Appeal Court and Privy Council.
Singh was also the alleged victim of a kidnapping in 2005. He was taken from his store by two men, and carried to his home at Pundit Trace, Debe, where he was robbed. While being taken back to Freeport, he jumped from the kidnappers' car and broke a leg. The case against the suspects was dismissed last year.
But there remains a pending case in which constables Kenny Cruickshank, Vijai Bholai and Fazal Jahoor, and civilians Vishnu Hardial, Rajendra Singh and Kenny Baptiste, are charged with extorting money from Singh in May 1995.
The preliminary enquiry is being heard before Couva Magistrate Marcia Ayres Caesar.
Only four accused are being prosecuted. Kenny Baptiste was murdered some time ago. A warrant is out for the arrest of Rajendra Singh.
Chaitlal Singh has already given testimony and been cross examined in the enquiry.
The enquiry, which continued last month, is due to resume on February 27. Senior Counsel Sophia Chote is the special prosecutor in the enquiry.
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>:( >:( who would guard de guards ??? ???
Big Up!
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Trini-born cop caught in NY robbery jobs
Source: Trinidad Guardian
A T&T-BORN New York City policeman is expected to be indicted following his arrest on federal charges that he helped an ethnic Albanian gang rob drug dealers.
The officer, Darren Moonan, helped steal hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds of pounds of marijuana from drug dealers, FBI authorities have alleged.
The gang netted more than US$1 million in cash and narcotics by burglarising drug houses in the city, Nassau County and Pennsylvania, they said.
Moonan, who was assigned to a Queens precinct, was ordered held without bail on federal charges of conspiracy to commit drug trafficking and robbery. Six other men were also charged in the scheme.
Moonan, 28, has been in a federal detention centre in Manhattan since his arrest July 8 on federal conspiracy charges.
His arrest was not revealed until Tuesday, after an inquiry by a reporter from New York Newsday.
In the complaint, an FBI agent stated Moonan acted as a lookout and chauffeur, providing “security” for a robbery crew.
After some of the robberies, he “drove proceeds of the crime away from the scene” so that if stopped by police he could say “he was himself a police officer,” AP reported court papers as saying.
Moonan was overheard on wiretaps speaking to other suspected members of the gang about possible drug deals, US press reports stated yesterday.
Prosecutors said if convicted Moonan would face up to 60 years in prison, although the term could be much lower under sentencing guidelines.
Moonan’s attorney Bradley D Simon described his client as a decorated six-year veteran who was involved in the rescue effort after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, AP stated.
Profile
DARREN MOONAN comes from a family of policemen. His older brother is a police officer in Queens, New York, and his father was a police officer in Trinidad
In his six years on the job, Moonan made 112 arrests, including 35 for felonies.
He is now accused of betraying his badge to rob drug dealers, and was caught on wiretaps sounding like one of the hoods he put away.
Moonan was busted July 8, held without bail and suspended from the NYPD.
Kingman
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buh wha de muddaarse is dis wit we people in NY....fuss de ex-trackman now ah fuzz?
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dem think is Trinidad !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lock up dey mudass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
warmonga
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they go put him in the same cell with marvin lakhan aka crazytrini85.
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them albanians not ez atall atall.
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Moonan? ah wonder if any relation to mutilal moonan. any way buddy good luck wid dat, ah hope they go easy on yuh. positive.
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:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: it good
is people like them that make it worst for others to get visa
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Child victims in Cleveland shooting rampage range in age from 3 to 14
CLEVELAND - A woman and four children were found shot to death in their home on Cleveland's west side, and police were searching early Friday for the woman's husband, who fled the house on foot.
Police said all the victims were killed in various rooms of the upstairs apartment of a two-family home on a tree-lined street.
Police SWAT, vice and gang units had swarmed on building after the shooting. Deputy Chief Ed Tomba said the suspect being sought was married to the adult victim, and that the four children who were killed ranged in age from 3 to 14.
A police helicopter assisted in the search for the shooter and authorities were checking transit system buses.
"He's a danger to the community, so we're putting the pressure on to locate him," said Police Chief Michael McGrath. "The ideal thing is for this guy to turn himself in."
NBC News affiliate WKYC reported that a 12-year-old boy had managed to escape the house and notified neighbors of the shooting.
WKYC said six people had been shot inside the house. It identified the suspect as Davon Crawford, 33.
Citing Cuyahoga County records, WKYC reported that Crawford has previous convictions including voluntary manslaughter and felonious assault on a domestic-related case.
Outside the home, a man at a police blockade said he recognized the suspect in a police photo shown on television as the man who recently married his daughter. He said she lived on the street with her three children and with another of his daughters and that woman's twins.
"They told me both my daughters and my grandchildren are dead," said the man, Lamar Arnold, although it was not clear who had told him. "I don't want to talk about it; I just want to go to my grandson now. I want to see how he is, and that's all I care about now."
He said his daughter had sent him an unusual cell phone text message at 7:47 p.m. saying, "Call me, live your life, love it."
"Then I tried to call her about 12 times, and there never was an answer," he said.
The shootings happened around 8 p.m.
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too close for freaking comfort..
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Another nut on d loose.
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Why is it when they do they shit they doz run ,they suppoze to stand up wait on the police and shoot it out with them .
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Trinidad Express
South Bureau
Thursday, November 12th 2009
Three police officers have been suspended pending the outcome of an investigation linked to the alleged unauthorised use of a police vehicle that crashed three months ago.
The officers have been served with notice of disciplinary action and have been asked to appear before a tribunal to defend themselves.
Two corporals and a constable are involved. One of the officers has reportedly quit the Police Service. The investigation was sparked after a $400,000 Ford Everest Police Sports Utility Vehicle was found abandoned at Rousillac Village, La Brea, back in August.
Acting Police Commissioner James Philbert has indicated that no police officer disobeying the laws or Police Standing Orders will be spared.
Constable Duane Lewis, 21, in the Service for only four months, was charged with taking the vehicle without authorisation.
The SUV, part of the multi-million-dollar squad purchased to secure politicians at the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain earlier this year, was parked outside the San Fernando Police Station, when it was allegedly taken.
The vehicle crashed at Rousillac Village, La Brea, after a tyre blew out. Damage was put at $5,467.
Lewis is freed on $75,000 bail and will reappear in court on April 14.
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:applause: wow! 75k kinda steep, but I never before thought dey was being too harsh. sometimes you have to overshoot to find the equilibrium. well done... I sure de babylong go pass on that seriousness to the public.
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My thing is what about all those police officers that use the vehicles to go on personal house to house "visitation" during lunch times?
And who does actually stop home to eat they wife food!
They setting an example of these 3s
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My thing is what about all those police officers that use the vehicles to go on personal house to house "visitation" during lunch times?
And who does actually stop home to eat they wife food!
They setting an example of these 3s
Of course not
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Judge describes incident as very disturbing
Indarjit Seuraj
Published: 2 Dec 2010
Indarjit Seuraj
The State yesterday admitted it had no defence to a lawsuit brought by a Valencia woman, who was stripped and searched in full view of motorists during a roadblock exercise more than nine years ago. Justice Sebastian Ventour will rule in a subsequent hearing on the quantum of damages to be awarded to Clothilda Madoo. As he entered a default judgment in favour of the claimant yesterday, Ventour was critical of the conduct of the police, describing the incident as “very disturbing.” Justice Ventour, who heard the facts of the case for the first time yesterday, listened in disbelief.
He asked: “All her clothes except her brassiere? At 10.30 in the morning? All her clothes, Mr (Neil) Byam? And the State is not defending?” The victim, 51, a mother of nine, of 156 Valencia Old Road, Valencia, was arrested on January 4, 2001, and taken to a roadblock at the junction of Valencia Old Road and Toco Main Road, where she was ordered to strip down to her bra. Lawyers representing the State conceded they could not defend the lawsuit for unlawful arrest and assault filed by attorneys for Madoo — Ravi Heffes-Doon and Kern Saney. The State had initially claimed that the alleged incident never took place. However, State counsel Neil Byam informed the judge that police officers who gave statements in the matter had not returned to sign them, effectively rendering the statements inadmissible for the defence.
Ventour was appalled and sought answers for the actions of the police officers involved. “It’s unbelievable. How can this be?” he asked. “I can’t believe this Mr Byam, I really can’t. It is horrendous.” He said the officers committed acts which were “unlawful” and didn’t bother to sign statements they had given. “I have to say this from the bench, they are playing the fool,” he said. Justice Ventour asked whether the officers’ reluctance to sign these statements had been reported to the relevant authorities. “Did you write to the Commissioner of Police about this?” he asked the State attorney. Byam said he had not. On the day of the incident, Madoo was accompanying her common-law husband, Christopher Sorzano, on a visit to a relative in Vega, Sangre Grande. When they were near the roadblock, Sorzano stopped his Mazda 626 turned back for home. Within minutes, police officers arrived to their home and literally dragged Madoo back to the roadblock area.There, she was told to strip and was left with only her brassiere on. The officer said that was only because it was “see through.”
Afterwards, the officer instructed her to squat. During this time, motorists drove slowly past the roadblock and saw the naked woman. In her statement to her attorneys, Madoo said she felt “very embarrassed, disgraced and humiliated” at the way she was searched by the officers. To make matters worse, when she was released from the Sangre Grande Police Station later that day, one of the police officers told her to wear better underwear. At that time, Madoo was 41-years-old and earned her living by humble means as a gardener. Ventour ordered that written submissions on the award of damages be submitted by the claimant, no later that January 7. The State was ordered to respond by January 14.
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no wonder crime so high, police busy with other things, villa capri probably was too expensive for them.
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no wonder crime so high, police busy with other things, villa capri probably was too expensive for them.
(how much IS that?)
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Disturbing....
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Something similar happened in Sweden earlier this year:
Police criticised after teen forced to strip
Published: 18 May 10 14:13 CET |
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/26712/20100518/
Police officers at a station in southern Sweden have been criticised by the Chancellor of Justice (Justitiekanslern, JK) after they forced a 16-year-old girl to strip naked.
The Chancellor, one of Sweden's most senior law officers, slammed the officers in Lund for routinely forcing young people in their custody to strip, and also noted the lack of documentation regarding the case.
The teenager was at a party in Lomma, near Lund, which was raided by the police in February last year. She was tired and had fallen asleep when the police came to the apartment. Because they suspected that she had taken drugs, they took her to the police station.
At the station, the police forced the girl to strip naked. In the room, there were two female police officers, but there was a glass window in the door into which all who passed by could look. According to the girl, several male police officers were outside.
She then provided urine samples, which showed that she had not taken drugs, which she was under suspicion for.
She was offended by by her treatment and reported the matter to the Chancellor of Justice.
"The Chancellor of Justice has questioned why she had to undress completely naked and the fact that it was carried out in a room where other people could observe her through a pane of glass in the door to the room," wrote JK administrators Anna Skarhed and Katarina Berglund Siegbahn in their ruling. "If there was a suspicion of drug possession, that would have warranted a physical search in the form of a clothing inspection."
They added, "Undressing more or less was routine when it came to suspicion of minor drug offenses. The Chancellor of Justice has reason to believe that this has happened in this case. The Chancellor assumes that the police authority in Skåne will review its procedures with regard to physical inspections and body searches for minor drug offenses if it has not already done so."
Skåne police reported that the clear glass pane has since been replaced by frosted glass.
A preliminary investigation of misconduct began after the girl reported the treatment. The girl, however, changed her mind and asked that the case be closed.
"In this case, two colleagues did not follow the right procedures," Skåne police general counsel Mårten Unbeck told The Local. "It will not be necessary to change normal procedures. I have to read the JK decision first. We did wrong in this case. We don't normally do this."
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COPS WARN SASHA
E-mails came from Sasha's home
Story Created: Jun 17, 2011 at 11:54 PM ECT
(Story Updated: Jun 17, 2011 at 11:54 PM ECT )
SASHA MOHAMMED, special adviser to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, was yesterday issued a stern warning by police after their probe uncovered that the threatening e-mail sent to Express editor-in-chief Omatie Lyder and reporter Anna Ramdass originated from the computer at her home.
Police had initiated an investigation after Lyder and Ramdass reported that they were threatened in an e-mail on January 30 sent to them by someone adopting the alias "Janice Thomas" in connection with the Reshmi Usha Ramnarine story being investigated by the Express.
The report was made on January 31 at the Port of Spain CID office to ASP Ajith Persad and now-deceased Supt Lennard Gay.
Gay and Persad immediately instructed Cpl Rennie Grant of the CID to conduct the investigations.
Lyder and Ramdass had submitted statements to Grant during the course of the investigation including copies of the e-mail, which was also posted on the Caribbean Talk website but subsequently removed following complaints from the two journalists.
The e-mail, which targeted Lyder and Ramdass,was addressed to editors and reporters of the Express and staff of CCN-TV6 as well as other media houses, accused Lyder and Ramdass of a personal vendetta against Ramnarine.
The e-mail stated that "their day in the sun is over" and "this is the beginning... they will understand the consequences of their actions..."
The Express first broke the story of the questionable appointment of Ramnarine to the post of director of the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) and had at the time been investigating how she came to be hired as director of the SSA with false credentials.
Mohammed, in company with her attorney Om Lalla, yesterday went to the CID office around 2.30 p.m. where they met with ASP Ajith Persad and Cpl Rennie Grant .
Attempts to reach Mohammed yesterday were unsuccessful as calls to her cell phone went unanswered up to late last evening.
Lalla, when contacted, confirmed that he and his client were at the CID yesterday, but did not wish to say more on the matter.
Mohammed, a former journalist, joined the People's Partnership Government as engagement adviser to Persad-Bissessar, six months after the May 24 general elections last year.
Police said Mohammed, who remained silent throughout yesterday's interview, was given a stern warning that the action was a serious criminal offence which carries fines and jail sentences.
After Lyder and Ramdass reported the incident to police on January 31, Persad and Grant summoned officers from the Police Cyber Unit to assist in tracing the IP address of the sender of the email.
Cyber-crime police were able to determine the e-mails were sent from an IP address in the name of Mohammed at her Boundary Road, San Juan, home.
The Internet provider was also identified as Flow Trinidad Ltd.
Police said they wrote to Flow seeking official information after Mohammed's IP address was identified as being used to send the "hate mails" but the company said the police had to produce a court order before any personal information regarding any of its customers could be released.
An order was subsequently issued by a Clerk of the Peace at the Port of Spain Magistrates' Court in May which paved the way for Flow to release the information sought by police.
The information provided by Flow revealed that the threatening e-mail originated from Mohammed's computer and Internet account.
Cpl Grant went to the PM's St Clair office on Thursday where he spoke with Mohammed on the status of the police probe.
At yesterday's meeting, police said Mohammed was told that if anyone had accessed her computer during the period the offences took place and such persons could not be identified, Mohammed could be held culpable, according to the law.
The investigations into the complaint by Lyder and Ramdass were supervised and monitored by head of the CID Snr Supt Glen Hackett.
Attempts to contact Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar were unsuccessful yesterday.
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kamla aint even go hang jack but i sure she go take dis bush
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Why a warning? Go charge somebody.
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Side note: I find it unprofessional when a reporter refers to the subject by their first name.
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Why a warning? Go charge somebody.
I'm not sure why she wasn't .
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Side note: I find it unprofessional when a reporter refers to the subject by their first name.
Where did that happen?
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steups at sasha using an alias "janice thomas' to send her threatening emails. obviously wanted to make lyder, ramdass and the police think a black woman was sending it, of course.
steups
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LOUDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
STEUPSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
So it legal now 2 lie on yuh Resume and threaten people.
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SASHA UNDER FIRE
Originally printed at http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/SASHA_UNDER_FIRE-124143579.html
By Renuka Singh
June 18, 2011
Attorney General Anand Ramlogan yesterday was the only Cabinet Minister to criticise the e-mails sent from the home computer of Sasha Mohammed, special adviser to the Prime Minister, attacking Express editor-in-chief Omatie Lyder and Express reporter Anna Ramdass.
While his Cabinet colleagues steered clear of the issue, Ramlogan called it "unfortunate" and advised all threatened media personnel to do what was "in their best interest".
"It is unfortunate that such a message went out to two senior journalists by a colleague," he said in a telephone interview.
"But it is a matter for them to take such action as they deem fit," he added.
Ramlogan said in this Internet age no employer can "exercise total control over the private use of the Internet by employees".
"That is a serious challenge the world over," Ramlogan said.
Ramlogan said he could not comment on the question of criminal charges and prosecution in the hate mail attack on the journalists from Mohammed's computer.
The e-mails were sent from an e-mail account under the name Janice Thomas which was traced to Mohammed's computer.
"That is a matter for the police and the Director of Public Prosecutions," he said.
But even as Ramlogan criticised Mohammed's actions, Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley spat fire at both her and Julie Browne, deputy director of the Strategic Services Agency (SSA), calling them a "clear and present threat" to the well being of the People's National Movement (PNM).
Rowley was speaking after the PNM's general council meeting at Balisier House, Port of Spain yesterday.
Rowley criticised the cyber attack from Mohammed's computer and called for her to resign from her post.
He said the PNM was "threatened" by the continued employment of Mohammed and Browne in senior positions close to the office Prime Minister.
He said it was the PNM's duty to criticise and monitor the government.
"It is a threat to our well-being to have persons who are on the government payroll in positions like Julie Browne and Sasha Mohammed," he said.
"Until such persons are removed from the public sector payroll, we will continue to feel threatened," he said.
"I am calling on the Prime Minister to remove her (Browne) and stop using her for personal protection. After the conduct ascribed to Sasha Mohammed, I call on Prime Minister to tell the country if for the third time she is going to provide sustenance and protection to individuals in public service who are carrying on," he said.
Rowley counted Browne and dismissed SSA director and Mohammed's friend Reshmi Ramnarine as the first two people that the Prime Minister refused to comment on.
Rowley said officers of the State were being paid to do dangerous police work under the People's Partnership.
On Friday, police officers gave a stern warning to Mohammed over threatening e-mails sent to Lyder and Ramdass as the issues with Ramnarine's appointment to the SSA unfolded in the media.
Chairman of the Congress of the People Joseph Toney, commenting on the matter yesterday, said: "If a crime has been committed, in the circumstances of threatening e-mails from a Janice Thomas, then the perpetrator of the crime must face the full brunt of the law. The law does not allow the police to give a stern warning to anyone who has committed crime."
Lyder responded yesterday: "The judgment of the Prime Minister in her selection of people in key positions, paid for by taxpayers, is being questioned once again as it did in the shocking appointment of Reshmi Ramnarine to head the SSA.
"Sasha Mohammed, an adviser to the Prime Minister, based on the outcome of the police investigation into what I considered to be threatening e-mails sent to me and Express reporter Anna Ramdass, is clearly not fit to advise anyone, and certainly not the prime minister of the country," she said.
"The e-mail was no doubt designed to intimidate me and the Express in our investigation of the appointment of Ms Ramnarine and to stifle freedom of the press.
"It failed to achieve this and never will.
"The Prime Minister must act as by now, she must be fully briefed on the outcome of the police investigation into the source of the emails. We are weighing our options in this matter."
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PM stays mum on Sasha
By Nikita Braxton-Benjamin South Bureau
Story Created: Jun 18, 2011 at 11:53 PM ECT
(Story Updated: Jun 18, 2011 at 11:53 PM ECT )
PRIME MINISTER Kamla Persad-Bissessar steered clear of journalists yesterday, not taking questions from reporters who waited for more than two hours to interview her.
Persad-Bissessar attended yesterday's South Regional Arm of the United National Congress Sports and Family Day held at Syne Village, Penal.
The Prime Minister, advertised as a "special guest", arrived at PowerGen Grounds around 4.30 p.m. where, surrounded by her security detail, she stopped to greet several people at the event.
Persad-Bissessar was approached by reporters who asked if she would answer questions.
She did not respond and continued walking.
She then retreated to the PowerGen Sports Club, located next to the grounds.
The media were told she went to "refresh herself".
A security officer stood guard at the entrance and told members of the media they were not allowed to enter the building.
Persad-Bissessar stayed for over an hour.
When she emerged from the building to make her way back to the sports day, she walked past the media, her security detail and police officers shielding her.
Back on the field she handed out prizes and took the microphone to thank the organisers of the sports and family day. She promised to return next year.
Persad-Bissessar's husband Dr Gregory Bissessar, who the pervious day had undergone several tests and was diagnosed with blockages in the blood vessels to his heart, stood at her side.
Reporters did not get the chance to ask Persad-Bissessar about her adviser Sasha Mohammed being warned by police officers after it was discovered that "hate mail" was sent from her home computer to Express Editor-in-Chief Omatie Lyder and Express reporter Anna Ramdass.
Government ministers also made no comment.
Both Local Government Minister Chandresh Sharma and Housing and Environment Minister Roodal Moonilal said they had not seen yesterday's Express lead story about Mohammed and the e-mails sent from her computer.
"I have not read the article so I don't know what the details are but I'm sure whatever it is, the law will always oblige if it is legal issue," Sharma said.
"I haven't read the newspaper ...I haven't read it to understand what is happening with that but I imagine if it is a police matter it is a police matter," was Moonilal's response.
Works and Transport Minister Jack Warner also declined comment.
"I not in that. When the Prime Minister comes ask her," he said.
Previous article
...MATT calls for response from Govt
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...Other victim of cyber attacks
By Akile Simon
Story Created: Jun 18, 2011 at 11:53 PM ECT
(Story Updated: Jun 18, 2011 at 11:53 PM ECT )
FORMER Express editor and columnist Raoul Pantin yesterday said that he, too, was a victim of a cyber attack launched against him from the computer of Sasha Mohammed under the e-mail name Janice Thomas.
He called on Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to fire Mohammed as her special adviser.
Pantin said yesterday that after the police were able to ascertain that threatening e-mails sent to Express Editor-in-chief Omatie Lyder and reporter Anna Ramdass came from Mohammed's computer at her Boundary Road, San Juan home.
During a telephone interview with the Sunday Express yesterday, Pantin described his previous cyber attack by a woman who disguised herself as Janice Thomas, while interacting by e-mails and Facebook, as "vicious and unwarranted".
Pantin, during the interview yesterday, said that he was very surprised after he conducted his own investigation when the cyber attack was launched against him.
He called on Persad-Bissessar to take decisive action in the matter and immediately relieve Mohammed of her duties.
"I think the woman has lost all her credibility and I think she should be fired. The Prime Minister should fire her. What kind of credibility does she have now working for the Prime Minister?
"I mean that is the most unprincipled kind of behaviour to turn around and threaten journalists who incidentally were her former friends and she, herself, a journalist," Pantin said.
Pantin said the attack came at a time when his daughter had produced a documentary and he had written a book on the 1990 attempted coup.
He added after several exchanges with Thomas via Facebook posts, he decided to conduct his own investigation in an attempt to ascertain the true identity of the woman.
He said: "Out of the blue skies this woman starts to viciously attack me for promoting myself and all kinds of foolishness when I suddenly got this Facebook assault from this person called Janice Thomas, who started to accuse me of promoting my own interest, and not promoting my daughter, because I had been doing some promotional work on my book on the (1990) 'coup'.
"So I replied to this woman saying I don't know who you are I have never met you and I don't understand what you are talking about and I really wish you would stop because this is just malicious slander. She even at one point, invented a husband, to tell me that she and her husband didn't know my work and was not interested in me and one set of foolishness which I could not understand what it was all about. I did not understand what caused it," Pantin said.
He added after he stated his intentions, via Facebook, to reveal the true identity of Janice Thomas, the profile disappeared.
"As a matter of fact, (around that time) I posted on Facebook that the identity of Janice Thomas will soon be revealed, and thereafter, Janice Thomas disappeared from Facebook," Pantin said.
On Friday, Mohammed, in company with her attorney Om Lalla, went to the CID office around 2.30 p.m. where they met with ASP Ajith Persad and Cpl Rennie Grant.
Police said Mohammed, who remained silent throughout Friday's interview, was given a stern warning that the action was a serious criminal offence.
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i aint get why ppl harping on the janice thomas 'african' name...
ppl saying she shud have chosen a more fitting 'ali ass'...trinis good yuhkno
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i aint get why ppl harping on the janice thomas 'african' name...
ppl saying she shud have chosen a more fitting 'ali ass'...trinis good yuhkno
Sandra Jagdeosingh might have worked both ways
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Am I understanding this correctly
The woman send threatning emails from her Home computer, using a fake name completely unaware that an IP can be traced??!!
People really dat chupid in 2011? wha kinda advice she could possible be givin to a prime minister if you as dumb as a rock.
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Am I understanding this correctly
The woman send threatning emails from her Home computer, using a fake name completely unaware that an IP can be traced??!!
People really dat chupid in 2011? wha kinda advice she could possible be givin to a prime minister if you as dumb as a rock.
Sasha
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Jack: Govt to make statement on Sasha
Published: Mon, 2011-06-20 01:11
Richard Lord
Sasha Mohammed Works and Transport Minister Jack Warner says the Government is expected to make a statement on allegations of wrongdoing by Sasha Mohammed, adviser to the Prime Minister. Warner was commenting on police reports that threatening e-mails were sent from Mohammed’s home computer to Express Editor-in-Chief Omatie Lyder and reporter Anna Ramdass. The threats were reportedly made in response to news reports about the former employee of the Strategic Intelligence Agency (SIA) Reshmi Ramnarine. Warner said he was never one to jump to conclusion on any matter “and therefore I am sure in the fulness of time there shall be a statement.”
He said he did not have the facts and as a result could not comment on the matter. “We seem to have a rush to judgment that everybody must step down (in T&T),” Warner said. “Too many persons are falling victims to the media hype, to (Opposition Leader Keith) Rowley and his foolishness.” Rowley had called publicly for the removal of Mohammed for her alleged actions. But Warner said the police did not say that the threatening messages were sent by Mohammed. He said if they were sent from her computer, it did not necessarily mean it was sent by her.
He said only after all the evidence was presented could the issue of stepping down be considered.
Pressed for further comment, Warner said: “The Prime Minister will know what she has to do or not do...I am not going to make judgment.” Warner spent Father’s Day yesterday helping with the cooking at a lime at Caura River. He also danced to tassa drumming with constituents at the event which was organised by his Chaguanas West constituency.
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i aint get why ppl harping on the janice thomas 'african' name...
ppl saying she shud have chosen a more fitting 'ali ass'...trinis good yuhkno
Sandra Jagdeosingh might have worked both ways
Why bring in Kendal sister in this commesse!!!!????
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Is Janice Thomas a african name i dont think so ::)
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Is Janice Thomas a african name i dont think so ::)
Is it Indian?
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No it is not an indian name
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I love it when they stick their necks out for each other. If these "ministers" spent more effort on their jobs than little issues like this, imagine how much they could achieve. This man for real??? :-\ :-\
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Fuad_begs_citizens__Leave_Sasha_alone-124327898.html
Fuad begs citizens: Leave Sasha alone
By Keino Swamber South Bureau
Story Created: Jun 21, 2011 at 10:44 PM ECT
Story Updated: Jun 21, 2011 at 10:44 PM ECT
VICE chairman of the United National Congress (UNC) Dr Fuad Khan is asking citizens to leave Sasha Mohammed alone.
Mohammed is special adviser to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
The San Juan/Barataria Member of Parliament who is also the Deputy Speaker in the House of Representatives, issued the call in a blog posting on the Yahoo Group "The United Voice".
Khan confirmed to the Express yesterday that he was the author of the blog posting which had as its subject: "Leave Sasha Alone!!!!"
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Sasha denies sending threatening e-mails
By Akile Simon
Story Created: Jun 21, 2011 at 10:44 PM ECT
(Story Updated: Jun 21, 2011 at 10:44 PM ECT )
SASHA MOHAMMED, adviser to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, has for the first time denied that she sent threatening e-mails to Express editor-in-chief Omatie Lyder and reporter Anna Ramdass.
Mohammed, through her attorneys Jagdeo Singh, Ravi Rajcoomar and Kelvin Ramkissoon, sent a three-page letter to Commissioner of Police Dwayne Gibbs yesterday, asking what offence she committed.
The letter has come on the heels of mounting calls for Persad-Bissessar to dismiss Mohammed and the police to lay criminal charges against Mohammed after their investigations revealed that the threatening e-mails came from Mohammed's computer at her home.
Persad-Bissessar remained mum on the issue for the fifth day yesterday.
Last Friday, ASP Ajith Persad and Cpl Rennie Grant of the Port of Spain CID interviewed Mohammed in the presence of her former attorney, Om Lalla, regarding the e-mails which were sent to Lyder and Ramdass in January.
Officers told Mohammed that their investigation showed that the e-mails came from her computer at her San Juan home after Internet provider Flow confirmed that the IP address from which the e-mails were sent was assigned to Mohammed.
After Lyder and Ramdass reported the incident to police on January 31, Persad and Grant asked officers from the Police Cyber Unit to assist in tracing the IP address of the sender of the e-mail.
Officers at the unit were able to determine the e-mails were sent from an IP address in the name of Mohammed at her San Juan home and a court order was obtained which directed Internet provider Flow to release the relevant information to police.
The information provided by Flow revealed that the e-mail originated from Mohammed's computer and Internet account.
Mohammed's attorneys, in their letter to Gibbs, stated as far as they are aware, there is no offence within the law books of the country which their client is accused of committing.
They said, "We make this enquiry since in our respectful view, having examined and considered the factual matrix of the case, there appears to be no known breach of the criminal law for which our client can be the subject of investigation, let alone be deemed culpable so as to justify an admonition on the part of your officers.
"The much touted 'cyber bullying' concept is not a criminal offence in Trinidad and Tobago, and is as such an alien concept which forms no part of the laws and jurisprudence of this country. Any conduct suggestive thereof cannot therefore constitute a basis for a police investigation or offence.
The attorneys said while Mohammed was being interviewed, no particular offence was identified to her by the police.
Mohammed's attorneys stated: "Our client has further instructed that upon advice and instructions from her former counsel, and acting upon such advice, she remained silent and but clearly denied any wrongdoing on her part or any knowledge of wrongdoing and denied anything that was put to her by the police officers undertaking the interview.
"Further, we are instructed that despite the admonition issued by the police to her, curiously, no specific offence was identified to our client as being the subject of investigations by the police. Our client was however, then given an assurance by the police that the issuing of this warning would have brought conclusion to the matter.
The letter added, "The position of our client however, has been, and continues to be, that she denies knowledge about the issuing of the said purported e-mails to the concerned parties and in this regard, cannot be held culpable.
"In the circumstances where the said police officers met with our client and issued a warning to her, there would have had to be a basis in law for them to do so. We therefore now seek clarification from you as to what is the specific offence which our client is alleged to have committed and the necessary particulars thereof."
The lawyers stated in their letter to Gibbs: "It would have been wholly wrong for the police to have come to a conclusion of the commission of no criminal offence, yet proceed to issue a warning to our client. In these circumstances, our client has been advised that the action of the police in pursuing such a course of conduct was illegal and a flagrant violation of the rules of procedural fairness to which our client is justly entitled."
Gibbs was given three days to respond.
Mohammed, a former journalist, joined the People's Partnership Government as engagement adviser to Persad-Bissessar, six months after the May 24 general election last year.
Police had initiated an investigation after Lyder and Ramdass reported they were threatened in an e-mail in January sent to them by someone adopting the alias "Janice Thomas" in connection with the Reshmi Usha Ramnarine story being investigated by the Express.
The threatening e-mail, which targeted Lyder and Ramdass, was addressed to editors and reporters of the Express and staff of CCN-TV6 as well as other media houses, accused Lyder and Ramdass of a personal vendetta against Ramnarine.
The e-mail stated that "their day in the sun is over" and "this is the beginning ... they will understand the consequences of their actions..."
The Express first broke the story of the questionable appointment of Ramnarine to the post of director of the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) and had at the time been investigating how she came to be hired as director of the SSA with false credentials.
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I love it when they stick their necks out for each other. If these "ministers" spent more effort on their jobs than little issues like this, imagine how much they could achieve. This man for real??? :-\ :-\
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Fuad_begs_citizens__Leave_Sasha_alone-124327898.html
Fuad begs citizens: Leave Sasha alone
By Keino Swamber South Bureau
Story Created: Jun 21, 2011 at 10:44 PM ECT
Story Updated: Jun 21, 2011 at 10:44 PM ECT
VICE chairman of the United National Congress (UNC) Dr Fuad Khan is asking citizens to leave Sasha Mohammed alone.
Mohammed is special adviser to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
The San Juan/Barataria Member of Parliament who is also the Deputy Speaker in the House of Representatives, issued the call in a blog posting on the Yahoo Group "The United Voice".
Khan confirmed to the Express yesterday that he was the author of the blog posting which had as its subject: "Leave Sasha Alone!!!!"
"Sasha tried something that did not go well. It is not a reason for her to go anywhere"
if this not laughable i aint know what is
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i aint get why ppl harping on the janice thomas 'african' name...
ppl saying she shud have chosen a more fitting 'ali ass'...trinis good yuhkno
No boss. Right after the elections last year, a lot of fake profiles with names that sounded either of African or East Indian descent was set up and the nastiness was flying left, right and centre.....
Yes in T&T you can't take a name at face value as the person being one race or another but these nasty, stinking people ON BOTH SIDES, used it anyway.....
That is what Ms. Mohammed was trying to do......silly girl....
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i aint get why ppl harping on the janice thomas 'african' name...
ppl saying she shud have chosen a more fitting 'ali ass'...trinis good yuhkno
No boss. Right after the elections last year, a lot of fake profiles with names that sounded either of African or East Indian descent was set up and the nastiness was flying left, right and centre.....
Yes in T&T you can't take a name at face value as the person being one race or another but these nasty, stinking people ON BOTH SIDES, used it anyway.....
That is what Ms. Mohammed was trying to do......silly girl....
Exactly in TNT Janice Thomas when u c her she can me a chinee but when u hear d name u tink african.
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Since when you need a legal team to deny doing something wrong.
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Since when you need a legal team to deny doing something wrong.
Since May 25th 2010.
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Since when you need a legal team to deny doing something wrong.
Since May 25th 2010.
:rotfl:
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Jah Gol, yuh signature is very creepy......*chills run down my spine*
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Jah Gol, yuh signature is very creepy......*chills run down my spine*
:devil:
Brownsugar & weary in top form today!!
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Just a slightly different view of this situation:
http://pedrotercero.wordpress.com/2011/06/22/blogging-via-blackberry-a-game-of-cyber-chess-not-checkers/
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Just a slightly different view of this situation:
http://pedrotercero.wordpress.com/2011/06/22/blogging-via-blackberry-a-game-of-cyber-chess-not-checkers/
That person talking shit... plain and simple. IP addresses aren't traced to residences but to individual computers... a high school student with passing knowledge of computers could tell you that. So there's no need for the "allegedly" traced the email to her computer, they DID trace the email to her computer. The writer also displays an ignorance for how the laws operate... police may not be able to prove with absolute certainty that she was the one who sent the email from HER computer... but a person is presumed to be master over their property. Since the computer in question is hers there is a rebuttable presumption that she was the one who sent it. It is her burden to prove that she did not send the offending email. Same if a criminal offense is conducted with my car, the presumption is that I, or someone with permission to use it is the driver. It's interesting still to read all the uninformed opinions floating about the place though.
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McLeod joins calls for Sasha's removal: PM remains mum
Originally printed at http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/McLeod_joins_calls_for_Sasha_s_removal__PM_remains_mum-124397808.html
By Aabida Allaham aabida.allaham@trinidadexpress.com
June 22, 2011
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar maintained her silence on allegations involving her special adviser, Sasha Mohammed, for a sixth consecutive day yesterday.
Questioned on the issue outside the St Clair Medical Centre where her husband underwent triple by-pass heart surgery, the Prime Minister smiled and walked away.
But one of the coalition partners forming the Government, the Movement of Social Justice, headed by Labour Minister Errol McLeod, yesterday commented on the issue, calling on the Prime Minister to remove Mohammed in light of the allegations.
Police investigations found hate mails which were sent to Express editor-in-chief Omatie Lyder and reporter Anna Ramdass came from Mohammed's personal computer at her San Juan home.
The hate mails were sent during the Express expose of the Reshmi Ramnarine fiasco where it was reported an unqualified Ramnarine, a close friend of Mohammed, was elevated to the post of head of the Strategic Services Agency (SSA).
Mohammed, through her lawyers, denied she sent the hate mails but despite her denial, members of the Government have called for her removal, saying press freedom must be protected.
In its statement, "The Movement for Social Justice is calling on the honourable Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to take immediate steps to remove special adviser to the Prime Minister Sasha Mohammed as a result of her unacceptable conduct uncovered by the police investigation into e-mails threatening journalists in Trinidad and Tobago."
"The MSJ is of the belief that there is no place for this type of unethical behaviour in the politics of Trinidad and Tobago, and that this matter should be dealt with the urgency it deserves.
"We believe that solid investigative journalism that seeks transparency in the public affairs is a great feature of our democracy, particularly, in its efforts to keep our leaders honest and promote the highest standards of governance and despise and disapprove of all attempts at intimidation to silence the voice of the media," the MSJ stated.
Members of the Congress of the People (COP) have also expressed their views that Mohammed should step down as the Prime Minister's adviser.
Speaking at the COP leadership election debate at City Hall, Port of Spain, on Tuesday, Legal Affairs Minister Prakash Ramadhar said a person must step aside once there are serious allegations against them.
"Once there is a serious allegation made against any public official, they should stand aside."
He reiterated his comments yesterday while speaking to members of the media, following his visit to the St Clair hospital to lend support to the Prime Minster, saying it was not different from the call he made when allegations of bribery were made against Works and Transport Minister Jack Warner in his capacity as FIFA vice-president.
"There is no difference; there is a standard we have to set whenever there are serious allegations being made; the query is who determines what is serious, but its not for me to make that call. The COP stands by the position that when you hold public office, you must uphold the standards that we expect," he said.
Sport Minister Anil Roberts, who is also a candidate in the COP elections, had told the Express that such serious allegations call for Mohammed's resignation.
Other coalition partners, the Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) and the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC), are yet to state their position on the issue.
I remember Manning had a sore throat for about 2 weeks when they had questions for him.
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Just a slightly different view of this situation:
http://pedrotercero.wordpress.com/2011/06/22/blogging-via-blackberry-a-game-of-cyber-chess-not-checkers/
That person talking shit... plain and simple. IP addresses aren't traced to residences but to individual computers... a high school student with passing knowledge of computers could tell you that. So there's no need for the "allegedly" traced the email to her computer, they DID trace the email to her computer. The writer also displays an ignorance for how the laws operate... police may not be able to prove with absolute certainty that she was the one who sent the email from HER computer... but a person is presumed to be master over their property. Since the computer in question is hers there is a rebuttable presumption that she was the one who sent it. It is her burden to prove that she did not send the offending email. Same if a criminal offense is conducted with my car, the presumption is that I, or someone with permission to use it is the driver. It's interesting still to read all the uninformed opinions floating about the place though.
So Bakes....under law it is a fact that presumption of innocence mandates a defendant to prove innocence or is the only requirement on the prosecution to prove guilt?
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So Bakes....under law it is a fact that presumption of innocence mandates a defendant to prove innocence or is the only requirement on the prosecution to prove guilt?
Prosecution always has the burden of proving guilt... speaking here of Western common law countries, who know what they do in totalitarian and autocratic regimes. A finding of guilt is for the trier of fact (be it judge or jury) to determine, but in a situation like this if the prosecution places you at the scene of the crime it's up to you to offer an alibi witness. It is clear that either she or someone in her home, with access to her computer is guilty of the act. And forget all this "cyberbullying" talk... that's nonsense, as her attorneys correctly point out that's not a law, let alone a crime. What she would be guilty of here is harassment. She either has to own up to the charge or say who else had access on that day.
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Just a slightly different view of this situation:
http://pedrotercero.wordpress.com/2011/06/22/blogging-via-blackberry-a-game-of-cyber-chess-not-checkers/
That person talking shit... plain and simple. IP addresses aren't traced to residences but to individual computers... a high school student with passing knowledge of computers could tell you that. So there's no need for the "allegedly" traced the email to her computer, they DID trace the email to her computer. The writer also displays an ignorance for how the laws operate... police may not be able to prove with absolute certainty that she was the one who sent the email from HER computer... but a person is presumed to be master over their property. Since the computer in question is hers there is a rebuttable presumption that she was the one who sent it. It is her burden to prove that she did not send the offending email. Same if a criminal offense is conducted with my car, the presumption is that I, or someone with permission to use it is the driver. It's interesting still to read all the uninformed opinions floating about the place though.
Daiz what I was thinking in all this. She have to prove that someone else use she PC or else she responsible. You cyah just say is not me when they have evidence that it come from you. I want to see where this goes.
The PM say anything yet?
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Just a slightly different view of this situation:
http://pedrotercero.wordpress.com/2011/06/22/blogging-via-blackberry-a-game-of-cyber-chess-not-checkers/
That person talking shit... plain and simple. IP addresses aren't traced to residences but to individual computers... a high school student with passing knowledge of computers could tell you that. So there's no need for the "allegedly" traced the email to her computer, they DID trace the email to her computer. The writer also displays an ignorance for how the laws operate... police may not be able to prove with absolute certainty that she was the one who sent the email from HER computer... but a person is presumed to be master over their property. Since the computer in question is hers there is a rebuttable presumption that she was the one who sent it. It is her burden to prove that she did not send the offending email. Same if a criminal offense is conducted with my car, the presumption is that I, or someone with permission to use it is the driver. It's interesting still to read all the uninformed opinions floating about the place though.
Daiz what I was thinking in all this. She have to prove that someone else use she PC or else she responsible. You cyah just say is not me when they have evidence that it come from you. I want to see where this goes.
The PM say anything yet?
Yeah , go and get your heart screened, eat properly and exercise.
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:rotfl: :rotfl: Jah u go kill meh
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What a leader she is.
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What a leader she is.
:-[ :-[ :-[
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Just a slightly different view of this situation:
http://pedrotercero.wordpress.com/2011/06/22/blogging-via-blackberry-a-game-of-cyber-chess-not-checkers/
That person talking shit... plain and simple. IP addresses aren't traced to residences but to individual computers... a high school student with passing knowledge of computers could tell you that. So there's no need for the "allegedly" traced the email to her computer, they DID trace the email to her computer. The writer also displays an ignorance for how the laws operate... police may not be able to prove with absolute certainty that she was the one who sent the email from HER computer... but a person is presumed to be master over their property. Since the computer in question is hers there is a rebuttable presumption that she was the one who sent it. It is her burden to prove that she did not send the offending email. Same if a criminal offense is conducted with my car, the presumption is that I, or someone with permission to use it is the driver. It's interesting still to read all the uninformed opinions floating about the place though.
Inaccurate.
The ip address in an email is an external ip address and belongs to the modem or router that connects a local network to the internet.
All devices on the local network share this same external ip address. Within the network, the modem or router will assign internal ip addresses to the connected devices.
Edit. Some mail services include the local ip address in emails. The unreliability of this in tracking is that different ip addresses can be assigned each time a device connects to the router.
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Just a slightly different view of this situation:
http://pedrotercero.wordpress.com/2011/06/22/blogging-via-blackberry-a-game-of-cyber-chess-not-checkers/
That person talking shit... plain and simple. IP addresses aren't traced to residences but to individual computers... a high school student with passing knowledge of computers could tell you that. So there's no need for the "allegedly" traced the email to her computer, they DID trace the email to her computer. The writer also displays an ignorance for how the laws operate... police may not be able to prove with absolute certainty that she was the one who sent the email from HER computer... but a person is presumed to be master over their property. Since the computer in question is hers there is a rebuttable presumption that she was the one who sent it. It is her burden to prove that she did not send the offending email. Same if a criminal offense is conducted with my car, the presumption is that I, or someone with permission to use it is the driver. It's interesting still to read all the uninformed opinions floating about the place though.
Inaccurate.
The ip address in an email is an external ip address and belongs to the modem or router that connects a local network to the internet.
All devices on the local network share this same external ip address. Within the network, the modem or router will assign internal ip addresses to the connected devices.
Edit. Some mail services include the local ip address in emails. The unreliability of this in tracking is that different ip addresses can be assigned each time a device connects to the router.
correct... Internet Protocol Suite 101... man those classes were long ago...
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Inaccurate.
The ip address in an email is an external ip address and belongs to the modem or router that connects a local network to the internet.
All devices on the local network share this same external ip address. Within the network, the modem or router will assign internal ip addresses to the connected devices.
Edit. Some mail services include the local ip address in emails. The unreliability of this in tracking is that different ip addresses can be assigned each time a device connects to the router.
*sigh*
Assuming it was flow that she used... the router has to connect to Flow's configuration portal which then allows for setup and customization. From that portal all devices on the network are identified by unique IP Addresses on the network. While it is true that the "IP address in an email" is traced to a router, number of devices maybe connected, there is nothing in this article or other reports that says the police relied on only the IP address in the email. Neither did I say that the IP address in the email was traced directly to her machine. Flow very easily could trace and figure out which machines were active on the network at the time that the email was sent... and easily establish as well which machine sent the data to the network at that time.
Then again... all of this is based on my knowledge of how Verizon's network works here in the US, one can only assume that Flow has similar capabilities. At any rate, I can tell you without a doubt that personal machines can be traced as the source of external communications, and not just the routers to which they are registered/connected.
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Inaccurate.
The ip address in an email is an external ip address and belongs to the modem or router that connects a local network to the internet.
All devices on the local network share this same external ip address. Within the network, the modem or router will assign internal ip addresses to the connected devices.
Edit. Some mail services include the local ip address in emails. The unreliability of this in tracking is that different ip addresses can be assigned each time a device connects to the router.
*sigh*
Assuming it was flow that she used... the router has to connect to Flow's configuration portal which then allows for setup and customization. From that portal all devices on the network are identified by unique IP Addresses on the network. While it is true that the "IP address in an email" is traced to a router, number of devices maybe connected, there is nothing in this article or other reports that says the police relied on only the IP address in the email. Neither did I say that the IP address in the email was traced directly to her machine. Flow very easily could trace and figure out which machines were active on the network at the time that the email was sent... and easily establish as well which machine sent the data to the network at that time.
Then again... all of this is based on my knowledge of how Verizon's network works here in the US, one can only assume that Flow has similar capabilities. At any rate, I can tell you without a doubt that personal machines can be traced as the source of external communications, and not just the routers to which they are registered/connected.
I don't care what happened in this particular case, I'm just giving general networking info.
If a router is secured, no one external can see past it to view internal devices or ip addresses. When a user on a lan connects to the net, the router converts the local ip address into the external ip, keeps track of the local ip, and sends the request with the external ip out to the net.
Now if someone manages to get both internal and external ips, like I mentioned before, the internal ip can change every time you boot up. An internal ip assigned to a device now may have been assigned to a different device yesterday. The most that can be proven is what address the email came from.
The edit in my previous post where I said that some mail services include the local ip address was wrong. What I read, I believe the person meant external but said internal by mistake.
I still don't know anything that suggests that internal ip addresses are viewable externally, and there's a lot to suggest that it isn't.
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I don't care what happened in this particular case, I'm just giving general networking info.
Oho argument fuh argument sake... righto. In that case...
If a router is secured, no one external can see past it to view internal devices or ip addresses. When a user on a lan connects to the net, the router converts the local ip address into the external ip, keeps track of the local ip, and sends the request with the external ip out to the net.
Now if someone manages to get both internal and external ips, like I mentioned before, the internal ip can change every time you boot up. An internal ip assigned to a device now may have been assigned to a different device yesterday. The most that can be proven is what address the email came from.
Any router that is secured can be reset by the host remotely. So yeah, it may be true that once secured the info is inaccessible but armed with proper authorization, such as a subpoena or search warrant you best believe they getting into your local network.. I ent no tech guru I just have general knowledge, so if that is your area of expertise I can't argue with you on what is done and how. What I can tell you for fact is that it has been done that the service provider has "looked" (let's call it that, "hacked" sounds too vagabond) past the security features on the typical router to ID devices on the network...and is done on a fairly regular basis.
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I don't care what happened in this particular case, I'm just giving general networking info.
Oho argument fuh argument sake... righto. In that case...
If a router is secured, no one external can see past it to view internal devices or ip addresses. When a user on a lan connects to the net, the router converts the local ip address into the external ip, keeps track of the local ip, and sends the request with the external ip out to the net.
Now if someone manages to get both internal and external ips, like I mentioned before, the internal ip can change every time you boot up. An internal ip assigned to a device now may have been assigned to a different device yesterday. The most that can be proven is what address the email came from.
Any router that is secured can be reset by the host remotely. So yeah, it may be true that once secured the info is inaccessible but armed with proper authorization, such as a subpoena or search warrant you best believe they getting into your local network.. I ent no tech guru I just have general knowledge, so if that is your area of expertise I can't argue with you on what is done and how. What I can tell you for fact is that it has been done that the service provider has "looked" (let's call it that, "hacked" sounds too vagabond) past the security features on the typical router to ID devices on the network...and is done on a fairly regular basis.
Without the password? My gear is password protected with my own password, and my isp asks me to reset the router manually if I call them with an issue. They can probably reset the router if the user leaves the default password, which the isp knows.
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Without the password? My gear is password protected with my own password, and my isp asks me to reset the router manually if I call them with an issue. They can probably reset the router if the user leaves the default password, which the isp knows.
Nah they can reset it... as a matter of policy they don't, but they can. Typically when someone forgets their password they have the user do a hard reboot of the router, but they can reset it remotely as well. Like I said for policy reasons they don't... and they don't advertise that they do, but it has been done to access info related to cyber-crime. The circumstances I know of in particular were used in breaking open a couple child-porn cases.
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I guess the interpretation of the above is that regardless of whatever variances existing with respect to internet traceability, the evidence in this scenario was conclusive enough to uniquely identify Sasha either at the account or machine level
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Without the password? My gear is password protected with my own password, and my isp asks me to reset the router manually if I call them with an issue. They can probably reset the router if the user leaves the default password, which the isp knows.
Nah they can reset it... as a matter of policy they don't, but they can. Typically when someone forgets their password they have the user do a hard reboot of the router, but they can reset it remotely as well. Like I said for policy reasons they don't... and they don't advertise that they do, but it has been done to access info related to cyber-crime. The circumstances I know of in particular were used in breaking open a couple child-porn cases.
Yes they can reset some equipment, if it is their equipment.
If I have their modem and my own router, they cannot do anything with my router, and the router controls the internal ip's.
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Without the password? My gear is password protected with my own password, and my isp asks me to reset the router manually if I call them with an issue. They can probably reset the router if the user leaves the default password, which the isp knows.
Nah they can reset it... as a matter of policy they don't, but they can. Typically when someone forgets their password they have the user do a hard reboot of the router, but they can reset it remotely as well. Like I said for policy reasons they don't... and they don't advertise that they do, but it has been done to access info related to cyber-crime. The circumstances I know of in particular were used in breaking open a couple child-porn cases.
Yes they can reset some equipment, if it is their equipment.
If I have their modem and my own router, they cannot do anything with my router, and the router controls the internal ip's.
I believe from a traceability standpoint they may only need to go as far as the modem, that modem will have a public IP assigned from the ISP, if its static then its easy to look up the customer info for that IP, if its dynamic then its just as easy to determine which customer registered with the IP on the network at the time of the incident.
From a liability standpoint the customer is accountable for all activities over that IP. Doesn't matter if within her private network there are multiple connections. Even if she wasn't the one sending the mail at the time she will have to prove that.
That's why ISPs encourage you to put security on your home wireless networks, if you have an open wireless that anybody can log into you essentially are assuming all liability of the activities of persons accessing your network.
She probably would have been better served to go to a Rituals and use their open wifi to send her threats.
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Alright somebody (Bakes, Peong, G). I does watch plenty Law and Order, Cold case files and ting....I see dem foreign police solve crime already by narrowing down the computer a piece of information was sent from....dais not the case here??
Ah trying to follow all yuh nah, but me and dem techie ting eh no setta friends.... :)
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Yes they can reset some equipment, if it is their equipment.
If I have their modem and my own router, they cannot do anything with my router, and the router controls the internal ip's.
Okay... so it's possible to trace directly to the computer itself den? Cool.
I believe from a traceability standpoint they may only need to go as far as the modem, that modem will have a public IP assigned from the ISP, if its static then its easy to look up the customer info for that IP, if its dynamic then its just as easy to determine which customer registered with the IP on the network at the time of the incident.
From a liability standpoint the customer is accountable for all activities over that IP. Doesn't matter if within her private network there are multiple connections. Even if she wasn't the one sending the mail at the time she will have to prove that.
That's why ISPs encourage you to put security on your home wireless networks, if you have an open wireless that anybody can log into you essentially are assuming all liability of the activities of persons accessing your network.
She probably would have been better served to go to a Rituals and use their open wifi to send her threats.
I eh think Peong was even arguing the issue of liability nah... I think he was juss arguing wid me, and my contention that they could trace straight tuh de computer itself.
Alright somebody (Bakes, Peong, G). I does watch plenty Law and Order, Cold case files and ting....I see dem foreign police solve crime already by narrowing down the computer a piece of information was sent from....dais not the case here??
Ah trying to follow all yuh nah, but me and dem techie ting eh no setta friends.... :)
Brownsugar if ah understand yuh question correctly ah think this situation slightly different. You talking about if they have the suspect's computer if they can trace if a piece of info was sent from it? Yeah they definitely have the technology to use data mining to do that, but that one above my pay grade. In this case though they ent reach Sasha computer yet... although they could get a warrant fuh dat if they want. In fact, given how she attorneys posturing they probably should get the warrant and search her computer... best dem fellas did leave good enough alone, because now self they'll be able to finger she as a liar.
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Yes they can reset some equipment, if it is their equipment.
If I have their modem and my own router, they cannot do anything with my router, and the router controls the internal ip's.
Okay... so it's possible to trace directly to the computer itself den? Cool.
I'm not even confident that they can reset a router remotely. Thinking back, my ISP has restarted my modems, but I never had them rest my routers. When I call to troubleshoot a connection, they always request that I disconnect my router and connect a PC directly to the modem.
I would be more confident of them gaining access if the user just has a simple modem-to-pc setup.
To say that "IP addresses aren't traced to residences but to individual computers... a high school student with passing knowledge of computers could tell you that." is misleading.
For law enforcement, tracing the ip to a physical address is probably all they usually need.
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I'm not even confident that they can reset a router remotely. Thinking back, my ISP has restarted my modems, but I never had them rest my routers. When I call to troubleshoot a connection, they always request that I disconnect my router and connect a PC directly to the modem.
I would be more confident of them gaining access if the user just has a simple modem-to-pc setup.
To say that "IP addresses aren't traced to residences but to individual computers... a high school student with passing knowledge of computers could tell you that." is misleading.
For law enforcement, tracing the ip to a physical address is probably all they usually need.
Okay... we'll agree to disagree. I don't have any expertise in the field, just general knowledge and based on what I know I am convinced that it can be done... because I've seen it done. For law enforcement, it depends on the circumstances... if you're tracing the source of illegal information (child porn) transmitted over the internet back to someone's home... sure, that may be sufficient. If you're tracing it to a company with a LAN accessed by a large number of individuals, no, that's not sufficient. In cases such as these the finger has to point more conclusively to one person... with the help of network engineers that has been done in the past.
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I'm not even confident that they can reset a router remotely. Thinking back, my ISP has restarted my modems, but I never had them rest my routers. When I call to troubleshoot a connection, they always request that I disconnect my router and connect a PC directly to the modem.
I would be more confident of them gaining access if the user just has a simple modem-to-pc setup.
To say that "IP addresses aren't traced to residences but to individual computers... a high school student with passing knowledge of computers could tell you that." is misleading.
For law enforcement, tracing the ip to a physical address is probably all they usually need.
Okay... we'll agree to disagree. I don't have any expertise in the field, just general knowledge and based on what I know I am convinced that it can be done... because I've seen it done. For law enforcement, it depends on the circumstances... if you're tracing the source of illegal information (child porn) transmitted over the internet back to someone's home... sure, that may be sufficient. If you're tracing it to a company with a LAN accessed by a large number of individuals, no, that's not sufficient. In cases such as these the finger has to point more conclusively to one person... with the help of network engineers that has been done in the past.
If someone inside cooperates, of course it can be done. I'm sure we were talking about tracking without inside cooperation though.
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I'm not even confident that they can reset a router remotely. Thinking back, my ISP has restarted my modems, but I never had them rest my routers. When I call to troubleshoot a connection, they always request that I disconnect my router and connect a PC directly to the modem.
I would be more confident of them gaining access if the user just has a simple modem-to-pc setup.
To say that "IP addresses aren't traced to residences but to individual computers... a high school student with passing knowledge of computers could tell you that." is misleading.
For law enforcement, tracing the ip to a physical address is probably all they usually need.
Okay... we'll agree to disagree. I don't have any expertise in the field, just general knowledge and based on what I know I am convinced that it can be done... because I've seen it done. For law enforcement, it depends on the circumstances... if you're tracing the source of illegal information (child porn) transmitted over the internet back to someone's home... sure, that may be sufficient. If you're tracing it to a company with a LAN accessed by a large number of individuals, no, that's not sufficient. In cases such as these the finger has to point more conclusively to one person... with the help of network engineers that has been done in the past.
bakes you are correct... (a good network engineer or white hatter/ethical hacker should be able to trace the email to the computer and the time that the email was generated)
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If someone inside cooperates, of course it can be done. I'm sure we were talking about tracking without inside cooperation though.
No... we were talking about what is sufficient for "law enforcement"
For law enforcement, tracing the ip to a physical address is probably all they usually need.
This is separate from the larger discussion the ability to remotely trace to a PC on a network... which itself is separate from the larger discussion on how certain we can be that Sasha Mohammed is the one who actually sent the email, and not somebody using her network.
Now quit moving the goalposts.
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If someone inside cooperates, of course it can be done. I'm sure we were talking about tracking without inside cooperation though.
No... we were talking about what is sufficient for "law enforcement"
For law enforcement, tracing the ip to a physical address is probably all they usually need.
This is separate from the larger discussion the ability to remotely trace to a PC on a network... which itself is separate from the larger discussion on how certain we can be that Sasha Mohammed is the one who actually sent the email, and not somebody using her network.
Now quit moving the goalposts.
You lost focus. My posts are about tracing an ip to a computer. What you quoted above is a side note.
Everything that I said still stands.
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PM reviewing Sasha contract
Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar said yesterday she had asked her Permanent Secretary to look into the contract of Sasha Mohammed, her adviser on public engagement.
"We would deal with that in due course," Persad-Bissessar added in her first statement on the issue. Asked what she meant by "deal with it", the Prime Minister replied: "My PS would advise me".
She was speaking to reporters following the swearing-in ceremony for new government ministers, at Knowsley Building, Queen's Park West, Port of Spain.
Mohammed was warned by the police earlier this month after their probe uncovered that threatening e-mails sent to Express editor-in-chief Omatie Lyder and reporter Anna Ramdass in the name of "Janice Thomas" originated from the computer at Mohammed's San Juan home.
Since then, there have been calls for her removal—including from the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago, Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley and the Movement for Social Justice.
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PM reviewing Sasha contract
Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar said yesterday she had asked her Permanent Secretary to look into the contract of Sasha Mohammed, her adviser on public engagement.
"We would deal with that in due course," Persad-Bissessar added in her first statement on the issue. Asked what she meant by "deal with it", the Prime Minister replied: "My PS would advise me".
She was speaking to reporters following the swearing-in ceremony for new government ministers, at Knowsley Building, Queen's Park West, Port of Spain.
Mohammed was warned by the police earlier this month after their probe uncovered that threatening e-mails sent to Express editor-in-chief Omatie Lyder and reporter Anna Ramdass in the name of "Janice Thomas" originated from the computer at Mohammed's San Juan home.
Since then, there have been calls for her removal—including from the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago, Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley and the Movement for Social Justice.
Reynold Cooper yuh stickin
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PM reviewing Sasha contract
Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar said yesterday she had asked her Permanent Secretary to look into the contract of Sasha Mohammed, her adviser on public engagement.
"We would deal with that in due course," Persad-Bissessar added in her first statement on the issue. Asked what she meant by "deal with it", the Prime Minister replied: "My PS would advise me".
She was speaking to reporters following the swearing-in ceremony for new government ministers, at Knowsley Building, Queen's Park West, Port of Spain.
Mohammed was warned by the police earlier this month after their probe uncovered that threatening e-mails sent to Express editor-in-chief Omatie Lyder and reporter Anna Ramdass in the name of "Janice Thomas" originated from the computer at Mohammed's San Juan home.
Since then, there have been calls for her removal—including from the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago, Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley and the Movement for Social Justice.
Apparently there is a clause in there pertaining to threatening emails that needs clarification ::)...there must be, right? "Look into" my ass ::)
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"would"
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Apparently there is a clause in there pertaining to threatening emails that needs clarification ::)...there must be, right? "Look into" my ass ::)
I have come to accept that my understanding of legal norms and conventions have no applicability when it comes to the particular Wonderland that is Trinidad. In every other circumstance this woman would be considered an at-will employee on the personal staff of the Prime Minister, serving at her pleasure. I struggling to understand why the PM's Permanent Secretary have to look into her contract. Even so, do you really need to examine a contract to see it if prohibited illegal behavior? And yes, sending threatening messages constitutes harassment, which is illegal. But then again, is Trinidad, so maybe not ::)
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Dana seethal say is harassment and against de law in T&T
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PM reviewing Sasha contract
Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar said yesterday she had asked her Permanent Secretary to look into the contract of Sasha Mohammed, her adviser on public engagement.
"We would deal with that in due course," Persad-Bissessar added in her first statement on the issue. Asked what she meant by "deal with it", the Prime Minister replied: "My PS would advise me".
She was speaking to reporters following the swearing-in ceremony for new government ministers, at Knowsley Building, Queen's Park West, Port of Spain.
Mohammed was warned by the police earlier this month after their probe uncovered that threatening e-mails sent to Express editor-in-chief Omatie Lyder and reporter Anna Ramdass in the name of "Janice Thomas" originated from the computer at Mohammed's San Juan home.
Since then, there have been calls for her removal—including from the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago, Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley and the Movement for Social Justice.
Apparently there is a clause in there pertaining to threatening emails that needs clarification ::)...there must be, right? "Look into" my ass ::)
This eh have nutten 2 do wit d PS. Ps doh hire advisers. When I was in education 1 day Tim adviser was dey next day he was send packing. So Cooper will continue 2 stick because it eh have nutten 2 do wit him.
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Kamla defends Sasha
Originally printed at http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Kamla_defends_Sasha-124752319.html
By Joel Julien joel.julien@trinidadexpress.com
June 29, 2011
PRIME MINISTER Kamla Persad-Bissessar has come out in defence of her special adviser Sasha Mohammed amid calls from various sectors for Mohammed to resign or be fired.
Persad-Bissessar said that not enough evidence has been obtained to condemn Mohammed for allegedly issuing a threatening email to Express editor-in-chief Omatie Lyder and reporter Anna Ramdass.
On January 30 a threatening e-mail was sent to Lyder and Ramdass by someone named using the name "Janice Thomas" in connection with the Reshmi Ramnarine story being investigated by the Express.
On June 17, Mohammed was issued a warning by police after a probe uncovered that the e-mail originated from the computer at her home. Mohammed has denied the allegations.
"From what I have read Miss Mohammed has denied the accusations. I do not have evidence which says that allegation is true and therefore it is a difficult situation to condemn someone, who we do not have evidence that they have done wrong," Persad-Bissessar said.
"There has been a lot of noise on the issue and well so. I have no doubt that it is a very sensitive matter but at the same time we cannot act everytime someone makes an allegation because then I would end up with no one around me," she said.
Persad-Bissessar made the statement on Tuesday night during a reception held at the Trinidad Hilton, St Ann's, for the Caribbean Regional Colloquium on Women which started yesterday. This is her first full statement on the issue.
Persad-Bissessar also defended Works Minister Jack Warner using the same logic.
Warner was named as an accessory in relation to bribery allegations by world football governing body, FIFA, but has since resigned from the organisation. The allegations stem from a meeting held in May at the Hyatt Regency, in Port of Spain where former FIFA presidential candidate Qatari Mohamed bin Hammam presented gifts amounting to US$1 million to Caribbean football chiefs.
"People are asking what is the difference with Mary King and Sasha Mohammed and Jack Warner. The difference is with Mary King that information was within our reach, we could find it, it was in our jurisdiction and we got statements and got the evidence but with respect to Warner and Mohammed it is not in reach of our knowledge," Persad-Bissessar said.
On May 10 , King was fired as Planning Minister following a Sunday Express exclusive investigation detailing her involvement in the awarding of a $100,000 contract to a company, Ixanos, in which her family has an interest. The contract was to build and service a website for the Ministry.
"Every time an allegation arises then I would have to take out someone. Then it would be easy for anyone to stand up and make an allegation against anyone and know that once the allegation is made they must resign. I have no intention of having my government destroyed," she said.
Persad-Bissessar said Mohammed's employment contract is currently under review as a precautionary measure by the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister.
"The contract is being reviewed because of the perception that has been created. The contract is being reviewed so we can decide what direction we can and cannot go in," she said.
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Prime Minister: Women are Largely Underrepresented
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
By Oprah Francis
Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar says women remain marginalised when it comes to holding key political and decision making positions.
Speaking at a conference of the Caribbean Institute for Women in Leadership this morning Mrs. Persad Bissessar said women are largely underrepresented in the decision making branches of government. She said not enough progress has been made over the years. Mrs. Persad Bissessar urged women to continue educating themselves. In Trinidad and Tobago, women constitute 27 percent of the senate and 26 percent of the lower house.
http://i955fm.com/news-blogs/news/1812-prime-minister-women-are-largely-underrepresented-.html (http://i955fm.com/news-blogs/news/1812-prime-minister-women-are-largely-underrepresented-.html)
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Kamla defends Sasha
Originally printed at http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Kamla_defends_Sasha-124752319.html
By Joel Julien joel.julien@trinidadexpress.com
June 29, 2011
PRIME MINISTER Kamla Persad-Bissessar has come out in defence of her special adviser Sasha Mohammed amid calls from various sectors for Mohammed to resign or be fired.
Persad-Bissessar said that not enough evidence has been obtained to condemn Mohammed for allegedly issuing a threatening email to Express editor-in-chief Omatie Lyder and reporter Anna Ramdass.
On January 30 a threatening e-mail was sent to Lyder and Ramdass by someone named using the name "Janice Thomas" in connection with the Reshmi Ramnarine story being investigated by the Express.
On June 17, Mohammed was issued a warning by police after a probe uncovered that the e-mail originated from the computer at her home. Mohammed has denied the allegations.
"From what I have read Miss Mohammed has denied the accusations. I do not have evidence which says that allegation is true and therefore it is a difficult situation to condemn someone, who we do not have evidence that they have done wrong," Persad-Bissessar said.
"There has been a lot of noise on the issue and well so. I have no doubt that it is a very sensitive matter but at the same time we cannot act everytime someone makes an allegation because then I would end up with no one around me," she said.
Persad-Bissessar made the statement on Tuesday night during a reception held at the Trinidad Hilton, St Ann's, for the Caribbean Regional Colloquium on Women which started yesterday. This is her first full statement on the issue.
Persad-Bissessar also defended Works Minister Jack Warner using the same logic.
Warner was named as an accessory in relation to bribery allegations by world football governing body, FIFA, but has since resigned from the organisation. The allegations stem from a meeting held in May at the Hyatt Regency, in Port of Spain where former FIFA presidential candidate Qatari Mohamed bin Hammam presented gifts amounting to US$1 million to Caribbean football chiefs.
"People are asking what is the difference with Mary King and Sasha Mohammed and Jack Warner. The difference is with Mary King that information was within our reach, we could find it, it was in our jurisdiction and we got statements and got the evidence but with respect to Warner and Mohammed it is not in reach of our knowledge," Persad-Bissessar said.
On May 10 , King was fired as Planning Minister following a Sunday Express exclusive investigation detailing her involvement in the awarding of a $100,000 contract to a company, Ixanos, in which her family has an interest. The contract was to build and service a website for the Ministry.
"Every time an allegation arises then I would have to take out someone. Then it would be easy for anyone to stand up and make an allegation against anyone and know that once the allegation is made they must resign. I have no intention of having my government destroyed," she said.
Persad-Bissessar said Mohammed's employment contract is currently under review as a precautionary measure by the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister.
"The contract is being reviewed because of the perception that has been created. The contract is being reviewed so we can decide what direction we can and cannot go in," she said.
I go believe dis when she apply dis same logic to Manning and Calder Hart.
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Kamla defends Sasha
Originally printed at http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Kamla_defends_Sasha-124752319.html
By Joel Julien joel.julien@trinidadexpress.com
June 29, 2011
PRIME MINISTER Kamla Persad-Bissessar has come out in defence of her special adviser Sasha Mohammed amid calls from various sectors for Mohammed to resign or be fired.
Persad-Bissessar said that not enough evidence has been obtained to condemn Mohammed for allegedly issuing a threatening email to Express editor-in-chief Omatie Lyder and reporter Anna Ramdass.
On January 30 a threatening e-mail was sent to Lyder and Ramdass by someone named using the name "Janice Thomas" in connection with the Reshmi Ramnarine story being investigated by the Express.
On June 17, Mohammed was issued a warning by police after a probe uncovered that the e-mail originated from the computer at her home. Mohammed has denied the allegations.
"From what I have read Miss Mohammed has denied the accusations. I do not have evidence which says that allegation is true and therefore it is a difficult situation to condemn someone, who we do not have evidence that they have done wrong," Persad-Bissessar said.
"There has been a lot of noise on the issue and well so. I have no doubt that it is a very sensitive matter but at the same time we cannot act everytime someone makes an allegation because then I would end up with no one around me," she said.
Persad-Bissessar made the statement on Tuesday night during a reception held at the Trinidad Hilton, St Ann's, for the Caribbean Regional Colloquium on Women which started yesterday. This is her first full statement on the issue.
Persad-Bissessar also defended Works Minister Jack Warner using the same logic.
Warner was named as an accessory in relation to bribery allegations by world football governing body, FIFA, but has since resigned from the organisation. The allegations stem from a meeting held in May at the Hyatt Regency, in Port of Spain where former FIFA presidential candidate Qatari Mohamed bin Hammam presented gifts amounting to US$1 million to Caribbean football chiefs.
"People are asking what is the difference with Mary King and Sasha Mohammed and Jack Warner. The difference is with Mary King that information was within our reach, we could find it, it was in our jurisdiction and we got statements and got the evidence but with respect to Warner and Mohammed it is not in reach of our knowledge," Persad-Bissessar said.
On May 10 , King was fired as Planning Minister following a Sunday Express exclusive investigation detailing her involvement in the awarding of a $100,000 contract to a company, Ixanos, in which her family has an interest. The contract was to build and service a website for the Ministry.
"Every time an allegation arises then I would have to take out someone. Then it would be easy for anyone to stand up and make an allegation against anyone and know that once the allegation is made they must resign. I have no intention of having my government destroyed," she said.
Persad-Bissessar said Mohammed's employment contract is currently under review as a precautionary measure by the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister.
"The contract is being reviewed because of the perception that has been created. The contract is being reviewed so we can decide what direction we can and cannot go in," she said.
I go believe dis when she apply dis same logic to Manning and Calder Hart.
THEN U EH GO BLIEVE IT.
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She questioning de evidence she own police come up with? Lol... Kamla yuh right yes, tell dem Sasha eh going nowhere until ah court convict she, lol.
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SASHA GETS OFF
Police: DPP advised us not to charge PM's adviser
By Akile Simon
SASHA MOHAMMED, adviser to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, will not be charged with harassing Express editor-in-chief Omatie Lyder and reporter Anna Ramdass.
Director of Public Prosecutions, Roger Gaspard, last week advised the police not to lay any charges against Mohammed since there was insufficient evidence to successfully secure a conviction, police sources said yesterday.
Police were seeking to charge Mohammed under the Amendment of the Offences against the Persons Act Chapter 11:08 Act No. 11 of 2005 which deals with harassment.
According to police sources, had Mohammed sent the e-mail on more than one occasion to Lyder and Ramdass, she would have been charged with the offence.
The matter is therefore now closed, police sources said.
Section 30A (b) of the Act says "a course of conduct" involves conduct of the kind referred to in paragraph (a) carried out on at least two occasions.
Pressure has been mounting on Persad-Bissessar from various quarters, including factions of the coalition government and the Opposition People's National Movement, to fire Mohammed.
On January 30, a threatening e-mail was sent to Lyder and Ramdass by someone named using the name "Janice Thomas" in connection with the Reshmi Ramnarine story being investigated by the Express.
The e-mail, which targeted Lyder and Ramdass, was addressed to editors and reporters of the Express and staff of CCN-TV6 as well as other media houses, accused Lyder and Ramdass of a personal vendetta against Ramnarine.
The e-mail stated that "their day in the sun is over" and "this is the beginning...They will understand the consequences of their actions..."
The Express first broke the story of the questionable appointment of Ramnarine to the post of director of the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) and had at the time been investigating how she came to be hired as director of the SSA without the necessary qualifications.
Mohammed was warned by police on June 17, after a probe uncovered that the e-mail originated from the computer at her San Juan home. Mohammed, through her attorneys, denied issuing the emails.
Police sources said that Gaspard, after reviewing the file, noted that under 30A section (b) of the Offences Against the Persons Act (Amendment) 2005, the email which went set to them (Lyder and Ramdass) would have had to be sent on more than one occasion.
Earlier this month, Persad and Cpl Rennie Grant concluded their six-month long investigations into the threatening e-mail Mohammed allegedly sent to Lyder and Ramdass.
Then, police had intended, depending on the outcome of advice from the DPP, to prosecute Mohammed in relation to the offence after their investigations revealed that the emails were generated and issued from her home and an IP address assigned to her by internet provider Flow.
Contacted yesterday on the matter , Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Anti-Crime Operations, Mervyn Richardson, confirmed the police had sought advice from Gaspard and they have adopted a certain course of action.
Even though there was an outcry by members of the public who criticised the police saying they should have laid charges against Mohammed, Richardson said he was very impressed with the manner in which Persad and Grant, who were led by Snr Supt Glen Hackett, conducted the investigations into the reports.
"They did extremely well and remained professional at all times as they pursued their investigations. I think it was done in an objective and dispassionate manner and to bring it to the best conclusion based on the advice we have received from the DPP," Richardson said.
Richardson said he was unable to state whether the office of Commissioner of Police, Dwayne Gibbs, had responded to a letter sent to him by Mohammed's attorneys last week requesting information regarding the police probe on their client.
Mohammed, a former journalist, joined the People's Partnership Government as engagements adviser to Persad-Bissessar, six months after the May 24 general elections last year.
On Tuesday, Persad-Bissessar stated that not enough evidence had been obtained to condemn Mohammed .
"From what I have read Miss Mohammed has denied the accusations. I do not have evidence which says that allegation is true and therefore it is a difficult situation to condemn someone, (for whom) you do not have evidence that they have done wrong," Persad-Bissessar said.
She added that Mohammed's employment contract is currently under review as a precautionary measure by the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister.
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So it's not that there's not enough evidence, but rather that one threatening email is not harassment.
Still it obviously calls her character into question.
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So it's not that there's not enough evidence, but rather that one threatening email is not harassment.
Still it obviously calls her character into question.
yea it have to be at least twice for it to be a chargeable offense. while one may not be enough for a charge, it should definitely should be enough to be removed as a PM advisor.
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So it's not that there's not enough evidence, but rather that one threatening email is not harassment.
Still it obviously calls her character into question.
yea it have to be at least twice for it to be a chargeable offense. while one may not be enough for a charge, it should definitely should be enough to be removed as a PM advisor.
Duh!!! but doh tell Kamla dat....she kinda hoping we forget by next week and "move on"..... ::)
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Sasha quits adviser job
Legal action launched against media house
Sasha Mohammed Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s adviser on public engagements, Sasha Mohammed, yesterday tendered her resignation from the post “with immediate effect.” Sources close to the Office of the Prime Minister said the letter was addressed to the Prime Minister and copied to her permanent secretary, Reynold Copper. Mohammed decided to resign because she has launched legal action against a media house “as a result of its false, malicious and spurious” allegations against her, the sources said, referring to her letter.
Mohammed sent a pre-action protocol letter to the media house on July 13, claiming she had been the target of a “bitter and unjustified attack.” In January, two journalists at the media house received an e-mail, which they said they felt threatened by, at the height of the Reshmi Usha Ramnarine affair. That controversy involved the Prime Minister’s appointment of Ramnarine, a telecommunications technician, to fill the top post at the Strategic Services Agency, which some describe as the local CIA.
In her resignation letter, sources said, Mohammed proclaimed her innocence of all the allegations that have been levelled against her but she pointed out that in exercising her legal options against the media house, she wanted to do so “without constraint” and save the Office of the Prime Minister from being the target of a “malicious personal agenda.” Contacted late last night, Mohammed confirmed she had submitted her resignation but declined any comment on the communication.
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Sasha resigns as adviser to Prime Minister
Sasha Mohammed, public engagements adviser to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, has resigned.
This was confirmed by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Communications, Dr Suruj Rambachan, when questioned at yesterday's post-Cabinet press conference at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair.
"That question is best directed to the office of the Prime Minister but as you read the report that Sasha Mohammed has resigned, we must respect her decision and take the opportunity to wish her well in whatever career pursuit she now endeavours to," said Rambachan.
Police had initiated an investigation after Express Editor-in-Chief Omatie Lyder and reporter Anna Ramdass reported they were threatened in an e-mail on January 30, sent to them by someone adopting the alias "Janice Thomas", in connection with Reshmi Ramnarine's appointment to head the SSA being investigated by the Express.
A report was made on January 31 at the Port of Spain Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
Last month, police investigations found that the threatening e-mails sent to Lyder and Ramdass came from Mohammed's personal computer at her San Juan home.
Through her attorneys, Mohammed denied sending the e-mail and initiated legal action against the Express.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) advised police not to charge Mohammed because of insufficient evidence to secure a conviction as she had only sent the e-mail once to Lyder and Ramdass.
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NO CONTROL OVER COPS
AG responds to Anti-Corruption Bureau raid on newspaper:
By by Renuka Singh
Story Created: Feb 11, 2012 at 11:50 PM ECT
Story Updated: Feb 11, 2012 at 11:50 PM ECT
Attorney General Anand Ramlogan yesterday distanced himself from the Anti-Corruption Investigation Bureau (ACIB) after its officers executed a search warrant at the Newsday newspaper's offices in Port of Spain and the home of journalist Andre Bagoo on Thursday.
Ramlogan said yesterday he viewed any continued connection between his office and the ACIB as an "embarrassment" and intended to speak with Commissioner of Police Dwayne Gibbs to once again assume full control of the unit.
Ramlogan said he had not direct control or influence on the ACIB.
The control of the ACIB was moved under the AG's jurisdiction under the tenure of United National Congress Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj and was always a contentious move, Ramlogan said.
In a statement Ramlogan described the search and seizure by the ACIB officers as "unexplained" and "dramatic".
Ramlogan said while the ACIB was listed, on paper, under his portfolio, he has "no jurisdiction whatsoever over this entity".
"The office of the AG functions as the administrative conduit for a number of independent bodies including the Office of the DPP, the ACIB and the Judiciary," he said.
Ramlogan denied any knowledge of an investigation initiated by the ACIB into the complaint by chairman of the Integrity Commission Kenneth Gordon.
Ramlogan said he only became aware of the issue after it was reported in the newspapers.
He said he had "no knowledge about the execution of these search warrants and the action of the ACIB" and considered the matter to be of "grave concern".
In these circumstances, Ramlogan said he intended to raise the future of the ACIB with Gibbs in the context of the on-going reform of the Police Service.
Ramlogan said on previous occasions he has expressed his disappointment with the slow pace of the investigations undertaken by the ACIB.
"The ACIB has failed to make any or any meaningful progress on a number of high-profile corruption investigations under the previous administration including the Reverend Juliana Pena Church in Guanapo Heights, Calder Hart, T&TEC street lighting programme, the Landate matter in Tobago, HDC (Housing Development Corporation) and the URP (Unemployment Relief Programme)," Ramlogan noted.
He said ACIB head Superintendent Solomon Koon Koon already confirmed that the ACIB was a unit of the Police Service and as such came under the remit of the Police Commissioner and not the AG.
"The placement of this unit under the office of the AG by former AG Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj was always a matter of some contention," he said.
Ramlogan also condemned the "sudden unusual burst of energy and enthusiasm from the ACIB on a fresh complaint to be quite odd in light of the number of outstanding complaints that appear to be receiving little or no attention over the last few years".
"It is in dire need of strong leadership and re-structuring," Ramlogan said, adding that diplomatic pleas to the police hierarchy had "fallen on deaf ears".
On Thursday, ACIB officers searched the offices of Newsday on Chacon Street, Port of Spain, and questioned Bagoo.
The officers seized files from his work and home computers.
They were searching for information related to an article written by Bagoo last December concerning a legal feud between the Integrity Commission's chairman Gordon and suspended deputy chairman Gladys Gafoor.
A contingent of police officers previously searched the offices of CCN TV6 at Independence Square in Port of Spain last December for video footage aired on TV6's Crime Watch programme.
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/NO_CONTROL__OVER_COPS-139168474.html
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Is this the same person who when Panday or any person of East Indian descent was being investigated by the same ACIB was screaming political and racial discrimination?
Now he is claiming that the unit doesn't suffer from political influence. Can these people not stoop any lower?
You have a better chance of picking a razor blade off the floor than their integrity.
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Seetahal on violence against children: Cops careless in their charging
Published:
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
The police are careless when laying charges against offenders who are cruel to children, says attorney Dana Seetahal SC. In recent cases where parents and caregivers have been charged with burning the hands of children, Seetahal said they were charged under the Children’s Act rather than the Offences against the Person Act, which carried a stiffer penalty.
Seetahal, who called for part of the Children’s Act to be revised, was speaking at a three-day conference on violence against children at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.
Yesterday’s session focused on physical and sexual abuse. Seetahal said the Act dealt with special offences against children, special procedures for hearing matters where children were victim/offenders and special punishment for children and young people.
In some cases, she said, the Offences against the Person Act provided more serious penalties. Seetahal added:“The authorities therefore may choose to charge under the general law. With regard to burning of a child, under the Act there is a specific penalty for that... of about $400 and if the person is charged not under the Children’s Act, but under the Offences against the Person Act the penalty could be 15 years if it is a charge for causing grievous bodily harm or if it is inflicting grievous bodily harm, which would be five years.”
Saying there were many options available to the police rather than the Children’s Act, Seetahal urged the act should be revisited to institute stricter penalties. She said: “Why create these specific offences if the penalty is so minor? Either it is unnecessary or you review the laws to make specific provision if you intend to protect children... make it mean something to protect children under the Children’s Act.”
Asked what would prompt an officer to charge under the Children’s Act rather than the Offences against the Person Act where the penalty was much higher Seetahal said it could be for a number of reasons. She said:“Maybe they (police) just see that and they see where there is an offence and they say let’s go under the Children’s Act. That’s probably what they did because I can’t imagine otherwise. There is other legislation which is more serious.
“Why would you go for that small penalty?” Seetahal asked. She said she was also informed in some cases where a child was burnt by the parent the officer laid the charges on his own rather than approaching the Director of Public Prosecutions for advice on laying the charge. On orphaned children, Seetahal said the State needed to focus more on them.
“There are three orphanages who are there forever and all they do now is assist little homes...this government and the last government and the government before that haven’t put in finances in orphanages.
In response to the claim that police were “careless,” Margaret Sampson-Browne, former assistant commissioner of police and manager of the police Victim and Witness Support Unit, said the “ingredients of the law in the Children’s Act would also link to the offence being committed.” She said: “If a mother burns a child... if you go into the Children’s Act you will see that offence there with the penalty. But what we have to do is perhaps to move away from that and go for the stiffer penalty.”
Sampson-Browne added that police had the discretion to lay charges as they believed fit and did not have to go to the DPP in every instance.
MORE INFO
Section Six of the Children’s Act Burning of a child negligently. If any person over the age of 16 who has the custody, charge or care of any child under the age of seven and allows that child to be in any room or yard containing a coalpot, stove or other fire not sufficiently protected to guard against risk of that child being burnt or scalded, without taking reasonable precaution against that risk and by reason thereof the child is killed or suffers serious injury he is liable on summary conviction to a fine of $400.
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Man rapes girl, 7
By JANELLE DE SOUZA Tuesday, March 12 2013
A PAEDOPHILE has escaped prosecution for the past three years after the mother of a seven- year-old child, whom he is alleged to have sexually assaulted, took the child and left without a trace.
Despite a mountain of evidence including numerous videotapes showing the man having sexual intercourse with the seven-year-old, the man — who was the boyfriend of the child’s mother at the time — walked free because no one came forward (neither the child nor her mother) to make an official report.
Yesterday, at a Violence Against Children conference at the Hyatt Regency in Port-of-Spain, retired Assistant Commissioner of Police Margaret Sampson-Browne, who is now the manager of the Police Service’s Victims and Witness Support Unit (VWSU), showed an edited video clip of the man video-taping himself having sex with the seven-year-old girl.
Sampson-Browne said when police held the man three years ago, they found stacks of videos showing him having sexual intercourse with the child. Sampson-Browne said the child’s mother seemed to be aware of his actions as she was seen in one of the videos. The police were unable to lay any criminal charge since the woman moved away with the child and police do not know at present, the whereabouts of the woman and her daughter, now ten. Sampson-Browne said she aired the video in order to demonstrate how difficult it is to prosecute such criminals, as well as to show that sexual abuse against children is more than just inappropriate touching and in reality, includes actual sexual intercourse.
Revealing the Police’s statistics for rape, incest and sexual offences, Sampson-Browne noted there were 30 such cases reported this January alone and 512 cases in total for 2011. She did not provide data for 2012, but noted that from January to July of that year, there were 86 sexual offence cases and 75 cases of domestic violence and child abuse.
Sampson-Browne encouraged persons, even if they did not want to report a crime, to do so because the real statistics would help the Commissioner of Police implement effective policies.
She also promised that the Unit would provide support once a report is made. “There are people who are affected by crime and don’t want to go to the Police. We are saying, come to us,” said Sampson-Browne. “We are bridging the gap between the police and the community.”
The Unit, she said, is proposing a Child Abuse Task Force and intends to have a Barber Training Programme, as well as a One-day Conference focused on Men in the Community.
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Rape, incest rampant in Central Trinidad
Story Created: Mar 11, 2013 at 9:56 PM ECT
(
Story Updated: Mar 12, 2013 at 6:06 AM ECT )
There have been more than 200 reported cases of incest, rape and sexual abuse for the year to date in Central Trinidad.
Last year, Central Trinidad also recorded the highest number of reported cases of rape, incest and sexual abuse in Trinidad and Tobago.
The statistics were revealed yesterday by Margaret Sampson-Browne, director of the Police Service Victim and Witness Support Unit, at the "Violence Against Children" conference at Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain.
"We have had almost 800 clients coming to us from central...including Chaguanas, Couva, and those outlining areas in central.
"It is now quite evident that child abuse is becoming rampant in our country," she added, noting that the children of the nation are under attack by sexual predators, who must be jailed.
"The reality is the adult men use their penis on little children— anal sex, oral sex and vaginal sex and it's happening," said Sampson-Browne, who stressed the need to "design a social network, a crisis management information service, so in a crisis like this people shouldn't wonder where I have to go...people should just fall in to work with them".
She said the Children's Authority Act has no impact on the criminals.
Senior Counsel Dana Seetahal also agreed.
She said if you neglect a child by suffocating the child to death, under the Children's Authority Act, the criminal, if given a summary offence, is fined $5,000 or six months' imprisonment.
"The act talks about burning of children negligently, but you know what I think about that...the penalty for that is $400.
"Also if a child is injured, so much so that the child loses sight, hearing or a limb...the law states that for summary offences, the perpetrator can be fined $5,000 or six months' imprisonment. However, under the Offences against a Person Act, the perpetrator can get life imprisonment.
"I had to go to Toco...a father and a son sexually abused the child, the community turned against her, the grandmother turned against her...she had to go by a friend," said Seetahal.
Both Sampson-Browne and Seetahal are calling for the Children's Authority Act to be re-visited and for stiffer penalties to be enforced.
Sampson-Browne noted that they have already submitted a proposal to acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams for a children's task force. She said police officers who are a part of this force will receive special training. —TV6 News
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http://www.upworthy.com/meet-the-17-year-old-who-blew-the-lid-off-racial-profiling-with-his-ipod?c=fym1
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Whats new, but sometimes these young ass punks does look for it.
If them giving all de trouble, off course police go harass them.
Them cause that on they self.
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Whats new, but sometimes these young ass punks does look for it.
If them giving all de trouble, off course police go harass them.
Them cause that on they self.
NONSENSE!!!
NYPD is full of ignorant uneducated thugs!! this institution is not geared to helping or serving the public, they are a fraternity of horrible uncouth backward hicks from the boondocks who only option was to join the force bc they had nothing else going for them.
these racist thugs were bullies in high school and they when into the force bc they couldn't cut it in cooperate america.
iza big full man who does dress my age, and when i step out these fellas does be following me and profiling, but i'm the spin doctor so when they approach me i does hit them big man style and they does have no other option but tuh keep it moving.
but for these lil yutes who eh have the skills tuh handle dem rednecks , is pure rail road? and looking @ this yute, this could be my son or my nephew bc, them fellas red and look and dress the same as this kid. and as yuh know, all dem yutes does dress the same, white black and hispanic.
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Sam i feel yuh bout the way these yutes behave nowadays, some of them are indeed scary, and yes you have a right to express your dissatisfaction, but the police is the first line of civilian defense, and they must follow an order regardless of the situations they face or the way the ppl bahave, and the rights of the ppl must be preserved, this is what democracy is all about.
but unfortunately this behavior by the NYPD officers have no place in the protocol of proper policing in a democratic state that champions the rights of the ppl, regardless to the dangers or the unsavory individuals they may encounter on the job.
police officers have to follow a protocol, it's the law! and regardless of the varmints they may encounter, they must honor their moto of courtesy, professionalism and respect, and where in their confrontation with this young man were they any of the above?
i heard profanity, verbal abuse, aggression, physical abuse, and disrespect all coming from the officers while the kid was just the opposite, asking and wanting to know why was he being targeted.
these cops were clearly taking advantage, and would continue to be hated by man and beast bc of this unbridled police culture of disrespect and fear.
do you know that this country is slowly becoming a police state? and by the look of this confrontation, someone who didn't know any better would think that this was some where in the eastern block, or in war torn africa.
this IMO is definitely uncharacteristic of a free and democratic state, TBH, it looks more like totalitarianism to me.
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thanks for the post. I enjoyed the flick. I was just talking to my 10 year old son this morning about how the push for efficiency / competition (especially in the context of capitalism) sometimes leave the minority and poor in a very bad place.
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Whats new, but sometimes these young ass punks does look for it.
If them giving all de trouble, off course police go harass them.
Them cause that on they self.
I only heard the quote this morning and had to do a double-take. The commish seem to agree with you Sam.
Blacks are understopped (http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/commissioner-kelly-defends-stop-and-frisk-targeting-african-americans-article-1.1332840) he says. What do I know eh? I'm just a stupid trini.
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jc, completely agree that alot of PDs are full of "uneducated thugs". if yuh want to gentrify de police services and want an educated sophisticated individual willing to take a bullet from a nation full of punks, how yuh propose to achieve this? policing attract more soldier than poet.
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http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/plainclothes-officers-trouble-didn-recognize-off-duty-chief-article-1.327540 (http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/plainclothes-officers-trouble-didn-recognize-off-duty-chief-article-1.327540)
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Very good post, vb. I lived in NY for over 16 years, and was subject to a lot of police harassment during that time while just walking on the street...while driving...and regardless of what I was wearing even if I was professionally attired in a business suit. I've stood up for myself on all those occasions, even politely asking the NYPD officers if they were aware of the US Constitution and even the NY State Constitution (both of which I always carry with me)...and I would enquire of those officers if they were on exchange from North Korea or something.
There is no constitutional basis in any state within the US for the illegal stop and frisk policy. Among many others, the policy is just basically yet another illegal (yes 'ILLEGAL') activity perpetrated by the state against the people.
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If 3/4 of all the stops are Latinos and Blacks, and 90% are innocent/not charged, that has nothing to do with targeting the most likely to offend. THINK ABOUT IT!
I read some Federal stats a while ago that showed that in NY with their stop and frisk policy, MORE White people are found with illegal guns than Blacks and Latinos yet they target more Blacks and Latinos!
Racism at its best!
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If 3/4 of all the stops are Latinos and Blacks, and 90% are innocent/not charged, that has nothing to do with targeting the most likely to offend. THINK ABOUT IT!
I read some Federal stats a while ago that showed that in NY with their stop and frisk policy, MORE White people are found with illegal guns than Blacks and Latinos yet they target more Blacks and Latinos!
Racism at its best!
Nashy, you're quite right. The 'funny' thing is, even if the NYPD was targeting mostly whites/caucasians for stop and frisk, it still wouldn't be right, since the policy in itself is unconstitutional. NYC might as well convert the Statue of Liberty to scrap metal, and ship it back to France, because the ideals of liberty is no longer evident over there.
NYC hypocrisy at it's finest.
(Btw Nashy...you played great at the gold cup, man! :beermug:)
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Judge Rules NYPD Stop-and-Frisk Practice Violates Rights
Outside Monitor Is Ordered to Oversee Changes to the Legally Challenged Practice (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324085304579008510786797006.html) I want somebody to sue and bankrupt dey stupid racist arses.
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CNN) -- The family of a Florida man has released video of his death, hoping to get criminal charges filed against the police officer who ran him over.
On May 8, Marlon Brown was being chased by DeLand police because they allegedly saw that he was not wearing a seatbelt. At a dead-end road, Brown stopped his car and started running.
One of the police cars hit and ran him over, its dashcam video recording the entire incident.
Last week, a grand jury decided not to indict officer James Harris on a criminal charge of vehicular manslaughter. That's when the family decided to go public, and release the video.
"We knew it wasn't going to be an easy video to watch," says Krystal Brown the ex-wife and mother of Brown's children, "but in order to obtain justice, and that's what we're looking for, we knew it was something that we had to do."
Read more: http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/state/marlon-browns-family-releases-video-of-his-death-want-police-who-ran-him-over-to-face-charges#ixzz2fq1k0onE
https://www.youtube.com/v/waxRmjm8-ms
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Sharpton JR at it again
https://www.youtube.com/v/Nzq4ttZdS6Q
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Why he was running from the police in the first place?
Is hard to drum up sympathy for these fellas, who do more to perpetuate negative stereotypes.
That is not to say that he deserved to die.
(http://ocalapost.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/marlonrobertbrown1.jpg)
(http://ocalapost.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/image-3.jpg)
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Why he was running from the police in the first place?
Meaningless... and irrelevant. His actions are not at issue.
Jose Baez nails it. Negligent maybe, but I don't even know that it was reckless or even intentional. Crump talking shit... as much respect as I have for him.
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Why he was running from the police in the first place?
Meaningless... and irrelevant. His actions are not at issue.
His decision to run ultimately led to his death. It shouldn't have, but that is a different argument.
This was a bad decision. Just like Trayvon Martin made a bad decision.
What did the ledger in his cost-benefit analysis add up to for him to decide that running was the best option. I am not blaming the victim, but rather, wondering what is the thought process. I'm trying to think of a situation where running would result in a BETTER outcome than whatever charge he thought he was about to collect. How long could he run? How many actually escape?
Stop thinking like a lawyer for a moment, and think like a human (difficult, I know). What did he die for? To avoid another charge for having no license? I want to reach out and shake some sense into these young people.
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His decision to run ultimately led to his death. It shouldn't have, but that is a different argument.
This was a bad decision. Just like Trayvon Martin made a bad decision.
What did the ledger in his cost-benefit analysis add up to for him to decide that running was the best option. I am not blaming the victim, but rather, wondering what is the thought process. I'm trying to think of a situation where running would result in a BETTER outcome than whatever charge he thought he was about to collect. How long could he run? How many actually escape?
Stop thinking like a lawyer for a moment, and think like a human (difficult, I know). What did he die for? To avoid another charge for having no license? I want to reach out and shake some sense into these young people.
Lol... this is so patently foolish. I'll just look past your unnecessarily snide comment about my supposed difficulty to think like a human and just address your assumption that I'm "thinking like a lawyer." I notice a trend, you is just the second person in as many nights to mention my profession as though that automatically and reflexively defer to my legal training when analyzing any situation. I am swayed by logic, not emotion, not hyperbole. I won't even address the foolish comment about Trayvon making a bad decision... clearly you drinking from the same tainted vat of Kool-Aid as Ribbit.
The assumption here is that had he not run he would have lived... you don't know that. I don't even have to refer to my professional experience on this... cops kill people all the time, and many of the victims are complying or trying to comply. The issue here is one of poor training, coupled with over-exuberance by the cop. Cops are humans and like most humans, when we get over excited it becomes easier for us to lose focus (forget caution/good sense) and get caught up in the adrenaline rush and get carried away. Believe it or not, police chases don't happen very often, and this is precisely why it is discouraged. Anything can happen. Same reason you don't shoot at a moving vehicle... unless yuh on TV... or in Trinidad. This cop was negligent in how he operated the vehicle... ESPECIALLY on grass. You can't stop as efficiently on grass... any dummy knows this. This cop was unprepared for an emergency situation given how he approached the scene.
How often do we hear of suspects running from the cops? Maybe you don't, but I hear about it all the time. Many involve chases where the suspects are fleeing on foot. I think in all my years this is the second time I've ever heard of a suspect getting run over by a cop. This alone should tell you that the decision to run was contributory, but hardly THE dispositive factor in his death. Chances are he would not have run and Officer Odie here with he overglad self coulda pull out a gun and shoot him instead, or get over-exuberant in subduing him. It is simply poorly-reasoned logic to state/conclude that "his decision to run ultimately led to his death."
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that's quite the mugshot collection. there was a fella in the states that used to get arrested and booked every 2-3 days on average. they had a link to his mugshot collection. you could even figure out from dat collection when he get a haircut or when a new shirt enter de wardrobe. looks like de fella was running about four arrests per year when he checked out.
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I'll just look past your unnecessarily snide comment about my supposed difficulty to think like a human and just address your assumption that I'm "thinking like a lawyer."
Sorry, this was just a little Pavlovian bell-ringing for my amusement. Lawyer jokes are cheap. I'll try harder next time.
That aside, I'll try to make my comments clearer, so that a logician such as yourself can understand my muddled thoughts.
1. The sequence of events that led to his end started with him running from the cops.
2. What circumstances would make this a good decision? The statistics from the link below say people escape about 25% of the time, maybe those are good odds if you're facing jail time.
3. Would a different decision have a different outcome? - We can't know this, but we can say that the likelihood of a bad outcome is reduced if you make better decisions.
Too many times, people's lives are undone due to poor decision making.
http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/law-enforcement-bulletin/march-2010/evidence-based-decisions-on-police-pursuits
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hmmm For not wearing a seat belt he would have just gotten a ticket one would assume no need to run ?
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it's obvious that if de man didn't run he would be alive today.
bakes is jealous of crump because he on tv and makin money. bakes working hard as a moderator on sw.net and he cyah get a wuk like crump. crump milking his trayvon connection cause he understand de theatre.
hmmm For not wearing a seat belt he would have just gotten a ticket one would assume no need to run ?
no doubt he have more than a few bad cheques that de police eh find yet.
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it's obvious that if de man didn't run he would be alive today.
bakes is jealous of crump because he on tv and makin money. bakes working hard as a moderator on sw.net and he cyah get a wuk like crump. crump milking his trayvon connection cause he understand de theatre.
hmmm For not wearing a seat belt he would have just gotten a ticket one would assume no need to run ?
no doubt he have more than a few bad cheques that de police eh find yet.
Crump loves the race card it seems
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it's obvious that if de man didn't run he would be alive today.
bakes is jealous of crump because he on tv and makin money. bakes working hard as a moderator on sw.net and he cyah get a wuk like crump. crump milking his trayvon connection cause he understand de theatre.
Moderator job have perks... doh be vex that my letter of interest reach een first and leave yuh home scratching yuh fadda nuts.
hmmm For not wearing a seat belt he would have just gotten a ticket one would assume no need to run ?
Must be more to the story... possibly had weed on him or outstanding warrants.
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Sorry, this was just a little Pavlovian bell-ringing for my amusement. Lawyer jokes are cheap. I'll try harder next time.
That aside, I'll try to make my comments clearer, so that a logician such as yourself can understand my muddled thoughts.
1. The sequence of events that led to his end started with him running from the cops.
2. What circumstances would make this a good decision? The statistics from the link below say people escape about 25% of the time, maybe those are good odds if you're facing jail time.
3. Would a different decision have a different outcome? - We can't know this, but we can say that the likelihood of a bad outcome is reduced if you make better decisions.
Too many times, people's lives are undone due to poor decision making.
http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/law-enforcement-bulletin/march-2010/evidence-based-decisions-on-police-pursuits
Try ringing yuh bell ah little harder because yuh buss dey. As for the "muddled thoughts"... why start with him running from the cops? Why not start with him not wearing he seatbelt? Clearly that is what allegedly triggered the initial police inquiry. Or wait... what about him deciding to drive? Naturally if he wasn't driving he wouldn'a need to wear seatbelt... no police attention... no need to flee... no need to get cornered, get out run... get run over by reckless cop. But what about the decision to leave the house in the first place? If he did only keep he ass in de house like any responsible human being at that time of night, no need to drive... no need for seat belt... no police...
Why focus on the proximate nd superseding acause of his death when we can engage in an infinitely pointless tautological exercise...
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Allyuh fellas can't be so heartless. It doesn't matter what he did or his record. That kind of behavior is similar to just finding a negro and lynching him. Maybe he should have stayed home. Not walked down that side of the street, eat less fatty foods. If the law keepers are not committed to the process then there is no civilization, in that case the privileged can determined who lives or dies. We should never let empathy elude us so much as to watch someone run over by police and say, "serves him right." I'm positive you won't be able to eat that seed when harvest come.
Malcolm X called white people "White Devils". I don't agree with him but I can understand why he can have that view. And it's a valid view even though not entirely true. So we need to have more compassion for other peoples' pain.
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Sorry, this was just a little Pavlovian bell-ringing for my amusement. Lawyer jokes are cheap. I'll try harder next time.
That aside, I'll try to make my comments clearer, so that a logician such as yourself can understand my muddled thoughts.
1. The sequence of events that led to his end started with him running from the cops.
2. What circumstances would make this a good decision? The statistics from the link below say people escape about 25% of the time, maybe those are good odds if you're facing jail time.
3. Would a different decision have a different outcome? - We can't know this, but we can say that the likelihood of a bad outcome is reduced if you make better decisions.
Too many times, people's lives are undone due to poor decision making.
http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/law-enforcement-bulletin/march-2010/evidence-based-decisions-on-police-pursuits
Try ringing yuh bell ah little harder because yuh buss dey. As for the "muddled thoughts"... why start with him running from the cops? Why not start with him not wearing he seatbelt? Clearly that is what allegedly triggered the initial police inquiry. Or wait... what about him deciding to drive? Naturally if he wasn't driving he wouldn'a need to wear seatbelt... no police attention... no need to flee... no need to get cornered, get out run... get run over by reckless cop. But what about the decision to leave the house in the first place? If he did only keep he ass in de house like any responsible human being at that time of night, no need to drive... no need for seat belt... no police...
Why focus on the proximate nd superseding acause of his death when we can engage in an infinitely pointless tautological exercise...
The great thing about the bell is that the response is involuntary.
Once again, I apologize for not being clear. I struggle to rise to your standards. The reason why I picked that decision to question is because the risk/reward calculation is so obviously different. But I acknowledge that a pointless tautological exercise means getting out of bed in the morning could carry severe risks. Russian roulette might be safer.
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The great thing about the bell is that the response is involuntary.
Once again, I apologize for not being clear. I struggle to rise to your standards. The reason why I picked that decision to question is because the risk/reward calculation is so obviously different. But I acknowledge that a pointless tautological exercise means getting out of bed in the morning could carry severe risks. Russian roulette might be safer.
You real flattering yuhself with the "involuntary" response talk... there's a difference between responding to something and reacting to it. But if yuh really so desperate for self-gratification and think yuh do something... free up yuhself.
As for you questioning the decision, I dunno why you feel the need to break it down. I understood from jump, as I'm sure everyone else did. A rational individual would conduct that risk/reward analysis and figure that even if you run away from the cops yuh leaving behind a car registered to someone... who could then finger you to the cops. At best the car wouldn't lead back someone who could ID you, but yuh leaving behind prints that might.
That's a rational person. Spend any time around/dealing with these fellas and you'll soon understand that the streets lives by its own code and it takes a lot of counter-programming to untrain the years of conditioning that by now makes flight instinctive rather than rational. No one here has suggested that flight was a good... let alone the proper response. Not sure why you intent on beating that dead horse. The larger point is that his flight may have set the chain in motion and thus is part of the chain of factual causation... no different from him deciding to drive, not wear a seatbelt etc.. etc.. A chain that stretches all the way back to his parents decision to have unprotected sex. No offense to you... or take offense if yuh want, but this is a simplistic analysis. The superseding cause of his death was the recklessness of the police officer behind the wheel of the car. It's your choice where you want to place your focus/emphasis.. and when that focus is found wanting, feel free to ring some more Shango bells in hopes of getting a reaction. And when even that fails just conjure up one in your head anyways :beermug:
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The great thing about the bell is that the response is involuntary.
Once again, I apologize for not being clear. I struggle to rise to your standards. The reason why I picked that decision to question is because the risk/reward calculation is so obviously different. But I acknowledge that a pointless tautological exercise means getting out of bed in the morning could carry severe risks. Russian roulette might be safer.
You real flattering yuhself with the "involuntary" response talk... there's a difference between responding to something and reacting to it. But if yuh really so desperate for self-gratification and think yuh do something... free up yuhself.
As for you questioning the decision, I dunno why you feel the need to break it down. I understood from jump, as I'm sure everyone else did. A rational individual would conduct that risk/reward analysis and figure that even if you run away from the cops yuh leaving behind a car registered to someone... who could then finger you to the cops. At best the car wouldn't lead back someone who could ID you, but yuh leaving behind prints that might.
That's a rational person. Spend any time around/dealing with these fellas and you'll soon understand that the streets lives by its own code and it takes a lot of counter-programming to untrain the years of conditioning that by now makes flight instinctive rather than rational. No one here has suggested that flight was a good... let alone the proper response. Not sure why you intent on beating that dead horse. The larger point is that his flight may have set the chain in motion and thus is part of the chain of factual causation... no different from him deciding to drive, not wear a seatbelt etc.. etc.. A chain that stretches all the way back to his parents decision to have unprotected sex. No offense to you... or take offense if yuh want, but this is a simplistic analysis. The superseding cause of his death was the recklessness of the police officer behind the wheel of the car. It's your choice where you want to place your focus/emphasis.. and when that focus is found wanting, feel free to ring some more Shango bells in hopes of getting a reaction. And when even that fails just conjure up one in your head anyways :beermug:
Mih grandfather was a baptist preacher, the bell ringing must be hereditary.
But thanks for the information. His conditioning led to an impulse move that was irrational. Maybe his downfall was inevitable and the circumstances just happen to be unusual. In that case, no one is to blame. The police man is a victim as well.
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Allyuh fellas can't be so heartless. It doesn't matter what he did or his record. That kind of behavior is similar to just finding a negro and lynching him. Maybe he should have stayed home. Not walked down that side of the street, eat less fatty foods. If the law keepers are not committed to the process then there is no civilization, in that case the privileged can determined who lives or dies. We should never let empathy elude us so much as to watch someone run over by police and say, "serves him right." I'm positive you won't be able to eat that seed when harvest come.
Malcolm X called white people "White Devils". I don't agree with him but I can understand why he can have that view. And it's a valid view even though not entirely true. So we need to have more compassion for other peoples' pain.
preacher, to be honest i read that fella rap sheet and i only thinking of all the victims he sucker out of money or beat (c.f. multiple counts of battery and one count of agg. assault). maybe if those people get a nice writeup in a papers people woulda think on them just a little bit as well. instead dey out of frame - cause this story is only about this po' black man and de racist zimmerman cop and crump trying to level de scales of social justice while wearing a yellow tie. de ME in deland must be look like quincy cause he part of de conspiracy now.
dis must be de most popular narrative in us culture by far.
bitter, yuh tying up de boy in knots! :rotfl:
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Allyuh fellas can't be so heartless. It doesn't matter what he did or his record. That kind of behavior is similar to just finding a negro and lynching him. Maybe he should have stayed home. Not walked down that side of the street, eat less fatty foods. If the law keepers are not committed to the process then there is no civilization, in that case the privileged can determined who lives or dies. We should never let empathy elude us so much as to watch someone run over by police and say, "serves him right." I'm positive you won't be able to eat that seed when harvest come.
Malcolm X called white people "White Devils". I don't agree with him but I can understand why he can have that view. And it's a valid view even though not entirely true. So we need to have more compassion for other peoples' pain.
preacher, to be honest i read that fella rap sheet and i only thinking of all the victims he sucker out of money or beat (c.f. multiple counts of battery and one count of agg. assault). maybe if those people get a nice writeup in a papers people woulda think on them just a little bit as well. instead dey out of frame - cause this story is only about this po' black man and de racist zimmerman cop and crump trying to level de scales of social justice while wearing a yellow tie. de ME in deland must be look like quincy cause he part of de conspiracy now.
dis must be de most popular narrative in us culture by far.
bitter, yuh tying up de boy in knots! :rotfl:
Rabbit I hear what you are saying about the people "Out of Frame" that have been hurt by this fellow. Now check this, if this was a payback type situation from a civilian I could understand it even though it's still wrong. I think we can both agree that police can't go around murdering people, who they perceive to be deserving.
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Prisons boss’ stunning claim: 5 percent of service corrupt
By Jensen LaVende (Guardian).
Five per cent of this country’s prisons officers have been labelled as “crooked” by their head, Commissioner of Prisons Martin Martinez. Speaking to members of the media yesterday at the Noor Hassanali room in the Parliament chamber, Waterfront Complex, Port-of-Spain, Martinez said the majority of his staff were honest. He said the issues recently raised in the prisons arise from the hard work of his honest officers who seek to rid the system of contraband which makes its way into the prison via relatives and friends.
Martinez was speaking after the official handing over of the eight-page report on the current crisis at Golden Grove, Arouca, by a nine-member committee headed by Prof Ramesh Deosaran, who was mandated by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar on Monday to look into the conditions within the prisons system.
The committee submitted the report, which included two appendices—one a report from Deosaran completed in 2006, and the other, Inspector of Prisons Daniel Khan’s 2012 report. Khan is also a member of the committee. The committee was set up after the shooting death of off-duty prisons officer Andy Rogers in Malabar on November 7 started a chain of events which led, among other things, to prisons officers being injured during rioting by the prisoners.
Rogers’ colleagues subsequently staged a protest which led to prisoners rioting at the Arouca prison, leading Persad-Bissessar to name the committee to resolve the problems.
Answering a question on the issue of contraband in the prisons yesterday, Martinez said one in every 20 of his officers was helping prisoners acquire cigarettes, cellphones and both cocaine and marijuana. “Out of my 3,000 officers, five per cent are crooked. They are crooked. But the other 95 per cent are decent, hardworking, honest officers,” Martinez said, thumping the desk. In fact, a raid during a lockdown at Arouca earlier this week netted thousands of dollars worth of contraband items.
Martinez said apart from his corrupt officers, the majority of contraband which gets into the prisons comes from relatives of prisoners. He said prisoners receive contraband from relatives through clothing, food and other amenities brought to them from outside. He added that some contraband items are carried in by the prisoners themselves who have not been properly searched or who insert them in their anuses.
Martinez added that the underground economy in the prison system is also fuelled by those who throw items over the prison walls. While Martinez admitted that only one in every 20 officers is corrupt, prisoners say that number is more like one in every three. Sources from within the prison walls have estimated that a large fraction of officers are crooked and are fuelling the underground economy for financial gain.
Attempts to contact Prisons Officers’ Association president Cerron Richards for comment were unsuccessful last evening as calls to his cellphone went unanswered and he did not return calls.
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A few important things to remember the next time a cop pulls you over
By Adam Albright-Hanna (upworthy.com)
Obeying the law is a good idea. Knowing it is even better.
(http://upw-prod-images.global.ssl.fastly.net/nugget/52c8ba0e5ff32410dc003fd8/attachments/know-your-rights-d561182d95db26514528b4d83667e4db.png)
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Sadly these rights are specifically for Americans. In the UK, for instance, your silence can be held against you in court. It's a bug-bear of mine as it's designed to protect innocent people talking themselves into jail
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COPS RAID COPS
By NALINEE SEELAL - NEWSDAY
Wednesday, February 19 2014
IN A CASE of police raiding police, senior South Western Division officers on Monday afternoon executed a search warrant at the Fyzabad Police Station where during a search, they discovered a quantity of marijuana, cocaine and several rounds of ammunition of various calibre, hidden in the ceiling above the male bathroom and inside a filing cabinet in the dormitory.
Discovery of the contraband items at the police station on Monday sent shock waves throughout the length and breadth of the Police Service. According to reports, Insp Anderson Parriman, head of the Fyzabad Police Station, acting on information, stunned colleagues at the station when he ordered a lockdown of the building and a thorough search to be carried out of the male dormitory and male bathroom. The search began at about 3 pm.
Insp Parriman, assisted by several senior officers and sniffer dogs, first went to the male dormitory and searched a filing cabinet where they found marijuana and cocaine packaged in sealed packets. The marijuana weighed 560 grammes while the cocaine weighed 36 grammes.
Officers then went to the bathroom and removed ceiling tiles where they found 130 rounds of ammunition of varying calibre. Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams yesterday confirmed the raid.
“There have been certain discoveries made by the Inspector in charge of that police station and he is to submit an urgent report to me. I will be assigning officers from the Professional Standards Bureau to do a priority investigation into this matter.
“Anything which points to improper conduct by police officers will be of grave concern to me and this matter will be urgently addressed,” Williams said. Williams said he could give no further information on the raid including whether or not any officer was questioned in connection with the find.
Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Donald Denoon yesterday told Newsday, “an investigation is ongoing into the matter and I am awaiting a thorough report from Insp Parriman before the investigation can go any further.”
He revealed the items seized are to be packaged with special markings, which will then be sent to the Forensic Science Centre, St James, for certain tests to be carried out. The results of these tests will form part of the final report.
Denoon said based on what is contained in the report, a decision will then be taken on the next move with respect to finding out who was responsible for placing the items in these hiding spots.
Yesterday, other senior officers when contacted said it is possible that persons other than police officers who may have had access to the station — including members of the Defense Force — could have placed the ammunition in the ceiling. As for the drugs, sources said, they cannot discount the possibility that rogue cops are behind the hiding of the narcotics.
Up until yesterday no officer assigned to the Fyzabad Police Station had been questioned, or transferred in connection with the drugs and ammo found.
President of the Police Social and Welfare Association Insp Anand Ramesar yesterday said the find was a disgrace and a disservice to hardworking and dedicated police officers. “It is necessary for the Commissioner of Police to ensure a thorough investigation is conducted. Additionally, the regular act of transferring officers to other police stations when such an incident occurs, with no further action, cannot continue as very often, innocent persons are caught in the crossfire and sometimes are unfairly stigmatised.
“It is important that as they move forward we protect the integrity of those who are not responsible and simultaneously deal swiftly with those found culpable of this find,” Ramesar said.
This is not the first time contraband items have been found hidden in a police station.
In August 2009 and again in September of that year, police carried out separate raids at St Joseph Police Station where they seized four unregistered firearms and a quantity of narcotics in the office of a senior officer. Among the firearms recovered were a Beretta pistol and a shotgun, which were reportedly hidden in the ceiling of that office. In the September raid at that same police station, officers seized two shotguns, an undisclosed amount of ammunition and an undisclosed amount of marijuana.
One of the shotguns was found hidden behind the property room of the station and the other was found hidden in a kitchen drawer. Ammunition was also found in a drawer in an office while the marijuana was found in a drawer in another office.
As a result of the seizures, then Ag Commissioner James Philbert (now retired) ordered 38 officers of the station transferred to other stations with not one officer being charged. The items found at the St Joseph Police Station are still lodged at the Forensic Science Centre.
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Crazy T&T Cops kill two more teenagers including Carifta Games bronze medalist!
COPS KILL 2 COUSINS
Mom: Police shot two minors, took up their bodies like dogs and drop it in the van and drive off (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/COPS-KILL-2-COUSINS-262467971.html)
By Joel Julien joel.julien@trinidadexpress.com
Story Created: Jun 9, 2014 at 11:14 PM ECT (T&T Express)
HAKEEM ALEXANDER, 16, who last year brought home a bronze medal for this country at the Carifta Games held in the Bahamas, and his 15-year-old cousin, schoolboy Tevin Alexander, were yesterday shot dead by police.
The number of police killings for the year now stands at 26.
Relatives said the teenagers were kneeling on the roadway with their hands raised in surrender when they were killed by uniformed police officers.
Police officers claimed they were greeted with gunfire when they entered the Chinapoo, Morvant, area yesterday and the teens were killed when the officers returned fire.
According to public information officer for the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, Insp Wayne Mystar, around 4.15 p.m. yesterday, officers of the Inter Agency Task Force (IATF) and the North Eastern Division responded to reports of gunshots in the Chinapoo area in Morvant.
“On arrival at Wallace Road, they were greeted with gunfire. The police officers returned fire and two men were shot in the exchange,” Mystar said.
Mystar said the teens were taken to the Port of Spain General Hospital where they were both pronounced dead on arrival.
“Three other suspects related to the shooting were also apprehended and two firearms recovered,” Mystar said.
Relatives, however, yesterday disputed the Police Service’s version of events surrounding the death of the teens.
According to Tevin’s mother, Lisa De Leon-Alexander, the two teens were running toward their grandmother’s home in search of refuge as they were being shot at by a gunman when they were killed by police.
“I called him (Tevin) and he was breathless, he said, ‘Mummy, I am running. (Name called) and them now shoot up the block.’ I said, ‘Running where?’ He said, ‘I am going up by Aunty Josephine.’ I gave him five minutes and called him back. I said, ‘Where are you?’” she said.
“He breathless again. He said, ‘Them fellas coming up the hill, I going over the hill and going by granny.’ I said, ‘Why you so breathless?’ He said, ‘I am running.’ ‘I said, ‘Where Hakeem?’ He said, ‘Hakeem right here with me.’ So with that now I hang up the phone and called my mother,” she said.
“I called and said, ‘Mummy the children coming home, make sure they don’t leave the yard again.’ Then mummy called me back and she said, ‘I think they kill your child.’ I said, ‘They kill my child?’ So I kept calling his phone and no answer,” De Leon-Alexander said.
Tevin was a form four pupil at Belmont Secondary School.
His aunt ran out of her home when she saw the police officers force the teens to kneel and turned their guns on them, she said.
“From what my aunt is saying, because she is a stone’s throw away and she could see exactly what happened, she came out and she was begging for her nephew and they (the police) turned the gun on her. That is beyond outrageous,” De Leon-Alexander said.
“Somebody is seeing you doing something wrong. They are begging you not to do it as a human being and you still do it,” she said.
Leon-Alexander lamented that the same people hired to protect and serve are the ones who are killing them.
“Upstanding police officers came, shot two minors, took up their bodies like dogs and drop it in the van and drive off,” De Leon-Alexander said.
“Last time I checked their (the Police Service’s) motto was to protect and serve the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago and not to kill the citizens. These are the people were are supposed to trust and they turn around and violate our trust. There is no word to describe how I feel,” she said.
Hakeem’s father, Henry Alexander, said he took his son to Bowen Marine yesterday to see about a job.
Hakeem stayed home from work last week because of ill health, Henry said.
Last year, Hakeem claimed bronze for Trinidad and Tobago in the boys’ under-17 3,000m event in 9:49.59 at the Carifta Games.
Alexander yesterday brought out the trophies and medals his son won from running.
Among the four trophies Henry brought out yesterday was one Hakeem got last year when he placed first in the Morvant Police Youth Club 10k event.
“Imagine they (the police) are the same ones who come now and kill him,” Henry said.
Hakeem is said to be the national record holder for the National Primary School’s 3k.
Among dozens of medals Henry brought out yesterday were a gold and silver medal his son got at the National Junior Championship last year.
Hakeem was a former pupil at Success Laventille Secondary School and a member of the Simplex Club.
Police killings 2014:
1. Janus Alphonso, 28, January 10
2. Walcott Ali, 51, January 11
3. Nicholas Sylvester, 19, January 20
4. Kevon Charles, 26, January 31
5. Akeem Price, 22, February 4
6. Anthony Hepburn, 29, February 11
7. Junior Noel, 31, February 14
8. Anderson Deo, 22, February 14
9. Jeremy Innis, 19, March 10
10. Adrian Charles, 24, March 18
11. Satrohan Ramhanie, 22
12. Anthony Hospedales, 18, March 26
13. Jerome Clunis, 23
14. Gilbert Browne, 25, March 27
15. Naim Dean, 21, April 11
16. Roy Thomas, 29, May 1
17. Chandrabhose Samaroo, 32, May 5
18. Anthony Amogan, 43, May 9
19. Antonio Swan, 21, May 13
20. Nigel Long, 35, May 13
21. Dillon Mason, 20, May 21
22. Jerome Cross, 27, May 22
23. Joel Apparicio, 31, May 22
24. Chaquille McCoy, 21, June 5
25. Hakeem Alexander, 16, June 9
26. Tevin Alexander, 15, June 9
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Differing reports from relatives, residents as cops kill cousins (http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2014-06-10/differing-reports-relatives-residents-cops-kill-cousins)
Published: Tuesday, June 10, 2014
By Camille Clarke (T&T Guardian)
Bullets flew in two separate communities yesterday, resulting in the deaths of two teenagers and the injury of one police officer. In the case that drew the most attention, two cousins were shot dead by the police during an alleged shootout yesterday afternoon at Superville Hill, Morvant. Hakeem, 16, and Tevin Alexander, 15, of Lezama Trace, Chinapoo Village, were taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital nursing gunshot injuries after the shootout but were pronounced dead on arrival.
Hakeem represented T&T at the Carifta Games last year and Tevin was a Form Three student at Belmont Boys’ Secondary. Police said they were responding to a call of gunshots and heavily armed men in the area when they encountered three people, including the two youths, as they arrived at the scene. One man was armed with shotgun while the youths had handguns, they said.
Officers said one of the men ran through a track while one of the two youths opened fire on them. The other youth also opened fire and attempted to run through the track. The officers said they returned fire and the two youth suspects were injured. They were later taken to the hospital where they succumbed to their injuries. Two revolvers were recovered at the scene.
Police said the Alexanders were wanted for attempted murder, breaking and entry, sexual assault and larceny of a vehicle. The suspect who escaped was also wanted, police said. In a telephone interview yesterday, however, an eyewitness disputed the police account of what occurred. “The police tell them to go on their knees and put their hands up. They ask them where they come from and they ain’t give them time to say nothing and they put bullets in their belly.
“I say that is an injustice and start to make noise. All you not supposed to do that. The police that was there look up and he look at me and let go some bullets at my house like if that was me he would waste me the same way. He riddled the boy after that and gone.” Lisa De Leon-Alexander, Tevin’s mother, said her son was innocent and was going to see his grandparents on the hill at the time he was killed. “If they do something talk to the parents,” she said.
“The children dropped to their knees and begged for their lives and you still kill them. They ain’t search them or check them. All you buss my child skin if he was doing anything wrong.” She said her aunt, who lived near where the shooting occurred, saw the incident and begged for her nephews. “She was begging for her nephews and they turn the gun on her. That is beyond outrageous. Cause somebody who seeing you do something wrong is begging you not to do it as a human being and you still do it.”
De Leon-Alexander said Tevin was unable to go to school because she had no money to send him. “They (police) are trained to protect and serve us but they kill us. They (boys) not in nothing. They were running from a man who was shooting behind them because he wants them to turn to Muslim. What part of my child, if he wants to turn to Jesus Christ and not Muslim, you should shoot him?” The mother denied Tevin was wanted by the police or known to the police.
Henry Alexander, Hakeem’s father, said his son was a national athlete. Pointing to a host of medals and trophies, he said his son had been laid off because he was ill for over a week but he had managed to negotiate with the boy’s employer to rehire him. “I call him (Hakeem) and say the bossman wanted him to check him and he will get back the work,” he said.
“Then I heard there was a fight up and the police shoot them. I did now come from Down the Islands and they say police shoot them. I surprise to hear police shoot him in the head and the cousin... he break the national record in school.” Henry said his son wanted to return to school (Success/Laventille Composite) and continue his career to become a professional athlete.
Boys no saints
Residents at Wallace Road claimed the two boys were not innocent and they had complained about them numerous times. One resident, who did not want to be identified, said the two youths, along with two other men, planned to ambush a relative of hers and he barely escaped with his life. “They living up there and we living down here. I don’t know what they warring we for? They used to be here liming and drinking together. It was all of them,” she said.
“I told him (her relative) not to go because they shot up the house on Friday. I was waiting to give him money and when he come I hear him quarreling and bleeding plenty,” she said pointing to gunshots at the house. She added: “The same one who they say is an athlete, his mother talk to him, his grandmother talk to him, father talk, aunt talk. Everybody talk to him. What going on with he?” She claimed they had Zion (Wallace Road) hot with illegal activity. Investigations are continuing.
Policeman shot in leg
Police were up to last evening searching Cameron Hill, Petit Valley, for gunmen who shot a colleague. The constable was shot in the leg after the officers responded to a report of an alleged kidnapping in Maraval. According to reports, officers of the Western Division Task Force went to Cameron Hill around 3 pm as they followed leads but when they got there their pathway was blocked by debris.
Constable Jason Clement and some other colleagues got out of their vehicle to remove the debris when they were fired upon. He was shot in the right leg. The gunmen escaped in nearby bushes. Also last night, police were also searching the compound of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen mosque in Carapo and surrounding houses during a raid for arms and ammunition.
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Police does know who dey killing.
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Police does know who dey killing.
Oh so they knew they were killing two talented youngsters included a T&T Carifta bronze medalist?
If so then how patriotic of them doing that as I guess they must have killed them out of love for the youths and the country as they don't want one of them who was a very talented athlete winning T&T any more medals in the future to bring glory to T&T and make all Trinbagonians proud.
And what stopped them from arresting the youths? But we must murder two more Black youths today as no one is supposed to care about the lost of another young Black life?
26 police killings and 90% of them are Black boys or young men and no one cares.
If they had evidence that the boys shot and killed someone for argument sake then why not arrest them and press charges for murder because you have evidence.
But guess what the boys were both unarmed when they were murdered by the police and it was seen by a number of witnesses so this account is not a fabrication.
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Because Trinidad police not going and fight up with all of that. From all accounts the youths were not just "Carifta stars" but they were involved in badness and were wanted on some serious charges. To top it off they shot at the police.
Trinidad police not going through alla dat. I'm not saying it's right, but that's reality.
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Because Trinidad police not going and fight up with all of that. From all accounts the youths were not just "Carifta stars" but they were involved in badness and were wanted on some serious charges. To top it off they shot at the police.
Trinidad police not going through alla dat. I'm not saying it's right, but that's reality.
Where you got that bogus information from Toppa, from the police accounts?
The police are trying to cover up their crime. The boys had no guns and fired on no one, rather they were the ones who were fired upon while going about their business.
The truth is that the boys were returning home because they live in the area and heard gun shots being fired and started running for cover and the police started chasing them. The boys were not armed or involved in any criminal activity and they could have been any other Black youngsters living in the area who were heading home. At first the boys thought it was gangsters in the area firing at them but then as the shooters got closer they realized it was the police.
The boys then tried to surrender themselves to the police with the hope that the officers will realized they were innocent and unarmed and rather than the police doing their jobs and confirming if the boys were indeed criminals they decided to shot them in cold blood and in the view of on looking neighbours.
And this is the brutality against young Black boys one of who represented our country and made us proud by winning a bronze medal at the Carifta games. And the latest information I heard today about Hakeem Alexander is that he also had ambitions of becoming a police officer which stands to logic since Hakeem won the Morvant Police Youth Club 10k event last year. So the police actually murdered a youth who had long term ambitions to become one of them, how sad and ironic!
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The truth is...
Lets not pretend we can claim this - we have conflicting reports from both sides that both have a vested interest in spinning the story to their end.
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police willing to reveal voice recording of the calls that came in to the command centre about the boys shooting spree and victim who was the target willing to come forward
i dont see the need to highlight his sporting endeavours...they cud run cool
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How you know that's the truth, Socapro?
The Express gives an account from the relatives of the boys and the Guardian gives an account from the residents who say the boys were involved in badness. It also lists the charges they were wanted on - attempted murder, sexual assault, robbery, etc.
If you piece the two articles together the picture it paints is that the boys were fleeing some other bad-boys, there was shooting, police responded to the scene and were shot at. They then shot two of the boys. Whether it was during the fire-fight (police returning fire as they said) or whether they apprehended them and then shot them is in dispute. I think it is possible that the police apprehended them and then shot them. But I also do not believe the boys were innocent "Carifta stars" like you are portraying.
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The truth is...
Lets not pretend we can claim this - we have conflicting reports from both sides that both have a vested interest in spinning the story to their end.
Please I don't want to engage you in petty arguments right now! An innocent ambitious young athlete and his cousin have just been murdered in cold blood and we are now on 26 police murders for the years so far most of which have been perpetrated on young Black men.
Trinidad is in some serious trouble right now especially if we going to condone two innocent unarmed Black youths being murdered by police in front of witnesses who all confirmed what they saw.
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How you know that's the truth, Socapro?
The Express gives an account from the relatives of the boys and the Guardian gives an account from the residents who say the boys were involved in badness. It also lists the charges they were wanted on - attempted murder, sexual assault, robbery, etc.
If you piece the two articles together the picture it paints is that the boys were fleeing some other bad-boys, there was shooting, police responded to the scene and were shot at. They then shot two of the boys. Whether it was during the fire-fight (police returning fire as they said) or whether they apprehended them and then shot them is in dispute. I think it is possible that the police apprehended them and then shot them. But I also do not believe the boys were innocent "Carifta stars" like you are portraying.
the victim has already identified the boys as the ones shooting behind him
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How you know that's the truth, Socapro?
The Express gives an account from the relatives of the boys and the Guardian gives an account from the residents who say the boys were involved in badness. It also lists the charges they were wanted on - attempted murder, sexual assault, robbery, etc.
If you piece the two articles together the picture it paints is that the boys were fleeing some other bad-boys, there was shooting, police responded to the scene and were shot at. They then shot two of the boys. Whether it was during the fire-fight (police returning fire as they said) or whether they apprehended them and then shot them is in dispute. I think it is possible that the police apprehended them and then shot them. But I also do not believe the boys were innocent "Carifta stars" like you are portraying.
the victim has already identified the boys as the ones shooting behind him
Which victim is that? The one the boys almost killed (allegedly, of course) in the Guardian article?
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police willing to reveal voice recording of the calls that came in to the command centre about the boys shooting spree and victim who was the target willing to come forward
i dont see the need to highlight his sporting endeavours...they cud run cool
Even if that was true for argument sake? The boys had no weapons when they surrendered to the police so why were they killed in cold blooded murder if the police had all that evidence?
It does not add up and sounds like a fabricated story to me.
The corrupt police can also easily pay or bribe someone to say the murdered youths shot at them but I would like to see the ballistic and forensic evidence to confirm what the police said, no unprofessional fabricated nonsense.
One of the boys who was an athlete had a bright future ahead of him and even had ambitions of becoming a police officer. How sad and ironic! Hakeem even won the Morvant Police Youth Club 10k event last year so you can see where his ambitions on becoming a police officer in addition to being a future Olympic medallist for T&T would have sprung from.
I think the people of Morvant, Laventille and these other areas where Black youths are being indiscriminately murdered now almost on a daily basis should launch a protest march against these murders. They need to join hands and march down from the hills in their thousands down to the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain and bring Port-of-Spain to a standstill if necessary.
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And what about the youths who distressing and terrorising their own community, Socapro?
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And what about the youths who distressing and terrorising their own community, Socapro?
Yes what about them?
Does that mean that every Black youth in certain communities should be indiscriminately treated like a criminal and murdered in cold blood at the first opportunity by the police because their mindset is that they are waging war?
Nothing in this life you can say can justify the cold blooded police murder of promising T&T athlete Hakeem Alexander and his cousin so I advice you to stop with your justification for the murder unless you are trying to prove that you have the mindset of an uncivilized savage.
Hakeem Alexander even had ambitions of becoming a police officer and was murdered by the very people he looked up to. How sad and ironic is that?!
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lol Ok, Socapro
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Crazy? Unless I get the real story I ain't passing judgement
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Police does know who dey killing.
Nah Toppa... I can't agree with that. If they guilty then put them on trial and show yuh evidence, no civilized society should be tolerating summary executions as reportedly was done here.
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Police does know who dey killing.
Nah Toppa... I can't agree with that. If they guilty then put them on trial and show yuh evidence, no civilized society should be tolerating summary executions as reportedly was done here.
I know, and I agree. But these bad-boys should understand that Trinidad police will kill them no questions asked. A 15 and 16 year old supposed to be beating dey books, not involved in crime (as reported). But I think residents should pull out their smart phone (everybody have one) and record if the police really getting on like that. Let them be brought to justice - although I can sympathise with the police going into those areas and putting their lives on the line.
The mother's account is heart-breaking, but parents does know they children involved in crime and tacitly (or overtly) condone it.
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Police does know who dey killing.
Nah Toppa... I can't agree with that. If they guilty then put them on trial and show yuh evidence, no civilized society should be tolerating summary executions as reportedly was done here.
Damned right , only uncivilized countries summarily execute black youths . Uncivilized countries like America
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No a
Accountability - everyone do as you please.How come no one calling on minister of national security or all them "acting " cop. They eh really know what to do they still acting.
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Boys Not on Knees
http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2014-06-11/boys-not-knees
This story getting more confusing yes.
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The truth is...
Lets not pretend we can claim this - we have conflicting reports from both sides that both have a vested interest in spinning the story to their end.
Please I don't want to engage you in petty arguments right now! An innocent ambitious young athlete and his cousin have just been murdered in cold blood and we are now on 26 police murders for the years so far most of which have been perpetrated on young Black men.
Trinidad is in some serious trouble right now especially if we going to condone two innocent unarmed Black youths being murdered by police in front of witnesses who all confirmed what they saw.
It's not petty - I'm taking it seriously, but you appear to be focusing on their athletic ability as some sort of saving grace - it's incidental to the facts that we can't know due to the conflicting reports :( You keep claiming these things as facts - why?
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Teen cousins shot dead by police (http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,196029.html)
By JULIEN NEAVES Tuesday, June 10 2014 (T&T Newsday)
TWO teenaged cousins one of whom was a national track athlete and the other described as an IT “genius”, were shot dead yesterday by police in Morvant, bringing to 26 the number of persons shot dead by police this year.
Dead are Tevin Alexander, 15, and cousin Hakeem Alexander,16, the latter winning bronze for this country in the Boys’ Under 17 3,000 metre race last year at the Carifta Games in Bahamas.
Police Service spokesman Insp Wayne Mystar told Newsday that at about 4.15 pm, officers from the Inter Agency Task Force and North Eastern Division responded to reports of gunshots in the Chinapoo area of Morvant.
He said that on arrival officers were met with gunfire forcing them to take cover and return gunfire which led to the Alexander cousins being shot. The teens were taken to Port-of-Spain General Hospital where they were pronounced dead on arrival. Mystar said three suspects were arrested and two firearms recovered.
But relatives of the shot teens painted a different picture of events. They said the cousins were confronted by a gunman who had been “terrorising” the area since Christmas and who had tried to convert the cousins to Islam. Relatives said the teens were running from the gunman toward their grandmother’s home at Lezama Trace when they ran into the police officers at Superville Hill.
Tevin’s mother Lisa De Leon-Alexander claimed she witnessed the shooting. “The boys on running into the police, dropped to their knees, put their hands in the air and said, ‘we not in nothing’. They literally begged for their lives...but the police still killed them. They did not search them they just shot them,” she cried.
She further claimed that when relatives and others begged for the boys’ lives, the officers turned their guns on them. “How could you trust these same people after they turn around and violate your trust,” De Leon-Alexander asked.
De Leon-Alexander said she would like justice to be done but has no faith this would happen.
“I don’t want to hear sorry from this gracious Government and the Commissioner (of police) because that’s not going to bring my son back,” she said.
Tevin was a Form Four student of Belmont Boys Secondary and dreamed of becoming an IT technician. De Leon-Alexander recalled he stayed home from school yesterday because she did not have money to send him. Hakeem was on a court-ordered bond for fighting but Tevin had no run-ins with the law.
Hakeem was a student at Success Laventille Secondary but dropped out of school at Form Three due to frustration over the lack of opportunities at that school for track and field events.
He worked with his father at Peake’s Marine in Chaguaramas.
Hakeem’s father Henry Alexander said his son had been running since he was seven and showed off his son’s many trophies and medals. Hakeem attended the Carifta Games in Martinique this year but did not compete. Alexander said when he heard the news he was at work in Chaguaramas and could barely concentrate to drive home.
“I had my son this morning and I come home today to hear that police shoot him in he head,” Alexander said. Yesterday’s killing came days before Police Complaints Authority Director Gillian Lucky is to meet with Ag Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams tomorrow over the number of police killings.
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Hakeem could have won gold (http://www.guardian.co.tt/sport/2014-06-11/hakeem-could-have-won-gold)
Published: Wednesday, June 11, 2014
By Andrew Gioannetti (T&T Guardian)
Had Hakeem Alexander’s life not come to an end at 16 years, the 2013 Carifta bronze medalist would have brought further glory to this country while in his prime. So said Gunness Persad, coach at Simplex Athletic Club, which Alexander represented.
Alexander, was one of two teenagers who were shot and killed by police at Superville Hill, Laventille, close to his home, on Monday. The other boy killed was his 15-year-old cousin Tevin Alexander.
Their deaths was followed by conflicting reports of the incident from police and neighbours. Police have claimed they were shot at by the teenagers, while an eyewitness said they were shot while surrendering in a kneeling position with their arms raised.
During his short career, Alexander, a former student at Success Laventille Secondary, racked up a host of accolades including a bronze medal in the Under-17 3000m event at last year’s Carifta Games in the Bahamas, clocking 9:49.59. He also broke the national primary schools’ 3k record.
Alexander, however, did not compete for the year, according to Persad, who said he entered him in a number of meets including the 2014 Carifta trials.
He might have won gold (at this year’s Carifta Championship), but he did not compete this year in any of the events I signed him up in.
He was serious (about athletics). I don’t know what went wrong,” Persad said.
Persad noted that Alexander was one of six young athletes from Laventille who were recruited by Simplex last year, following the advice of a teacher of a primary school in Laventille.
“He definitely had the talent. Many people liked him because of his potential. He was cool, calm and quiet. He seemed to respect me. When he was with me, he listened, just like the boys he was with. They were all cool,” said Persad.
He added, “Yes (I was shocked to hear the news). My main purpose was to help (the boys), show them out of poverty, show them that there are other avenues to succeed in life, such as athletics.”
Alexander rarely trained with the club as it is based at the Mannie Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella, and focuses its training routines primarily on sprints.
The club current trains 45-50 runners, notably including Keston Bledman, Machel Cedenio and Kamaria Durant, all of whom Alexander could have joined in glory had he remained alive.
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Students in tears (http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,196072.html)
By RYAN HAMILTON-DAVIS Wednesday, June 11 2014 (T&T Newsday)
WHILE relatives of cousins Tevin and Hakeem Alexander were yesterday making funeral arrangements for the teens who were shot and killed on Monday by police, news of one of the boy’s killing had Form Four students of Belmont Secondary School in tears.
“At first I was in shock, then I just started to cry,” said a student during an interview outside the school yesterday. The students spoke in glowing terms of 16-year-old Tevin Alexander who attended the school.
“In school Tevin was a good person. He was respectful and never really fought with anyone else. He used to do his work. He was real bright and loved litereature. He was good in Electronic Data Processing. He was also a talented midfielder on the football field. This boy didn’t deserve to die like that. He and his cousin deserve justice,” cried another student.
Other students who were wiping away tears, said that Tevin was held up as a role model and a person who should be emulated because of his ability to balance studies with sports. Students stood in small groups yesterday, discussing the boys’ deaths.
Meanwhile, autopsy reports confirmed the two boys died from multiple gunshot wounds. According to Lisa De Leon-Alexander, her son Tevin had been riddled with bullets with the pathologist unable to determine exactly how much times he had been shot.
“If you could have only seen them. Those two boys were covered in bullet holes! This is beyond heinous! My child promised me he would get an engineering degree. He said if he doesn’t make it, he wants to go hotel school, because he loved to cook. How could you rob him of that chance just because he was running from someone else who did not want to do good.
“I don’t expect to get justice, I don’t expect to get understanding or compassion because we as Trinidadians are operating without compassion for human life. But Jesus will give me my justice,” De Leon-Alexander cried.
Police reported that at about 4.15 pm on Monday, police were responding to reports of shots fired in the Chinapoo area and when they responded, were greeted by gunfire. Police took cover and returned fire, which led to the two boys being shot.
However eyewitness reports say the two boys were fleeing from the area where gunshots were heard when they encountered police officers at Superville Hill. Witnesses said on seeing the police, Tevin and Hakeem fell to their knees in surrender and were shot.
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Autopsies of teenage cousins disprove eyewitness accounts of police killings
Cops upset at media reports on killings (http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2014-06-11/boys-not-knees)
Published: Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Kalifa Clyne and Jensen La Vende (T&T Guardian)
The autopsies of teenage cousins—Hakeem, 16, and Tevin Alexander, 15—disprove some eyewitness accounts that the boys were kneeling when they were shot by police. According to the autopsies, which were conducted by Hughvon des Vignes at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, yesterday, the boys were shot several times about the body. Some of the bullets exited and ricocheted from nearby objects and re-entered the teens’ body.
The autopsy showed both boys were shot from in front, with one receiving a gunshot injury to the back. The report said bullets also pierced the upper thigh of one boy and went through the knee, in an upwards direction, in the other boy. The pathologist also found that in one case the bullet jacket peeled off and was lodged in the chest of one victim, while the slug entered the chest area, which showed that the bullets were not fired from close range.
During the autopsy, police took a man who identified the two dead boys as his attackers, who had pointed a gun at him and shot at him. The cousins, who were the 25th and 26th victims of police killings so far this year, were also shot while facing their shooters and Tevin was shot more than his elder cousin, the autopsies concluded.
Speaking to the media at the FSC yesterday, Lisa De Leon-Alexander, Tevin’s mother, said the cousins were shot in the head, chest, legs and arms. Hakeem’s mother Suzette Alexander also viewed the autopsies with De Leon-Alexander. De Leon-Alexander described the sight of her son and nephew as “heinous.”
According to eyewitness reports at the scene at Superville Hill, Morvant, on Monday, police ordered the boys to go on their knees and put their hands up before shooting them.
Another witness who spoke to the T&T Guardian during a telephone interview yesterday, said she witnessed the boys’ killing and denied that they had fired at the lawmen. According to police, the teenagers were killed after they shot at policemen when they responded to report of shooting in the community. Police said around 4.15 pm police of the Inter Agency Task Force (IATF) and the North Eastern Division Task Force responded to reports of gunshots at Wallace Road, Chinapoo, Morvant.
When they arrived they were reportedly shot at and returned fire, fatally hitting the cousins, who were pronounced dead on arrival at the Eric Williams Medical Science Complex, Mt Hope. In yet another twist yesterday, a resident of the area said the teens were being pursued as possible recruits by gang leaders in Chinapoo, Morvant. “There are two fellas who come into the community to torment the youth men and try to get them to become Muslim and join the gangs,” the resident said, naming the two men involved in that process.
He added: “These men come around when the youths are liming, playing cards or football. They put on masks and pull out their guns and people are afraid.
“Up to last Saturday a group of people were gambling by the road and he (name called) ran up on them and pulled out the gun.
"These youth men weren’t on gun and thing. They would smoke weed, gamble and lime but they were not any bad boys.”
The resident disagreed with reports that the boys were involved in criminal activity, particularly Hakeem, who was a long-distance runner who won a Carifta bronze medal for T&T last year.
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Dottin: Gangs putting teens on battlefront (http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2014-06-11/dottin-gangs-putting-teens-battlefront)
Published: Wednesday, June 11, 2014 (T&T Guardian)
Seventh Day Adventist pastor Clive Dottin, who does outreach work in communities such as Laventille and Morvant, said yesterday it was known those areas were recruiting grounds for gang leaders. “The country must face the fact that adult gang leaders are recruiting teenagers and putting them on the battlefront,” Dottin told the T&T Guardian in a telephone interview. “They are doing a phenomenal job recruiting teens. It should be of great concern to all of us in society,” he added.
Dottin said the issue spoke to a collapse of parenting and family in society, adding unless these issues are fixed the fight against crime will not be won. Meanwhile, Inspector Roger Alexander, head of the North Eastern Division task Force (NEDTF) and vice-president of the Police Social and Welfare Association, said he was disturbed by media reports his men had murdered the cousins.
Speaking on Beyond the Tape programme, he said when the media visited the area on Monday they spoke to the relatives of the cousins but failed to speak with the victims he claimed the cousins had earlier terrorised. Asked about the accusations the officers were excessive, Alexander said: “How can a team be acting in an excessive way when all they doing is protecting their lives, the lives of the public and their colleagues.
“The public must understand if we worked in places like Westmoorings we would never have any confrontation. ”We work in a place known to be a hotspot, where people are aggressive towards the police and are encouraged to be aggressive towards the police, yet you want us to be like, ‘good morning do you have a gun in the bush? Would you stop shooting at us please.’”
Alexander said psycho-social messages being relayed to the police was that they should hesitate in those situations but he said that could cost them their lives. In a telephone interview with the T&T Guardian yesterday, acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams said he would not be commenting on the issue of police killings, since he has a meeting today with head of the Police Complains Authority (PCA) Gillian Lucky.
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I wonder if any gun powder residue was found on the cousins hands.
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Gillian, Williams to discuss killings (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Gillian-Williams-to-discuss-killings-262639471.html)
By Alexander Bruzual alexander.bruzual@trinidadexpress.com
Story Created: Jun 10, 2014 at 10:32 PM ECT (T&T Express)
The killing of Hakeem Alexander, 16, and his cousin Tevin Alexander, 15, by police officers on Monday afternoon has fortified concerns of the Director of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) Gillian Lucky, as she prepares to meet with acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams today.
The deaths of the two cousins came less than 24 hours after Lucky had commented on the number of police killings, in which she indicated it was her concern surrounding the then figure of 24 deaths, which led her to seek a meeting with Williams.
Speaking to the Express yesterday, Lucky said the meeting was scheduled to take place this morning at the Police Administration Building in Port of Spain following which she will host a news briefing in the afternoon.
She said: “I have previously indicated my concerns on the number of civilians who have been killed by police for the year thus far. At that time (Sunday) the number was 24, and what has occurred on Monday afternoon has fortified my position.
“It further emphasises the need for the meeting with the Commissioner of Police and the need for all these now 26 matters to be properly and thoroughly investigated so that a determination can be made.
“Now let me be clear. Policemen and women are citizens of this country and as such, they too are entitled to the presumption of innocence, the presumption that there was no wrongdoing in their actions.
“The PCA is in no way against the police performing their duties in a lawful manner, but rather, we are simply the voice for transparency.
“We call for thorough investigations with the view of exonerating those officers in matters who have done nothing wrong, or for determining if officers did in fact use excessive action,” Lucky explained.
She noted that the public, at the end of the day, simply wanted to know the truth in these incidents and therefore the investigations were very important as it afforded the officers involved an opportunity to distance themselves from any allegations and have their names cleared against any claims of impropriety.
Lucky also noted that up to yesterday evening, she had not received an official report on the killing of the two cousins.
However, she noted the PCA had taken note of the reports in the various media houses and had determined that the matter fell within the remits of the PCA and as such the “evidence-gathering process” had already been initiated.
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Insp: Victim said teens were chasing him (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Insp-Victim-said-teens-were-chasing-him-262639681.html)
Story Created: Jun 10, 2014 at 10:35 PM ECT (T&T Express)
Inspector Roger Alexander of the North Eastern Division Task Force is standing firmly behind the officers in his division who were involved in the killing of Hakeem Alexander, 16, and Tevin Alexander, 15, on Monday afternoon.
Speaking to the Express yesterday, Alexander, who is also vice-president of the Police Social and Welfare Association, said he was shocked when he awoke yesterday morning to see various media houses had focused their reports on what was said by the relatives of the slain teenagers without a “proper balance” on the report of the incident from the police.
“It was amazing to wake up this morning to see so many media reports brandishing the officers involved in this incident as murderers, when the information we have on this incident paints a completely different picture.
“It causes one to appreciate the digital age we live in because the initial information and communication we have on this report came from the police command centre, so there will be recordings and transcripts of what the officers were getting themselves into.
“We were told that several armed men were shooting at persons in the Morvant area and that several persons armed with guns were entering homes in the area. That information leads to a crucial report that all media houses seemed to have missed, that these men were chasing after a victim and that they had even cornered the victim in a house and was shooting at him when the police arrived.
“The officers, on assessing that the report they received was true, confronted these men as they exited a house. Both men brandished what appeared to be firearms during that confrontation and the officers responded to that threat. It is unfortunate that life was lost, but at the same time, the officers were simply defending themselves,” Alexander said.
He then explained that after the teenagers were shot, the victim even exited the house and identified himself before identifying the two teenagers as the people who were chasing him.
“The focus in the media seemed to have been the side of the relatives of the deceased. That’s understandable to a point. Because when you cross that point, it comes across as biased.”
—Alexander Bruzual
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Friends don’t believe cops (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Friends-dont-believe-cops-262639591.html)
Story Created: Jun 10, 2014 at 10:33 PM ECT (T&T Express)
Despite the police claim that 15-year-old Tevin Alexander was brandishing a firearm when he was shot and killed by police on Monday afternoon, pupils of Belmont Secondary School yesterday said they could not bring themselves to believe such allegations against their friend.
“Those reports are just not true. They real bogus. If you know Tevin, then you know this boy used to be afraid of trouble of any kind. He never even get into a fight in this school because he just wasn’t that type of person.
“He never disrespect his teachers. He never did anything like that at all. So hearing on the news last night that the police saying he had a gun on him and that’s why they kill him, that just not true. We don’t believe that at all.
“The boy who afraid of any sort of ranking thing holding a gun? Not at all,” a pupil at the school said yesterday afternoon.
At the time, the Express had visited the school to talk to the pupils on the death of their classmate.
One of the pupils said Tevin was assigned to the “Four O” classroom and he was a “bright boy” who always did his schoolwork.
“The man only had love for music and football. He was a level mid-fielder. That was his favourite position to play. And he was real bright in class.
“He was always either studying, or sleeping, to be honest, and that was only because he was up studying the night before. He never used to give any trouble at all. He was just a bright boy,” another pupil said.
The pupils said they were all saddened by Tevin’s death and they would miss him greatly.
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WHERE ARE THE GUNS?
Relatives of teens killed by police demand answers on claim boys were armed (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/WHERE-ARE--THE-GUNS-262639751.html)
Story Created: Jun 10, 2014 at 10:33 PM ECT (T&T Express)
Relatives of Carifta medallist Hakeem Alexander, 16, and his 15-year-old cousin, Tevin Alexander, who were both killed on Monday by police, are maintaining the two teenagers were innocently killed by the same police officers to whom they were attempting to surrender themselves on their knees.
“That what I saw here today in that autopsy room. Those two young boys lying on that table with gunshot wounds to their faces, their heads, and shoulders. That was not even a brutal police killing. It was heinous. Those two defenceless boys were heinously killed by the same officers they were running towards, trying to seek help from.
“The way those two boys are riddled up with bullets, I can’t even put in words the emotions that I am feeling right now, especially since I know that it was policemen, men who are sworn to protect the citizens in this country, who did that,” Tevin’s mother, Lisa De Leon-Alexander, said yesterday morning at the Forensic Science Centre in St James.
Leon-Alexander continued to maintain that contrary to the police report that the teenagers were shot at by the officers because they had firearms in their hands, the young men were actually kneeling on the ground, with both hands in the air, pleading with the lawmen for their lives.
“Whatever dreams or aspirations they had died when they died yesterday at the hands of the people who swore to protect and serve them.
The people who they ran to for protection are the same people who kill them. They were running to go home to my mother because someone with a gun was chasing after them. They were the victims in this. They see police and they throw themselves to the ground on their knees, hoping the officers would protect them. Instead they get killed for their efforts.
“And then the police want to claim that these two boys, with their hands in the air, were holding firearms? And that they had to kill them because they were protecting themselves? That’s just not true. How does one protect themselves against two unarmed teens? They also say they got guns on them? When they had nothing on the scene, and even when we reached hospital they still had nothing on them? I want to see where these guns were. Because I can’t see how that story adds up. Our relatives and neighbours saw these boys on their knees, with hands in the air, begging, you hear me, begging for their lives, yet the police are claiming that somehow, throughout all this, these boys were shooting at them and had guns in their hands? That just doesn’t add up to me,” Leon-Alexander said.
Hakeem’s mother, Suzette Alexander, repeatedly called for an investigation into the deaths, although she said she did not believe there would be a fruitful outcome. “All I hearing on the media last night was people saying the senior police gonna do an investigation. That’s not going to bring back our children, you know.
“We want to know what happened at the end of the day. But we don’t have faith that it would be a fruitful investigation. And you would think that now children are among the statistics for police killings it would bring some sort of pause and reviewing of police actions, but I really don’t see that happening either.
“The law, it seems, rarely prosecutes police officers in this country. So it comes across as our children’s lives had no value,” an emotional Suzette Alexander said.
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from d yutes fb page
(https://scontent-b-mia.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t1.0-9/1525229_633919870032598_5392300044481575374_n.jpg)
(https://scontent-a-mia.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/t1.0-9/10393669_633919993365919_8605448448532132168_n.jpg)
(https://scontent-a-mia.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/t1.0-9/10410479_633919853365933_3981974830652196478_n.jpg)
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t1.0-9/10433886_633919996699252_4733893630084428245_n.jpg)
(https://scontent-a-mia.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/t1.0-9/10411900_633919930032592_2076544489999243433_n.jpg)
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There seems to be a breakdown of law and order in the TTPS with regards to following basic procedures where police shootings are concerned. I wonder why?! Have a read....
Cops not taking PCA seriously
Lucky angry at lack of help on killings... (http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2014-06-12/cops-not-taking-pca-seriously)
Published: Thursday, June 12, 2014
Geisha Kowlessar (T&T Guardian)
Police Complaints Authority director Gillian Lucky is upset over the refusal of police to comply with PCA directives to help in unravelling suspected cases of fatal police shootings, saying this has led to a breakdown in law and order within the rank and file of the Police Service. She made the statement during a press briefing yesterday at the Waterfront Complex, Port-of-Spain, as she noted there had been a 100 per cent increase in police killings from the year 2011 to 2014. “Clearly, there is flagrant violation by certain police officers to ensure compliance with timelines and to ensure thoroughness and fairness in investigations,” Lucky said.
She also expressed concern that the detection rate for murders was nine per cent, saying this was the situation some ten years ago. There have been 26 police killings for the year but the PCA is only monitoring 19 as those fell under the remit of the organisation, she said. Of the 19 killings, eight were in the North Eastern Division and six in Central Division. She said co-operation from the police was critical to the PCA’s ability to function properly. She added: “It is only in finding truth that we can ensure justice. Within recent times there have been several entities and individuals who suggest that police officers who shoot civilians are doing no wrong.
“But before reaching such an investigation there must be an independent and thorough investigation. The PCA does not prejudge any issue. “It insists on timely, thorough and transparent investigations by the Police Service. Unfortunately these have not been met by the Police Service in several instances.” Lucky said there was too big a delay between the time of the shootings and when the PCA was informed, adding there was also a “great timeline” before critical investigations could be completed. She said Williams also announced that body cameras for police would be introduced in September.
Issues raised with Williams
Among the issues Lucky discussed with acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams was whether a body had been formed to deal with fatal shootings of civilians and police.
Lucky said Williams said while there were initiatives to have such a body formally implemented, the move must be approved by National Security Minister Gary Griffith, who has to take the matter to Cabinet. She said in the interim there was the Professional Standards Bureau of the Police Service, headed by ACP Peter Reyes. On providing the PCA with greater details, Lucky said the PCA was given the assurance that would be done. Regarding legal advice, Lucky said the PCA had hired a lawyer who would be dealing with all the information and intelligence with respect to police killings. She said the PCA also recommended that the body be informed when a police killing occurred so it could also visit the scene in a timely manner.
Glaring examples of disrespect
In making reference to several matters, some dating back to before the PCA was established in December 2010, Lucky said that was important to show the lag in the submission of investigative files by the police to the PCA.
Lucky made reference to four specific cases:
• Christopher Greaves was killed in a shooting involving the police on September 1, 2013. One version was that Greaves had a soda or bottle in his hand and was shot dead by police on patrol.
Police claimed Greaves had a gun and shot at them. Lucky said they made a request for the report since January 27, 2014. She said the PCA visited the scene shortly after Greaves’s killing and when the initial file was requested critical documents were missing, including a UK report which tested the recovered gun. “As there was no forensic evidence to support one version to the other, this particular piece of information was deemed critical by the PCA. To date the PCA is not in possession of that scientific finding with respect to the firearm. “Further, the statements of three of the police officers are dated September 6, 2013 and while some might consider that acceptable, with respect to the fourth officer involved in the matter, that statement was dated October 1, 2013,” Lucky said. Describing this as unacceptable, Lucky said Standing Order 4016 mandates immediate reports be made when police were involved in shootings.
• The shooting death of Police Constable Anil Persad was also brought to the fore. He was killed while on duty on May 12, 2011. Lucky said almost two years after Persad’s death the PCA had requested “yet again” the name of the investigating officer and a copy of the file. “We had written in November of 2012 and in January of 2013 and we received no response. “On January 13 , this year, we sent a letter to the police commissioner in which we had heightened this particular matter and several other matters which the PCA remained waiting to get responses,” Lucky said.
• Naim Dean, 21, was shot dead by a Special Reserve Police officer (SRP) on April 11, 2014, in Glencoe. Lucky said from the day of the killing to June 4, 2014, no statement was provided by the police involved in the incident. She said on Tuesday she was told that the investigator in charge of the probe did “eventually” receive a statement from the SRP. “When I spoke to the police officer in charge of the investigation, he informed me he was in possession of the statement and it is dated June 4, 2014 and the police investigator received it only last Friday. “This is only after some two months without any explanation given to the PCA that this particular officer gave his version of what occurred. Only minutes before I came into the room to address the media did I receive a copy of that statement,” Lucky said.
• George “Ozzie” Ashby was shot and killed by police on January 23, 2009. Lucky said on January 7, 2010, a magistrate ordered an inquest but to date none was held. “The PCA took on this matter, eventually tracked down the police file, was able to speak to the investigating officer and was able to confirm that up to early this year, the file had not been sent to the court so that the inquest could begin... that is not justice,” Lucky added.
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Body cameras for cops from Sept 1 (http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2014-06-12/body-cameras-cops-sept-1)
Published: Wednesday, June 11, 2014 (T&T Guardian)
Police from various units are expected to wear body cameras from September 1, says director of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) Gillian Lucky. Lucky, who met with acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams yesterday, said she was told 40 cameras were already bought. She said Williams would determine which units would use them. “He (Williams) said a system was being put in place for its usage and the Police Service is acquiring more cameras and the protocols are being put in place,” Lucky said at the press conference yesterday at the Waterfront Complex, Port-of-Spain.
She said body cameras acted as an independent means of determining where the truth lay. “The body cameras are high-tech and when you come out of the police vehicle, as police officers are moving the cameras are recording,” Lucky said. She said the reason that particular equipment was used by many worldwide jurisdictions was because it also assisted in exonerating the police and helping in matters involving police impropriety. “In jurisdictions which have used this, what they have found is that many of the complaints about police impropriety have in fact been reduced because civilians are aware that there is an independent recording of the circumstances of the shooting,” Lucky said.
Lucky first made the recommendation some two years ago. She had first suggested the cameras in November 2012, saying they would provide solid evidence if the police were accused of any wrongdoing. At the time, she was speaking at a town meeting at the Bon Air High School and had addressed questions of serious police misconduct.
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from d yutes fb page
If true, then he looks like a fine, upstanding member of the community. A really good boy. Unbelievable that such a wholesome young man could come to such a terrible end.
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from d yutes fb page
If true, then he looks like a fine, upstanding member of the community. A really good boy. Unbelievable that such a wholesome young man could come to such a terrible end.
Sarcasm, right?
I believe the police.
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I am not condoning the actions of the police in this incident, but after reading the reports and viewing the images on the victim's fb page. I don't think the words 'innocent and ambitious' can be used to describe any of the deceased. Further more, the notion of complete innocence because one represented our country and won a bronze medal is utter blasphemy.
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I am not condoning the actions of the police in this incident, but after reading the reports and viewing the images on the victim's fb page. I don't think the words 'innocent and ambitious' can be used to describe any of the deceased. Further more, the notion of complete innocence because one represented our country and won a bronze medal is utter blasphemy.
Blasphemy... is that de new lingo fuh "schupidness"?
And it appears the FB account is legit, since de mother is one ah de friends linked to it. I peep dat last night and just whistle tuh mihself :whistling:
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Thoughts with these revelations Socapro?
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Somebody post the Express article with the boy the fellas was running down to kill.
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http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Hakeem-Tevin-not-so-innocent-says-resident-262825471.html (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Hakeem-Tevin-not-so-innocent-says-resident-262825471.html)
Hakeem, Tevin not so innocent, says resident
By Gyasi Gonzales
Story Created: Jun 12, 2014 at 3:28 AM ECT
Story Updated: Jun 12, 2014 at 3:28 AM ECT
A Morvant man has come forward claiming teenage cousins Hakeem and Tevin Alexander were not as innocent as they seem and were robbing people.
And some startling details have emerged on perusing the Facebook pages of the Morvant teenagers who were killed by police on Monday.
Hakeem, 16, a Carifta Games medallist and Tevin, 15, were killed in the Chinapoo area in Morvant when officers of the Inter Agency Task Force (IATF) and North Eastern Division Task Force (NEDTF) responded to reports of shootings in the area.
Police said when they arrived they were greeted with gunfire and they responded. The cousins were shot and taken to the Port of Spain General Hospital where they were pronounced dead on arrival.
Three other suspects were arrested and two guns were seized near the scene, police said.
Relatives and friends of the cousins have claimed that they were kneeling with their hands upraised when they were shot by the police.
In an interview last night by Insp Roger Alexander of the CCN TV6 programme, Beyond the Tape a man alleged that the two boys were about to kill him and it was the police in fact who saved his life.
He said, “we were up (in Chinapoo, Morvant) on a project. These four young men were liming around (he included both Hakeem and Tevin in the four).
He said, “after they went into a house and they were plotting and while I stand up now, one run up the road and after a while I saw another one run out the bush. I said it’s a policeman with a shotgun”.
He said by this time he ran into a nearby drain and took cover during which time the two teenagers and two other young men were looking for him. He said after a while he jumped out of the drain and he ended up in someone’s front porch where he was confronted by the four young men.
“I start to struggle with four of them in the gallery and one of them had a 28 (.28 pistol) and a pump (pump action shotgun) and while I was scuffling I end up getting a gun butt in my head and I end up running further in people house and a man ended up bracing me and he told me that he don’t want that in here,” he said.
The man said he remained in the house and he heard the four firing shots on the road.
The man was asked if he remembered his attackers and he replied, “yes, Hakeem the one who die and I don’t know the next one name.”
He added, “listen I identify the people that tried to shoot me and after the incident with me they ran up Zion Hill and then they got caught up with the police.”
He said, “to those who paint a picture of them boys as good I would say they are encouragers. They father can’t control them and they mother can’t control them and they was robbing people and they doing all kinds of unjust things in the village.”
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And now the other side of the story comes out. Don't be so quick to cry down the police. It have good and bad everywhere
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Mommy nice child
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t1.0-9/p261x260/10455039_683212085083694_3042109802394883044_n.jpg)
(https://scontent-a-mia.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t1.0-9/10402622_683212218417014_3470349514562160896_n.jpg)
(https://scontent-a-mia.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t1.0-9/10445512_683212265083676_2963811096398785124_n.jpg)
(https://scontent-b-mia.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/l/t1.0-9/10371932_683212318417004_3377703744382022876_n.jpg)
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t1.0-9/10274234_683212341750335_8608052877794330136_n.jpg)
(https://scontent-a-mia.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/t1.0-9/10429361_683212455083657_3154032780378823133_n.jpg)
(https://scontent-a-mia.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t1.0-9/10410493_683212888416947_8513997017469630225_n.jpg)
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t1.0-9/1524870_683213061750263_3036431912061085369_n.jpg)
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t1.0-9/10441034_683213161750253_9155769066154228031_n.jpg)
(https://scontent-b-mia.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/t1.0-9/10444010_683213241750245_2218686558622934876_n.jpg)
(https://scontent-b-mia.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/t1.0-9/10347499_683213401750229_5885366621890038964_n.jpg)
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Look at them little children nah. Smh
"He was a good boy! Never in no trouble! Look how police kill mih chile!"
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And now the other side of the story comes out. Don't be so quick to cry down the police. It have good and bad everywhere
If the other side is true that still does not justify the police shooting them dead if they did try to give themselves up. However if they were firing at the police then the police do have the right to defend themselves and so the cousins would have gotten what was coming to them.
What we need to establish now is if they were actually stupid and crazy enough to fire at the police and where are the guns that they were firing (evidence)?
Also there should have been evidence of them firing bullets at the police with gun power on their hands, etc.
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And now the other side of the story comes out. Don't be so quick to cry down the police. It have good and bad everywhere
If the other side is true that still does not justify the police shooting them dead if they did try to give themselves up. However if they were firing at the police then the police do have the right to defend themselves and so the cousins would have gotten what was coming to them.
What we need to establish now is if they were actually stupid and crazy enough to fire at the police and where are the guns that they were firing (evidence)?
Also there should have been evidence of them firing bullets at the police with gun power on their hands, etc.
take win wit dat avatar.........makes sense.....just need d odder 2 tuh go wit dem
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Not to make excuses but that is easily what any facebook profile of someone around that age living in that area. It's not their fault that they've been conditioned to look up to that sort of life. Our radio stations haven't stopped supporting vybz kartel music/ songs even though he has been convicted for a heinous murder. We are a very hypocritical society.
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Not to make excuses but that is easily what any facebook profile of someone around that age living in that area. It's not their fault that they've been conditioned to look up to that sort of life. Our radio stations haven't stopped supporting vybz kartel music/ songs even though he has been convicted for a heinous murder. We are a very hypocritical society.
Good point.
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I think our police officers need better training. Saw the boys bodies on Ian Alleyne's show on tv. One of the boys had multiple wounds. Even if the police are moving in multiple teams I don't think that every police officer should get a shot off. It's amazing that police in a country like England can be responding to reports of a british soldier being beheaded by Islamic terrorists and still display restraint to subdue the perpetrators without resorting to lethal force. That is amazing policing.
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I think our police officers need better training. Saw the boys bodies on Ian Alleyne's show on tv. One of the boys had multiple wounds. Even if the police are moving in multiple teams I don't think that every police officer should get a shot off. It's amazing that police in a country like England can be responding to reports of a british soldier being beheaded by Islamic terrorists and still display restraint to subdue the perpetrators without resorting to lethal force. That is amazing policing.
It helps to have an unarmed police force - one one side is armed an inevitable arms race begins. If police had guns as a standard equipment we'd have death rates similar to other countries - that's one of the reasons the police in the UK continually vote and argue against arming themselves
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And now the other side of the story comes out. Don't be so quick to cry down the police. It have good and bad everywhere
If the other side is true that still does not justify the police shooting them dead if they did try to give themselves up. However if they were firing at the police then the police do have the right to defend themselves and so the cousins would have gotten what was coming to them.
What we need to establish now is if they were actually stupid and crazy enough to fire at the police and where are the guns that they were firing (evidence)?
Also there should have been evidence of them firing bullets at the police with gun power on their hands, etc.
You show the discretion you decided not to employ earlier in the topic - why did you jump to the boys' defence initially? Be honest, was it really because they were successful athletes?
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Bigger problem here is how two young boys end up glorifying and pursuing this lifestyle, mommy working many hours and not home, who are the role models in the family and community at large. Arguing that police were justified for shooting them as they possessed weapons and shot at police completely ignores the bigger issues at hand namely the complete breakdown in the family structure and surrounding community.
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And now the other side of the story comes out. Don't be so quick to cry down the police. It have good and bad everywhere
If the other side is true that still does not justify the police shooting them dead if they did try to give themselves up. However if they were firing at the police then the police do have the right to defend themselves and so the cousins would have gotten what was coming to them.
What we need to establish now is if they were actually stupid and crazy enough to fire at the police and where are the guns that they were firing (evidence)?
Also there should have been evidence of them firing bullets at the police with gun power on their hands, etc.
You show the discretion you decided not to employ earlier in the topic - why did you jump to the boys' defence initially? Be honest, was it really because they were successful athletes?
It was simply to do with eye-witness reports from neighabours who were interviewed and said they saw the boys giving themselves up and that they were shot while pleading for their lives. To me that amounts to cold-blooded murder which has nothing to do with their background.
We still haven't established if the boys fired on the police but if they did then I am in full support of the police defending themselves even though it would have been way better for them to maimed rather than to be shot dead by multiple bullets as they were.
Now please stop being so presumptuous and always trying to project your way of thinking onto me.
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Bigger problem here is how two young boys end up glorifying and pursuing this lifestyle, mommy working many hours and not home, who are the role models in the family and community at large. Arguing that police were justified for shooting them as they possessed weapons and shot at police completely ignores the bigger issues at hand namely the complete breakdown in the family structure and surrounding community.
Good question.
If you read the newspaper article that I posted in Reply #23 (http://www.socawarriors.net/forum/index.php?topic=62480.msg897768#msg897768) of this thread you will see that Hakeem Alexander worked with his father Henry Alexander at Peake’s Marine in Chaguaramas. So it seems that both Hakeem's parents were there in his home and should have been able to look out for and guide him.
Maybe Hakeen's parents were both these soft modern style liberal parents who didn't believe in using corporal punishment as a tool to help keep their children in check when they were not listening, who knows?
It also seems that Hakeem's cousin Tevin Alexander at least had his mother around and both cousins spent a lot of time together going between each other's houses and probably looked out for each other.
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Bigger problem here is how two young boys end up glorifying and pursuing this lifestyle, mommy working many hours and not home, who are the role models in the family and community at large. Arguing that police were justified for shooting them as they possessed weapons and shot at police completely ignores the bigger issues at hand namely the complete breakdown in the family structure and surrounding
Well this was supposed to be an aspiring track athlete and though we haven't seen all his fb photo's, I've yet to see one with a track star he looks up to or anything. We can clearly see the path he was choosing.
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And now the other side of the story comes out. Don't be so quick to cry down the police. It have good and bad everywhere
If the other side is true that still does not justify the police shooting them dead if they did try to give themselves up. However if they were firing at the police then the police do have the right to defend themselves and so the cousins would have gotten what was coming to them.
What we need to establish now is if they were actually stupid and crazy enough to fire at the police and where are the guns that they were firing (evidence)?
Also there should have been evidence of them firing bullets at the police with gun power on their hands, etc.
You show the discretion you decided not to employ earlier in the topic - why did you jump to the boys' defence initially? Be honest, was it really because they were successful athletes?
It was simply to do with eye-witness reports from neighabours who were interviewed and said they saw the boys giving themselves up and that they were shot while pleading for their lives. To me that amounts to cold-blooded murder which has nothing to do with their background.
We still haven't established if the boys fired on the police but if they did then I am in full support of the police defending themselves even though it would have been way better for them to maimed rather than to be shot dead by multiple bullets as they were.
Now please stop being so presumptuous and always trying to project your way of thinking onto me.
Come now that's not fair - your posts emphasised the athletic success when showing your concern for their deaths, and I don't think that's relevant to the guilt or otherwise. Your initial posts disregarded the police's position;
Where you got that bogus information from Toppa, from the police accounts?
The police are trying to cover up their crime. The boys had no guns and fired on no one, rather they were the ones who were fired upon while going about their business
And later in that post mentioned;
And this is the brutality against young Black boys one of who represented our country and made us proud by winning a bronze medal at the Carifta games.
I don't want to make this an inquisition or anything, but you're right to pull me up on what I'm doing - drawing parallels between this and other topics where you have taken sources without a critical eye. I'm not the only one in the thread who felt that you were letting their athletic ability cloud your judgement here.
Either way we both agree that the death of kids of that age is always a sadness and a sad indictment of the times.
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And now the other side of the story comes out. Don't be so quick to cry down the police. It have good and bad everywhere
If the other side is true that still does not justify the police shooting them dead if they did try to give themselves up. However if they were firing at the police then the police do have the right to defend themselves and so the cousins would have gotten what was coming to them.
What we need to establish now is if they were actually stupid and crazy enough to fire at the police and where are the guns that they were firing (evidence)?
Also there should have been evidence of them firing bullets at the police with gun power on their hands, etc.
You show the discretion you decided not to employ earlier in the topic - why did you jump to the boys' defence initially? Be honest, was it really because they were successful athletes?
It was simply to do with eye-witness reports from neighabours who were interviewed and said they saw the boys giving themselves up and that they were shot while pleading for their lives. To me that amounts to cold-blooded murder which has nothing to do with their background.
We still haven't established if the boys fired on the police but if they did then I am in full support of the police defending themselves even though it would have been way better for them to maimed rather than to be shot dead by multiple bullets as they were.
Now please stop being so presumptuous and always trying to project your way of thinking onto me.
Come now that's not fair - your posts emphasised the athletic success when showing your concern for their deaths, and I don't think that's relevant to the guilt or otherwise. Your initial posts disregarded the police's position;
Where you got that bogus information from Toppa, from the police accounts?
The police are trying to cover up their crime. The boys had no guns and fired on no one, rather they were the ones who were fired upon while going about their business
And later in that post mentioned;
And this is the brutality against young Black boys one of who represented our country and made us proud by winning a bronze medal at the Carifta games.
I don't want to make this an inquisition or anything, but you're right to pull me up on what I'm doing - drawing parallels between this and other topics where you have taken sources without a critical eye. [b]I'm not the only one in the thread who felt that you were letting their athletic ability cloud your judgement here.[/b]
Either way we both agree that the death of kids of that age is always a sadness and a sad indictment of the times.
I simply believed the account of the residents because I am intelligent enough to realise that the police are not angles, okay?!
Now please stop projecting and trying to have childish ego-tripping arguments that are a complete waste of my time.
Its World Cup and my two favourite European teams Spain and Holland are about to face each other.
PS:
Btw only one of the cousins Hakeem Alexander was a track & field athlete. The younger one Tevin Alexander was still at school and was reported to a very talented at IT and also a good midfield footballer.
What a waste!
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I simply believed the account of the residents because I am intelligent enough to realise that the police are not angles, okay?!
Now please stop projecting and trying to have childish ego-tripping arguments that are a complete waste of my time.
Its World Cup and my two favourite European teams Spain and Holland are about to face each other.
No need to get offended, enjoy the game.
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Bigger problem here is how two young boys end up glorifying and pursuing this lifestyle, mommy working many hours and not home, who are the role models in the family and community at large. Arguing that police were justified for shooting them as they possessed weapons and shot at police completely ignores the bigger issues at hand namely the complete breakdown in the family structure and surrounding community.
Great points! I believe that both society and family failed to do their parts in nurturing this young man. From his parents down to both his regional and national track coaches. I guarantee that they all knew about his lifestyle and no one intervened.
He won a medal, everybody celebrate and jump up while his criminal activities never ceased. He had potential and someone should have stepped in,not sure who but if they did, he could have possibly been alive today.
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Bigger problem here is how two young boys end up glorifying and pursuing this lifestyle, mommy working many hours and not home, who are the role models in the family and community at large. Arguing that police were justified for shooting them as they possessed weapons and shot at police completely ignores the bigger issues at hand namely the complete breakdown in the family structure and surrounding community.
My mother was just telling me - she knows Hakeem's uncle - that his father used to try with him and was taking him to work with him n ting. And apparently one of the boys had been expelled from school. The other one father, when he heard his son wasn't in school was just going up the road to beat him. So it sounds like what a neighbour said in the article about the parents talking to them and trying with them was true. Hakeem, his father would take him to work with him but he used to want to leave and go so they could terrorise people, beat people, rob them. That was their M.O. and they clearly made their choice.
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Bigger problem here is how two young boys end up glorifying and pursuing this lifestyle, mommy working many hours and not home, who are the role models in the family and community at large. Arguing that police were justified for shooting them as they possessed weapons and shot at police completely ignores the bigger issues at hand namely the complete breakdown in the family structure and surrounding
Well this was supposed to be an aspiring track athlete and though we haven't seen all his fb photo's, I've yet to see one with a track star he looks up to or anything. We can clearly see the path he was choosing.
Just to let you know that Hakeem Alexander does have Kirani James on his facebook page which you can see as soon as you log onto his facebook page. He also described himself as Hakeem Trackstar Alexander on his facebook page which also promotes his interest in track. Check this link: https://www.facebook.com/killerhakeem
It also seems that Hakeem & Tevin Alexander may have been recruited into a gang/group calling themselves RASTA based upon the fact that he has that name as the background to his facebook profile picture.
I hope that the police do some investigations into curbing the influence of youngsters joining that gang/group without necessarily having to kill any more young members who may have joined as it may save more young talented lives like those of cousins Hakeem & Tevin Alexander.
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While I don't support the manner in which the TTPS go about doing things it is ironic that anytime a youth gets shot by the police there are always eyewitnesses yet with other murders no one ever sees anything. The saddest thing about those pics is that no one is commenting on who is bringing in those guns and making it readily available.
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While I don't support the manner in which the TTPS go about doing things it is ironic that anytime a youth gets shot by the police there are always eyewitnesses yet with other murders no one ever sees anything. The saddest thing about those pics is that no one is commenting on who is bringing in those guns and making it readily available.
You need to tune into The Street 91.9FM (http://tunein.com/radio/The-Street-919-s88618/) as the presenters and callers speak to that issue almost daily.
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Dottin: Gangs putting teens on battlefront (http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2014-06-11/dottin-gangs-putting-teens-battlefront)
Published: Wednesday, June 11, 2014 (T&T Guardian)
Seventh Day Adventist pastor Clive Dottin, who does outreach work in communities such as Laventille and Morvant, said yesterday it was known those areas were recruiting grounds for gang leaders. “The country must face the fact that adult gang leaders are recruiting teenagers and putting them on the battlefront,” Dottin told the T&T Guardian in a telephone interview. “They are doing a phenomenal job recruiting teens. It should be of great concern to all of us in society,” he added.
Dottin said the issue spoke to a collapse of parenting and family in society, adding unless these issues are fixed the fight against crime will not be won. Meanwhile, Inspector Roger Alexander, head of the North Eastern Division task Force (NEDTF) and vice-president of the Police Social and Welfare Association, said he was disturbed by media reports his men had murdered the cousins.
Speaking on Beyond the Tape programme, he said when the media visited the area on Monday they spoke to the relatives of the cousins but failed to speak with the victims he claimed the cousins had earlier terrorised. Asked about the accusations the officers were excessive, Alexander said: “How can a team be acting in an excessive way when all they doing is protecting their lives, the lives of the public and their colleagues.
“The public must understand if we worked in places like Westmoorings we would never have any confrontation. ”We work in a place known to be a hotspot, where people are aggressive towards the police and are encouraged to be aggressive towards the police, yet you want us to be like, ‘good morning do you have a gun in the bush? Would you stop shooting at us please.’”
Bang on correct. many people's understanding of this problem is based on the outdated paradigm of the 'bad children' model. These youths are not working for or by themselves. Only a very exceptional 14-17 year old who could organize a coordinated system of robbery and killings from scratch. Most of these boys are working under the command/blessings/orders of older experienced ringleaders who are all too happy to remain in the background out of the public eye.
as for this nonsense about how a good cutarse could save these youths...by the time these master manipulators rope in the kids and overtake their parents as the most influential people in their lives no amount of cutarse could stabilize them. in fact they may even make it clear to the children that if they don't stay with the program their parents, siblings, cousins, friends, (not to mention their own) lives will be forfeit.
pastor dottin know what he is talking about. in areas where there is poverty, violence, crime, lack of opportunity, etc. these teenagers are very susceptible to being 'fished' by gangs. a lot of parents are no match for gang recruiters when it comes to understanding the need for these youth to have peer approval, be held in esteem in the community, or even a misguided sense that they helping their family by brining in income. some of these f**kers establish relationships with youths years before they get them to do hard crime. often its their own trusted big brothers or cousins that roping them into a life of crime.
as far as the family issue, there should be a widespread initivative to educate parents about child development and the ways gangsters approach and build trust in youths. but that likely will lead to nothing as black people seem very unwilling/afraid to let go the traditional way of doing things.
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While I don't support the manner in which the TTPS go about doing things it is ironic that anytime a youth gets shot by the police there are always eyewitnesses yet with other murders no one ever sees anything. The saddest thing about those pics is that no one is commenting on who is bringing in those guns and making it readily available.
You need to tune into The Street 91.9FM (http://tunein.com/radio/The-Street-919-s88618/) as the presenters and callers speak to that issue almost daily.
can't listen to that station for too long. Some of the presenters are not journalists and are definitely not well read so that you end up hearing the regurgitation of someone else's thoughts other than the presenter.
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i blame the parents or single mother who actually allowed her children to fall into that trap, also the absent father is if it s single parent home...
they should listen to more soca and calypso, it might get them in a better state of mind... these youths being influenced by music shows their lack of intelligence and ability to think for themselves and also the insecurity in their lives bc of the lack of attention and discipline.. easily manipulated... especially if there isn't a a father figure in the picture, real sad...
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i blame the parents or single mother who actually allowed her children to fall into that trap, also the absent father is if it s single parent home...
they should listen to more soca and calypso, it might get them in a better state of mind... these youths being influenced by music shows their lack of intelligence and ability to think for themselves and also the insecurity in their lives bc of the lack of attention and discipline.. easily manipulated... especially if there isn't a a father figure in the picture, real sad...
In this case the young man who died had both of his parents involved in his life. Unfortunately they were not able to keep him away from the negative elements that have made major inroads in those areas.
Secondly the notion that somehow soca music has a mystical power which can influence people not to commit acts of lawlessness is ridiculous.
In the 60's and 70's people did not listen to Vybz Kartel or Movado, but although it was not to the extent that it is today, their was always that element of crime in certain areas of the country. Most notably your family's old stomping ground the 'EDR'
Back in the day when Catelli and Despers clashed downtown on an annual basis for no other reason than to mark their territory. Were they not listening/playing calypso? The only difference was that they did not use any guns as bottles, stones and cutlasses were the order of the day.
In those times alot of pan men were hardened criminals who would rob people at will.
I am not saying that music does not influence today's youth, but I believe it is much deeper than a few choruses and notes.
I do think politics has had a major impact on the downward spiral of our society. For instance, why is it that areas with a certain demographic that were deemed hotspots umpteen years ago are still crime ridden. It is as if society has washed hands and turned their backs on these areas...
Sad state of affairs...
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Actually in the late 60s, steelband music, calypso and the 60s "peace and love" did more to bring EDR together. Dude I lived up Quarry street for about 4 yrs. Yes, "badjonism" is an EDR phenomena. I could have gone Nelson st. or John-John, Success and not have to worry about some punk looking to buss meh up. The real cause of East POS decay is jobs and opportunities to sustain the family. Port work shrink due to containerization. Neal Massey, Coconut Growers, Orange Juice factory, garment factories. Either they close down or drastically shrink the work force. There are no major industries in the EW corridors. Everything either Central or South. The people of EDR and East POS never, never adjusted. Well those who were smart or lucky, moved out or come up canada or Stateside. The socalled Black intellegentsia never created any business portfolio to support their own. Like the other groups in the country. They preferred to wuk for the government, because they were thought to believe the government was theirs. Full friggin. stop!
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While I don't support the manner in which the TTPS go about doing things it is ironic that anytime a youth gets shot by the police there are always eyewitnesses yet with other murders no one ever sees anything. The saddest thing about those pics is that no one is commenting on who is bringing in those guns and making it readily available.
You need to tune into The Street 91.9FM (http://tunein.com/radio/The-Street-919-s88618/) as the presenters and callers speak to that issue almost daily.
can't listen to that station for too long. Some of the presenters are not journalists and are definitely not well read so that you end up hearing the regurgitation of someone else's thoughts other than the presenter.
Strongly disagree.
I would say that Street is the most democratic station in T&T right now where callers are actually allowed to speak their mind and give their points of view on all the current issues affecting the country.
I have listened to most of the other stations with chat shows in T&T where the callers are not generally allowed to speak their mind on certain topics because of politics.
The behaviour that you speak of by presenters and callers I more regularly hear on Power 102.1FM and I must agree that after a while it becomes boring and predictable.
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Actually in the late 60s, steelband music, calypso and the 60s "peace and love" did more to bring EDR together. Dude I lived up Quarry street for about 4 yrs. Yes, "badjonism" is an EDR phenomena. I could have gone Nelson st. or John-John, Success and not have to worry about some punk looking to buss meh up. The real cause of East POS decay is jobs and opportunities to sustain the family. Port work shrink due to containerization. Neal Massey, Coconut Growers, Orange Juice factory, garment factories. Either they close down or drastically shrink the work force. There are no major industries in the EW corridors. Everything either Central or South. The people of EDR and East POS never, never adjusted. Well those who were smart or lucky, moved out or come up canada or Stateside. The socalled Black intellegentsia never created any business portfolio to support their own. Like the other groups in the country. They preferred to wuk for the government, because they were thought to believe the government was theirs. Full friggin. stop!
Move to the head of the class! :thumbsup:
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Hear nah media not getting half de shootings that go on in dis country...I had my first on call the other day that didn't have a GSW victim and was surprised..often we have 3 and four comin in a day..and that is jus d abdomen ones..ortho gets the gunshots that hit limbs
Fellas goin into communities and jus spraying the place wild wild. Diego is a warzone these days judging from what i seeing coming in over the last month.
Now more than ever I understand how Police eh holding back..right now that is d reality.
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Hear nah media not getting half de shootings that go on in dis country...I had my first on call the other day that didn't have a GSW victim and was surprised..often we have 3 and four comin in a day..and that is jus d abdomen ones..ortho gets the gunshots that hit limbs
Fellas goin into communities and jus spraying the place wild wild. Diego is a warzone these days judging from what i seeing coming in over the last month.
Now more than ever I understand how Police eh holding back..right now that is d reality.
So how do you rate my chances of survival given I'm moving there August? Please tell me you're a good medical practitioner :p
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hahaha well I must say we have quite a good survival rate for GSWs that reach the hospital alive. No joke, car accident or gunshot I rate POSGH over private hospitals i been to in trinidad..
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hahaha well I must say we have quite a good survival rate for GSWs that reach the hospital alive. No joke, car accident or gunshot I rate POSGH over private hospitals i been to in trinidad..
The missus said something similar - "if you get private you'll end up at POSGH anyway if it's serious". Glad to hear there are safe hands at the hospital :)
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Hear nah media not getting half de shootings that go on in dis country...I had my first on call the other day that didn't have a GSW victim and was surprised..often we have 3 and four comin in a day..and that is jus d abdomen ones..ortho gets the gunshots that hit limbs
Fellas goin into communities and jus spraying the place wild wild. Diego is a warzone these days judging from what i seeing coming in over the last month.
Now more than ever I understand how Police eh holding back..right now that is d reality.
that avg is staggering to say the least...
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Hear nah media not getting half de shootings that go on in dis country...I had my first on call the other day that didn't have a GSW victim and was surprised..often we have 3 and four comin in a day..and that is jus d abdomen ones..ortho gets the gunshots that hit limbs
Fellas goin into communities and jus spraying the place wild wild. Diego is a warzone these days judging from what i seeing coming in over the last month.
Now more than ever I understand how Police eh holding back..right now that is d reality.
that avg is staggering to say the least...
Contro give this thread (http://www.socawarriors.net/forum/index.php?topic=62037.0) ah lil blessings nah
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Hear nah media not getting half de shootings that go on in dis country...I had my first on call the other day that didn't have a GSW victim and was surprised..often we have 3 and four comin in a day..and that is jus d abdomen ones..ortho gets the gunshots that hit limbs
Fellas goin into communities and jus spraying the place wild wild. Diego is a warzone these days judging from what i seeing coming in over the last month.
Now more than ever I understand how Police eh holding back..right now that is d reality.
On point wit Diego heard there are yutes movin around in Diego dressed in army clothes wit guns. Ifu eh from d area u would swear is army. D best hospital is Grande. D ting wit them private hospital wit d nursing staff u eh know who is nurse/nursing assistant/nursing aide. Everybody in white.
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Hear nah media not getting half de shootings that go on in dis country...I had my first on call the other day that didn't have a GSW victim and was surprised..often we have 3 and four comin in a day..and that is jus d abdomen ones..ortho gets the gunshots that hit limbs
Fellas goin into communities and jus spraying the place wild wild. Diego is a warzone these days judging from what i seeing coming in over the last month.
Now more than ever I understand how Police eh holding back..right now that is d reality.
that avg is staggering to say the least...
Contro give this thread (http://www.socawarriors.net/forum/index.php?topic=62037.0) ah lil blessings nah
in all honesty, my condolences go out to the family... but the problem needs to be addressed, too many kids in TT are led astray when they have the talent to uplift their lives in other areas... it needs to be talked about..
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Camden Turns Around With New Police Force
CAMDEN, N.J. — In the summer of 2012, the year this city broke its own record for homicides, there were 21 people murdered here. This summer, there were six.
Just as remarkably, with shootings down 43 percent in two years, and violent crime down 22 percent, Osvaldo Fernandez now lets his sons walk to school alone. Nancy Torres abandoned plans to move to Florida. And parents from Center City Philadelphia are bringing their children here — notoriously one of the nation’s poorest, most crime-ridden cities — to play in a Little League that has grown to 500 players from 150 in its first season three years ago.
It has been 16 months since Camden took the unusual step of eliminating its police force and replacing it with a new one run by the county. Beleaguered by crime, budget cuts and bad morale, the old force had all but given up responding to some types of crimes.
Janiah Rosas, 8, and her brother Jaden, 3, playing outside an abandoned house in Camden, N.J., where crime is rampant.Overrun by Crime, Camden Trades In Its Police ForceSEPT. 28, 2012
Police Force Nearly Halved, Camden Feels ImpactMARCH 6, 2011
Dispensing with expensive work rules, the new force hired more officers within the same budget — 411, up from about 250. It hired civilians to use crime-fighting technology it had never had the staff for. And it has tightened alliances with federal agencies to remove one of the largest drug rings from city streets.
But mostly, the police have changed their culture. Officers have been moved from desk jobs and squad cars onto walking beats, in what Chief J. Scott Thomson likens to a political campaign to overcome years of mistrust. Average response time is now 4.4 minutes, down from more than 60 minutes, and about half the average in many other cities. The number of open-air drug markets has been cut nearly in half. The department, the Camden County Police, even created its first cold-case unit.
In June and July, the city went 40 days without a homicide — unheard-of in a Camden summer. The empty liquor bottles once clustered on the porches of abandoned houses as memorials to the murdered have disappeared. There are fewer killings to commemorate. The city is beginning to brush up its image.
“At night it’s like living in Cherry Hill!” said Miguel Torres, 63, who has built makeshift benches for his neighbors in the rubble of a demolished home near a notorious drug-dealing block.
His laugh gave away the joke, if the broken sidewalks and iron gates barricading the surrounding rowhouses did not. Camden is still far from nearby Cherry Hill, with its prosperous lawns and shopping malls; even with the drop in crime, Camden’s murder rate this year is higher than Detroit’s, and several times the national average.
Nearly 40 percent of residents live below the poverty line. Unemployment is double the national rate. The worn rowhouses and abandoned buildings — more than 3,400 of them in a city of nine square miles — seem especially heartbreaking set against the gleaming towers of Philadelphia across the Delaware River.
No one, least of all law-enforcement officials, is declaring victory on crime: Camden has seen too many promises and rescue packages to be so bold.
Still, the improvements have come faster than anyone predicted. And while the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., has drawn attention to long-simmering hostilities between police departments and minority communities, Camden is becoming an example of the opposite.
“We’re not going to do this by militarizing streets,” Chief Thomson said. Instead, he sent officers to knock on doors and ask residents their concerns. He lets community leaders monitor surveillance cameras from their home computers to help watch for developing crime.
The police have held meet-the-officer fairs at parks and churches, attended baseball games and sent Mister Softee trucks into neighborhoods. Officers stand at school crossings and on corners where drugs and violence flourished. Chief Thomson’s theory is that in a city of 77,000, there are thousands more well-intentioned people than bad, and that the police must enlist them to take back the streets.
“For a city to be prosperous, it needs to be safe and busy,” he said. “The police are a variable in that equation, but we are just one variable.” He tells his officers that he measures their success not in tickets written, but in the number of children riding bicycles on the street.
“It’s absolutely a different place,” said Tim Gallagher, a social worker who works with students. “You feel safe walking the streets now. The police officers aren’t afraid to come out of their cars and interact with the community, and that’s changed how people feel about them.”
Last month, he watched as officers got out of a squad car where teenagers were playing football in a narrow street. He feared they might break up the game. Instead, they challenged the teenagers to a push-up contest. (The police won, 45-43.)
“The police are working hard not to intimidate people so they don’t have to intimidate people,” Mr. Gallagher said.
The previous police contract included extra pay for longevity and for working anticrime patrols, even for day shifts. But absenteeism averaged 30 percent. The department was so overwhelmed, it stopped responding to property crimes or car accidents without injuries. Dealers sold drugs in plain sight of surveillance cameras, confident the police would not intervene. Residents, too, had largely given up on the police; microphones recording gunshots in the worst neighborhoods showed that 30 percent went unreported.
The new force took over in May 2013. As it added officers, the department put 120 civilian clerks and analysts in a new operations and intelligence center, monitoring 121 surveillance cameras and the gunshot-mapping microphones. When shots are fired or a 911 call comes in, the system automatically dispatches the two nearest police units.
Car-mounted cameras read license plates, which are checked against law-enforcement databases. A disembodied voice announcing “medium alert” signals a car whose owner has bought drugs in Camden before. “High alert” flags a stolen car.
Patrols walked even during winter storms, sending a message about commitment. The department set up substations on the north and south ends of the city. And last month, 120 unarmed civilian “ambassadors” in bright yellow shirts began strolling five main business districts.
The increased police presence has pushed drug dealing off the streets, and as a result, pushed a majority of homicides inside — and random gunfire away from children playing on sidewalks.
Relations are not always warm. In Whitman Park, near where federal agents arrested 22 people this spring in the biggest drug crackdown in 10 years, officers stood on one side of the street while residents congregated on the other, teaching a boy to ride a tricycle and largely ignoring the police.
Still, two years ago, residents on the same block shook their fists and shouted obscenities when the police chief drove by.
Now, a girl on a porch spotted Officer Christian Jeffries and hollered, “Hi, cop!”
“When they see you every day, they can pull you aside,” said Officer Jeffries, who worked in Atlantic City before becoming one of Camden’s first newly hired officers. “I’ve had people say, ‘Act like you’re writing me a ticket.’ ”
Across the city, parks once given over to drug addicts have been reclaimed. The North Camden Little League has grown to six divisions, plus T-ball and a fathers’ league on Sundays.
“Before, you wouldn’t bring your kid here,” said Osvaldo Fernandez, watching his two sons play. “You could be here, and a shootout in the park just over a little argument.” He said he never used to let the boys play in the street, but now lets them go out alone. And he feels safe driving his cab at night.
The old police union fought the overhaul. But the new force is now unionized, and leaders welcome the added resources. “Anyone would want to not have to do the jobs of four or five other people anymore,” said Sgt. Bill Wiley, the president.
The most stubborn critics still object that newer officers do not know the city well enough; the new force hired about 150 of the 195 officers in the department when it was eliminated.
“Why should I believe that 250 rookies are going to be more effective than veteran police officers we had before?” asked Colandus Francis, who heads the local N.A.A.C.P.
He, like others, accuses the police of harassment, for pulling over cars for having tinted windows or playing loud music, or for rolling through stop signs.
But Eulisis Delgado, who protested the new force for months before it began, now says residents should be grateful. “It’s almost like a normal town,” he said. “You do something bad, they are going to stop you.”
Minorities make up 45 percent of the force, similar to the old department but hardly reflective of a city where 95 percent of residents are black or Hispanic. Still, the new force includes speakers of Spanish, Haitian Creole and nine other languages.
At a meet-the-police fair, officers played teenagers in a hybrid of touch and tackle football, lumbering in their bulletproof vests and instinctively checking for their holstered guns when the boys toppled them. (The teenagers won.)
Nancy Torres watched with her son, 7, who wore balloons fashioned into a sword and belt by a balloon artist at the fair. “He used to be afraid of the police,” she said. “Now he wants to be one.”
There are other signs of life. The county has put millions into park improvements. The state has paid to knock down some abandoned houses. Charter schools are rising, and a ShopRite, the city’s first new supermarket in three decades, is to begin construction next year.
“It’s like we always had a flat tire,” said Sister Helen Cole, who has counseled families of murder victims in Camden for 25 years. “We would have an acting police chief, an acting prosecutor, an acting superintendent, or the mayor was being investigated.”
“Right now,” she added, “I want to have hope that we have four fully inflated tires.”
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Trini makes US Top Cop list
By Donstan Bonn
By donstan.bonn@trinidadexpress.com
Story Created: Aug 29, 2014 at 1:40 PM ECT
(http://s30.postimg.org/asxd30qvl/TOP_TRINI.jpg)
COMMITMENT TO DUTY: Scott Pulchansingh and US Attorney General Eric Holder.
How does one go from being born in a rural district of a Caribbean island to being honoured by the president of the United States at the White House. For Trinidad-born Scott Pulchansingh it happened because of his commitment to duty and the bravery displayed in carrying out his duties.
Pulchansingh was one of 17 law enforcement officers from the Boston Police Department presented with TOP COP Awards® by US president Barack Obama in a ceremony at the White House on May 20.
Born in the village of Endeavour in Chaguanas and a past pupil of Presentation College Chaguanas, Pulchansingh was honoured for the role he played in the captur of Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev after the pair shot and killed 26-year-old Sean Collier, an MIT police officer.
The Tsarnaev brothers were the principal suspects in the setting off of two bombs during the running of the Boston Marathon on April 15 last year, which led to the death of three persons with hundreds injured.
Pulchansingh gave the Express a brief account of the Tsarnaevs apprehension and his subsequent nomination to TOP COPS:
“After responding to the slaying of Officer Collier we actively searched for the Tsarnaev brothers.
“Along with members from the Youth Violence Strike Force (commonly called The Gang Unit) we chased them in Watertown and were engaged in a firefight, during which shots were fired and bombs were tossed out the window at us.
“Eventually we apprehended them and I was the officer who conducted a search on Tamerlan Tsarnaev,” Pulchansingh said.
He said as a result his department honoured him with the Schroeder Brothers Memorial Award last December and nominated him for Top Cops.
Pulchansingh, who has 19 years’ service as a law enforcement officer, said he loves what he does.
“After migrating to the US in 1985 I became a health inspector with the city of Boston and a constable, during which time I worked closely with the Mayor’s office and all agencies including the Police Department. I would later become a full time member of the Boston Police Department,” Pulchansingh said.
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Charged with robbing Chinese couple of $525,000
By Alexander Bruzual (Express).
4 T&T Cops on $3.2m bail.
Four police officers, with a combined total of 59 years of service, appeared before a Port of Spain magistrate yesterday on three charges of misbehaviour in public office following enquiries into the robbery of a Chinese couple of over $500,000 on September 17.
The officers—acting Sgt Lester Garcia, acting Corporal Sheldon Peterson, PC Dexter Edwards and PC Ronan Newton—all stood in silence when they appeared before Magistrate Christine Charles in the First Court. The men were all dressed in formal wear after they successfully obtained station bail on Tuesday night at $800,000 each, to cover the offences. They were all represented by Senior Counsel Sophia Chote and Trevor Clarke.
Charles read out three charges of misbehaviour in public office against the men, which alleged the officers, being in and performing duties of the local Police Service, governed by the Police Service Act of 2006, committed larceny by removing $175,000 from the home of Danny and Yvonne Owu at Bon Air Gardens West, Arouca, on September 17. The sum of the three charges amounts to $525,000.
The charges were laid indictably and none of the four men was called upon to enter a plea.
The magistrate then enquired from police prosecutor Sgt Callister Charles if the State had any objections to the court continuing the station bail, to which the sergeant said there would be no opposition.
Charles said the four officers were members of the T&T Police Service, meaning prior to this matter they would have had clean records before the courts.
He then submitted the matter had not taken place in the jurisdiction of the Port of Spain Magistrates’ Court, and as a result the matter would have to be adjourned and transferred to the Arima Magistrates’ Court.
In addition, since a State prosecutor from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions would also have to be appointed to oversee the case, he said he would not object to the station bail being continued.
Magistrate Charles then adjourned the matter to October 8 to be called before the Arima First Magistrate’s Court.
Cpl Rollocks, of the Professional Standards Bureau, was said to be the complainant in the matter.
The policemen hid from the media when they exited the court.
The robbery victims—Danny and Yvonne Owu—who own a casino and restaurant, alleged that on September 17 officers of the Northern Division entered their home and made off with two duffel bags filled with cash amounting to more than half a million dollars.
Officers at the Tunapuna and Arouca police stations refused to take their report. Police later executed a search warrant at Arouca Police Station, looking for the stolen money, but turned up empty-handed.
One day later, the acting sergeant was transferred to St Joseph Police Station, the acting corporal to Tunapuna, and the two constables to the Malabar and Pinto Road stations.
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Caught on camera abusing disabled man in wheelchair
By Susan Mohammed (Express).
COPS A DISGRACE
A VIDEO has emerged on Facebook showing a policeman slapping a man in a wheelchair, and a policewoman pushing his wheelchair downhill along a busy street.
People have expressed outrage over the callousness of the actions of the police officers, and want action to be taken.
The Express has learnt acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams and National Security Minister Gary Griffith have been shown the video, and the case is being investigated.
Southern Division Senior Supt Cecil Santana has described the actions of the people in the video as a disgrace to the Police Service.
The video, which is less than two minutes long, has attracted the attention of thousands of viewers as by yesterday afternoon there were almost 28,000 views and it had been shared by 2,270 people.
One of the persons who commented on the video on Facebook was a person fitting the description of one of the police officers seen in the video.
That person commented: “The man cussing ppl and want to spit on the gentleman wen d man tell him bout it but that’s police brutality.”
Griffith said he knew of the video and the matter was being investigated.
He said, “I am aware that the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) is fully aware of the situation. Also, the Commissioner of Police and the matter is being investigated. So until the investigation is completed it will be inappropriate for me to make any statement at this time.”
A prominent attorney also commented on social media: “Look, I too do not know and do not care what the guy in the wheelchair did. This is outrageous!!!! Slapping a guy in a wheelchair!! Police officers do not have the right to abuse citizens...this is assault and battery.
“Whatever he may have done (it appears that he is being accused of cursing an officer) this treatment is against the law. The officer was not defending himself and not under any perceivable threat. Who is this officer?? He should be charged!!! We need to do something about the calibre of officers that we have. This must certainly be a big part of why crime continues to be out of control.”
Santana said yesterday the police officers are to be investigated immediately.
“The Commissioner (of Police) has instructed that the Professional Standards Bureau begins investigations into the matter immediately,” said Santana.
The Express was told by another senior officer that the officers in the video are attached to the Rapid Response Unit in Mon Repos, and that both appeared to be off duty.
“If he was on duty he would have to be in police uniform since he is not a detective,” the senior police officer said, adding that the woman police officer appeared to be working on an “extra duty”.
The Express was also told they are both Special Reserve Police officers.
Santana said: “I want to assure you that no stone will be left unturned and the appropriate action will be taken against those officers.”
Santana said he had seen the video. “It was a disgrace to the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service. Those are not the kind of officers that we want in the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service,” he said.
EMPLOYEE: Wheelchair man abused me
The video was shot on High Street, San Fernando, around 4 p.m. last Saturday, and when the Express visited the area yesterday, several vendors and store employees said they had seen the man, and had witnessed the incident.
The wheelchair-bound man could not be located.
Most of those persons said the man should not have been beaten by the police officers.
A store employee who witnessed the incident said the man earlier that day left the San Fernando General Hospital and had a catheter and other apparatus hanging from the wheelchair.
“He was just showing the woman police officer monkey face and gave her the middle-finger. I think they treated him unjustly. The situation could have been handled better than that.”
Jean Allsop, an employee of Chicken Unlimited, said she was taking out the garbage when the man became abusive to her.
“He asked me if we had any fish broth and when I told him no he started to use racial words and cuss. The man was carrying on and on,” said Allsop.
“But I would say the police had no right to hit him. But as officers, they should have known better to deal with him. Nobody deserves to be treated like that,” she said.
Allsop’s co-worker, Vonetta Mars, said: “He was pelting money at us. People would pick up the money and hand him, and he would pelt it at us. He was also pulling people’s hands and harassing some ladies. He was drunk. A man asked him his name and he cuss him too.”
A vendor who did not identify himself also said the man appeared to be under the influence of a drug. “He was using racial slurs, spitting and cussing people. I went to him and told him do not get on like that. When the police came he spit on the policewoman. He deserve more than that. He was lucky somebody didn’t kick him down from the wheelchair.”
THE VIDEO
The video begins with the policewoman telling the man: “Move your wheelchair and go from here for me, please.”
As she unhooks the brakes on sides of wheelchair, she says: “You don’t know who you are dealing with, you know.”
She then turns the wheelchair around and says to the man: “Go down the road. Push your wheelchair and go down the road. If you playing mad, I more mad.”
She then pushes him off into the street and the wheelchair rolled until it hit a vehicle parked at the roadside.
The person shooting the video walks towards the man and advises him to “drive back up” the street.
The man in the wheelchair turns it around and pushes himself a short distance before he is approached by a man who identifies himself as a police officer.
“It don’t take me nothing to buss some f** slap on you although you are in a wheelchair,” says the policeman.
“What you cussing the police for? I ask you a question, boy.”
The man in the wheelchair and the policeman exchange words before the policeman slaps him across his head and face.
The man, who said he was a police officer, continues to ask what he was cussing the police for, and slaps him again.
The wheelchair-bound man does not retaliate against the policeman, but rubs his hand over his head.
The video then has audio of a woman, who said: “He must be could probably well walk you know. But they does put themselves in wheelchair and come out here and terrorise people.”
The policeman then slaps the man in the wheelchair again and walks off.
BULLY COPS
By VASHTEE ACHIBAR.
December 30 2014
A FIRESTORM of condemnation has been levelled at two police officers — from within their own ranks and from the general public — after they brutally assaulted a disabled man who sat in a wheelchair on lower High Street in San Fernando, in full view of passers by on Saturday afternoon.
Officers of the Professional Standards Bureau were appointed to investigate the assault were yesterday searching San Fernando and environs for the unnamed disabled man to record a statment.
A passerby who witnessed the exchange recorded the incident and uploaded the video to several social network websites, with the video going viral in minutes and prompting many comments, most of which were critical of the officers’ conduct.
The officers have been identified as two SRPs (Special Reserve Police) from the Mon Repos Police Station.
Following the video upload and the avalanche of negative public reaction, Ag Commissoner of Police Stephen Williams appointed a team from the Professional Standards Bureau headed by ACP Harrikrishen Baldeo to investigate the incident.
Head of Police Southern Division Snr Supt Cecil Santana last evening confirmed being contacted by ACP South, Central and South Western Donald Denoon who relayed that Commissioner Williams wanted an immediate and thorough investigation.
Santana said the two officers have already been identified as belonging to the Rapid Response Unit based at Mon Repos police Station. He described their conduct as disgraceful, adding, “the Service cannot condone that kind of action and these kinds of officers are what we don’t need in the ranks.” He assured, “no stone would be left unturned with respect to the investigation and what necessary action has to be taken, would be taken.”
When Newsday yesterday visited lower High Street where the incident occurred, emotions were still high. Some persons who said they witnessed the incident on Saturday strongly condemned the officers’ actions and called for justice to be done.
An eyewitness related that the attack began after the wheelchair-bound man was observed stretching out his hand to beg. This prompted a WPC in full police uniform to scold the disabled man, telling him he was getting disability by the State and should not be begging on the road.
The eyewitness who asked not to be identified said the disabled man cursed the officer causing her to become enraged. In the video, the female officer is seen disengaging the hand brake mechanism on the wheelchair.
She is then heard saying, “if you feel you mad, then I more mad” as she pushed the wheelchair down the slight incline of High Street and letting it go. In doing so, the officer herself narrowly escaped being hit by an oncoming van. The wheelchair proceeded down the road for a few feet before bumping into a car parked at the side of the road and coming to a halt. Eyewitnesses yesterday asked if the disabled man had been struck by an oncoming vehicle, what would have been the officers’ reaction.
The person who recorded the incident is heard using expletives as he described what was taking place. He then egged on the disabled man to go back up the street. As the disabled man did so, he was met by an oncoming policeman dressed in plainclothes.
The man pulled out a wallet, identified himself to the disabled man as an officer and then asked him why did he curse the woman police officer. The officer warned the disabled man that being in a wheelchair would not prevent him from getting a slap. The male officer, in the presence of several onlookers, proceeded to slap the disabled man at least three times, with two of the slaps being so vicious, so powerful as to rock the man’s head forcefully to the side. The male officer then walked off.
An eyewitness who said he was extremely disturbed by the beating told Newsday the disabled man wore a colostomy bag which was hanging from the wheelchair and one of the slaps from the officer caused urine to squirt out of the bag.
Business people in the area claimed the male officer in question is well-known to them as he is in the habit of harassing them about parking when vehicles arrive to offload goods to the stores.
David Manning, son of former prime minister and outgoing San Fernando East MP Patrick Manning, was among those who strongly condemned the officers’ actions stating on his Facebook page, “The Police act tough in the streets to earn respect, but the true measure of earning (respect) is performance.
Tapping up retards (sic) in wheelchairs hardly earns respect in light of a 400 plus annual murder rate and not a single suspect apprehended and not a single case solved. Any officer laying his hands on me trying to score points will certainly get an assault charge.”
Another Facebook user, Donna Ramnarine wrote: “People forget life is a boomerang and what goes around comes around. This is a human being. Somebody’s brother, uncle, father, nephew that these cops beating. There are ways to deal with this. I understand he just came out of the hospital...God is watching.”
Meanwhile, the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) in a news release said, “it is aware of a video that has been circulating on social media of alleged impropriety of persons who appear to be officers of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS).” The Authority stated that, “pursuant to the functions of the Police Complaints Authority Act”, it has initiated an independent investigation into the incident and is calling for any witnesses or persons with information on the incident to kindly contact the PCA at the following numbers: 800-2PCA/800-2722/627-4383, 627-4386 or info@pca.org.tt.”
Public Affairs Officer of the TT Police Service Supt Joanne Archie strongly condemned the officers’ actions. “We condemn what has happened. We would not condone such behaviour by officers. The video sent to me was communicated and forwarded to the Ag CoP (Stephen Williams) about mid-morning today (yesterday). He (Williams) immediately directed that the Professional Standards Bureau (PSB) initiate an investigation,” Archie said.
Meanwhile, the Police Social and Welfare Association added its voice to criticisms describing the video posting as “worrisome” and calling for a speedy investigation into the matter.
General Secretary of the association Insp Michael Seales said while the man may have insulted the police, the officers’ response was unnecessary.
“We have established that summary offences have been committed by the man but the exchange between the officer and the man, doesn’t warrant that type of interaction by the officer, in terms of what would have happened to the man, based on what has gone viral.
“We are very concerned and hope this is one of the investigations that the Commissioner completes as quickly as possible to the satisfaction of the citizens who would have witnessed the incident,” Seales said.
San Fernando Mayor Kazim Hosein said the corporation was very saddened at the incident .
He noted that while it was reasonable to expect protection from violence and crime by all police officers, this indeed was “an isolated and unfortunate incident” which needs to be fully investigated.
VIDEO
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=770685426344288&set=vb.679696105443221&type=2&theater
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Flex yuh see this madness? The entire video has been circulating on Facebook
http://www.tv6tnt.com/sevenpm-news/-Police-Beat-Man-in-Wheelchair--2937---287067271.html (http://www.tv6tnt.com/sevenpm-news/-Police-Beat-Man-in-Wheelchair--2937---287067271.html)
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Man in wheelchair slapped and shoved by cops embarrassed, hurt by incident:
By Susan Mohammed and Sue-Ann Wayow
I WISH TO DIE
ROBBIE RAMCHARITAR, the man in a wheelchair who was seen in a viral video being slapped and his wheelchair shoved down a busy High Street by two police officers in San Fernando, said yesterday he was hurt and embarrassed by the public beating which has been seen by thousands of people.
Ramcharitar said he did nothing more than to say “I love you” to a woman in blue clothing, who turned out to be a police officer.
Ramcharitar, 46, spoke to the media on the compound of the San Fernando General Hospital where he said he had been “living” since June.
“I don’t like what happened. I got some slap in my face and on my glasses on my left side. How you expect a man to feel? I am embarrassed to the highest degree over what the officers did. My one wish is to die. I just fed up of everything. I too embarrassed to face anybody,” Ramcharitar said.
The video shows a male police officer slapping Ramcharitar three times across his head and face as he sat in a wheelchair, and a policewoman pushing his wheelchair downhill.
Vendors and store employees said the incident occurred last Saturday afternoon on High Street, San Fernando, and was witnessed by several persons who alleged Ramcharitar was spitting and using obscene language and racial slurs to passers-by, and he appeared intoxicated.
Ramcharitar said yesterday he went to the area to purchase gifts for the nurses who had treated him with kindness at the hospital, but did not physically or verbally assault anyone. He said he had $30 each to spend on the gifts.
“Now, I feel bad I can’t give them anything. I never disrespect nobody; I never curse nobody; I never spit on nobody. That is an allegation,” said Ramcharitar.
“The officer, I never disrespect her. I never curse her. I just told her I love her. I tried to make a tackle. And with that, a next officer who is on the papers here (pointing to a newspaper), he pushed me away and it had a big scene, a very big scene”, he said.
Ramcharitar also responded to claims he was faking his disability.
“I fell off a coconut tree in Mayaro when I was 16 years old. It didn’t start to affect me until 30 years after. The doctors said I could do an operation, but it would be three years before I could walk properly again,” he said.
People who have seen the video expressed outrage over the callousness of the police officers and called for action to be taken.
The matter has been placed in the hands of the Professional Standards Bureau (PSB) of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.
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COP HIT ME HARD
By LAUREL V WILLIAMS and VASHTEE ACHAIBAR
Wednesday, December 31 2014
The wheelchair-bound man who felt the hard hand of a Special Reserve Policeman in San Fernando on Saturday wants quick action taken against that officer.
Robby Ramcharitar is softer however on the woman officer who, in the same incident, shoved him in his unlocked wheelchair dangerously down the relatively busy section of High Street.
He admitted to telling the policewoman he loved her and felt that his words – uttered under the influence of some beers — may have triggered the episode in which the male officer unleashed some violent clouts to his head and face.
“He hit me real hard,” Ramcharitar told Newsday yesterday.
The entire incident was video recorded by a witness and went viral via social media shortly after, resulting in widespread public condemnation of the officers’ actions, and prompting immediate investigations by the police service and the Police Complaints Authority. The two officers involved were reportedly instructed not to report for duty at their Mon Repos police station base yesterday. They were identified and interviewed by the Professional Standards Bureau of the service. Ramcharitar, meanwhile, gave investigating officers a statement during a two-hour interview yesterday.
Ramcharitar recalled that earlier in the day of the incident, he had consumed several beers and so he was a bit intoxicated.
“I was going to buy gifts for the nurses because they treat me too nice,” he revealed. “They are very kind and gentle with me and so I wanted to give them something in return.”
Newsday caught up with Ramcharitar in the corridors of one of the buildings of the San Fernando General Hospital where he says he has been staying for the past six months since he is homeless. He is a beneficiary of a special programme operated by the hospital especially for the indigent of the area.
While on his way to search for the gifts for the nurses, Ramcharitar said he saw a woman, who was later identified as the WPC, standing at the entrance of a store.
“I had a few beers in my head,” Ramcharitar said. “I told her that I love her. I never curse her nor spit on her. I never disrespected her. I did not realise she was an officer. I thought she was a store worker just standing at the entrance.” His words, he said, seemed to have angered the policewoman as he came out of the store.
Gesticulating as he sat in his wheelchair, he explained: “She walked down the stairs unloosen my brakes and pushed me. I landed on a parked car, scraping it at the side. I was still focusing on her when a man came, showing me something in his hands and giving me talks.” The man turned out to be a special reserve police officer.
Ramcharitar added that he was unable to remember whether or not he replied to the man, but added that he never used obscenities or spat on anyone. He said he paid little attention to what the man was saying and then suddenly he felt a burning sensation on his face.
“ He slapped me hard,” Ramcharitar said, “But because of the beers I did not feel too much pain for long. The two plastics from my eyeglasses fell out so I am putting a piece of tape to prevent it from scraping my nose. I do not know where he was after that.” He explained that the policewoman had called for back-up and two jeeps arrived with police officers. Ramcharitar said he telephoned his sister, a security officer, who works nearby and she and another colleague arrived shortly after. They spoke with the officers who ordered that they take him back to the hospital.
Yesterday he spent about two hours in a meeting with police investigators and says something has to be done about the incident. He was confident acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams would do the “right thing”.
Ramcharitar is originally from Vistabella and said for the past five years he has been homeless due to family problems. At age 16, he related, he fell off a coconut tree causing damage to his spine. But five years ago, he fell near the Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet in Gasparillo while using crutches. This, he said, caused further injuries and thus caused him to have to use a wheelchair.
Reports are the wheelchair-bound man was seen stretching out his hand to beg at lower High Street, San Fernando, on Saturday. A woman police constable, dressed in full police uniform, was nearby and began to scold him. Eyewitnesses said she accused him of getting disability by the State and should not be begging on the road. She then released the brakes on his wheelchair and pushed it causing him to crash into a nearby parked car. A male off-duty officer intervened and dealt him several slaps in full view of passers- by.
The two police officers have since been ordered not to report for work.
Head of the Police Southern Division Snr Supt Cecil Santana yesterday confirmed he received instructions from Commissioner Williams to not roster the officers who are said to be members of the Rapid Response Unit based at the Mon Repos station.
Sources said statements were recorded from eyewitnesses on Lower High Street and a video recording of the incident was also handed over to the investigators who expect the probe would be “wrapped up shortly.”
A senior officer said the two officers could be charged with assault. He further explained that in the case of a child, a woman or a sick person, the charge could be upgraded to “aggravated assault.”
Following the investigations a file would be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions for advice on the laying of charges.
The source also revealed the Police Commissioner has authority to dismiss the two officers under the Supplemental Police Act Ch 15.02.
Also yesterday, Chief Executive Officer at the National Centre for Persons with Disabilities, (NCPD), in San Fernando, Dr Beverly Beckles, said she was rendered speechless on seeing the video of the policeman slapping Ramcharitar.
The incident occurred a short distance away from where the centre is located at New Street.
Beckles said she could not believe what she saw and declared that “not even an animal should be treated in that manner. The police are here to protect and serve, if you want to build confidence in the service that is not the way to go,” she pleaded.
Beckles said the male officer’s behaviour was as “unacceptable”, adding there is a need for greater awareness in the society about disabled persons and lamenting her organisation does not “have the finances to mount a national campaign”.
Beckles said her initial reaction to the incident was that the officers should be fired, but upon reflection realised police officers need to be properly trained to interact with members of the public, especially the disabled. She feels some good could come out of the incident if only to create a greater awareness about the “disabled and how we interact with them”. She called on citizens to treat each other with respect, “ since we don’t know where we will be tomorrow”.
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I like what Dr Beckles said. And I really like the aim for a middle ground - not too hard but not too soft. I think trinis are compassionate people and will forever want to give lawbreakers and wrongdoers a chance...and we see that can't work / leads to a totally lawless society. I am all for a search for reasonable and consistent (therefore easily enforceable) punishment.
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Yeah firing is a little rough... especially for the WPC (ridiculous that they still using gender identifiers, but say what). The SRP need to be fired though... that is out and out assault, upon reflection.
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SRPs sent home after beating of homeless man...
By Derek Achong
The two Special Reserve Police (SRP) accused of allegedly assaulting a disabled man on a wheelchair in San Fernando on Saturday have been taken off active duty. The announcement was made yesterday by acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams and comes days after a video of the incident sparked massive public outcry after it was posted on several social media Web sites on Monday.
Addressing yesterday’s weekly police press briefing at the Police Administration Building, Port-of-Spain, Williams described the incident as a “blatant abuse of power.” He said: “As the head of the TTPS I feel compelled to strongly condemn such reprehensible behaviour by the SRPs.”
As part of his “swift and decisive” response to the controversial video, Williams said he decided to exercise his power to temporarily cease their activity as SRPs, to withdraw their firearm precepts and seize their uniforms and other police issued items. “That is short of revoking their appointment as for me to do that I must comply with the rules of natural justice and the disciplinary procedure in the police service regulations,” Williams said.
He further explained that the SRP’s would receive no pay during the period of the investigation as they work under an employment scheme whether they are paid based on when they are called upon by the TTPS to work. “If they were members of the TTPS the regulations would provide that the Police Service Commission can only get as far as to cutting their pay by up to a half,” Williams said.
Williams also thanked the unidentified person who recorded the video and posted it as he said the incident may have left unchecked if this was not done. “Police officers are not above the law and they must comply with it. That is why we encourage members of the public to record events which are inconsistent with police functions and bring it to our attention,” Williams said.
Williams admitted that the incident, coupled with that of Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Peter Reyes, had the potential to damage to public trust and confidence the Police Service was attempting to improve over the past year. When asked to explain the difference in his decision pertaining to ACP Reyes, who was this week transferred from heading the Tobago Division following a incident aboard a domestic flight two weeks ago, Williams identified the video recording of the SRPs as the main factor.
“The clip is obvious and that is why I could speak strongly about it...I can actually see the event so I can take deliberate action,” Williams said as he claimed there were several inconsistencies between media reports on Reyes’ incident and statements given by eyewitnesses. “That is why in the first instance you have to do an investigation to get the facts of the matter to make a determination whether a criminal offence or any other offences would have been committed,” Williams said.
While he said in both cases he chose to take action that would ensure fairness to the parties involved, Williams expressed the view the Police Service’s disciplinary regulations were outdated and time consuming.
“It is a pretty slow process because of the bureaucracy built in to the regulations. What i would like to see is a review of the procedures so we can shorten process for speedier tribunals so, we can at the end of the day reach the point where persons can receive the highest level of discipline,” Williams said.
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Rajkumar: No one asked my side of the story
By Renuka Singh (Guardian)
Suspended Special Reserve Police (SRP) officer, 32-year-old Roger Rajkumar, has been gagged by his attorneys and can no longer speak about his alleged involvement in the violent slapping of a wheel-chair bound paraplegic Robby Ramcharitar.
The T&T Guardian met with Rajkumar at a relative’s home in Princes Town yesterday and while he is abiding by his lawyer’s instructions, Rajkumar denied that he has ever spoken to any media house since the alleged incident occurred on December 27. “If I wanted to speak to any media, I would speak to them just like I am speaking to you. But I have not spoken to anyone and I seeing myself quoted. What is that?” Rajkumar said.
He had copies of two other newspaper reports, highlighting and underlining portions of the published article that he plans to send to his lawyer. “This is malicious and damaging to my character,” Rajkumar said.
Rajkumar was working on extra duty, hired by the owners of a nearby jewelry store as security during the busy Christmas season. But while Rajkumar is refusing to speak on the actual incident that led to his suspension, a close relative described the situation as an “edited set-up”. The relative denied that Rajkumar slapped Ramcharitar, describing it as a swift reaction to the threat of being spat on.
His family is supportive, also denying that Rajkumar slapped Ramcharitar, saying that with his eight years of martial arts training, he reacted quickly to the threat of being spat on and that he pushed Ramcharitar’s face away on two occasions.
The incident, which was recorded by an unknown individual and uploaded to Facebook, allegedly shows Rajkumar slapping Ramcharitar. The video was quickly shared on social media pages and became a popular topic of discussion. Both Rajkumar and a female officer also seen in the video have since been suspended pending investigations.
Rajkumar said he was not aware of the actions of the female officer until he saw the video and does not know who she is. This, his relatives suggest, is more cunning video editing done to make it look like both officers attacked the man in succession. “I did not know that happened, I was just crossing the road when he approached me asking for money, when he saw my police identification, then he became abusive,” Rajkumar said.
A relative said yesterday that the video was deliberately edited to remove the cursing and obscene language by the man in the wheelchair. The edited version of the video, he claims, also removed the Ramcharitar’s threat to spit on Rajkumar. “The street was quiet, yet you hearing a Vibez Kartel song while the man speaking, why is there no other noise, no other background noise but that song and only when the man speaking?” the family member questioned.
Family members said there had been several previous encounters with the owners of stores opposite where the officer was working and they believe that the editing of the video was done deliberately to “get back” at Rajkumar. “Several times he had to buff them for parking on the wrong side of the road and for blocking his view of the doorway of the store he was hired to protect,” he said.
This too he is discussing with his attorney. “He has said that when the real video is shown, the unedited version, he doesn’t mind if people judge him on that,” the relative said.
Rajkumar has been an SRP for just nine months and in that time has written out over 350 citations, including several for obscene language and driving under the influence. “He studied martial arts for years, believe me, if he slap someone, they will lay down,” the relative said.
Rajkumar’s relatives believe that the decision to suspend him and the female officer was as a result of public outcry. “Nobody asked my side of the story yet but still I got suspended,” Rajkumar said. The T&T Guardian has since learned that Rajkumar and his legal representative will be meeting with the investigators today.
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By Sheila Rampersad (Express)
Story Created: Jan 1, 2015 at 7:50 PM ECT
Story Updated: Jan 1, 2015 at 7:50 PM ECT
It is unsurprising that on the cusp of a new year, the long arm of the law is featured descending brutally on a physically vulnerable citizen. It is even less unusual that that long arm is attached to a special reserve police officer.
While deviant behaviour by regular police officers—men and women alike—remain less uncommon than citizens would like, allegations and formal charges against special reserve officers are too many and too frequent. Citizens, ideally in the second instance, and the police service in the first instance, ought not to feel that business as usual is an acceptable response.
The system of recruiting, vetting, training and disciplining SRPs must be urgently reviewed and revised; the public must make it impossible for the TTPS to continue its characteristic sluggishness.
A cursory search for “SRP charged” generates a diverse range of criminal deviance over the past few years:
May 2014: Joel Apparicio, 31, shot and killed by an SRP in San Juan. Apparicio was running along Real Street towards the San Juan Police Station to make a report.
August 2014: SRP Jameel Mohammed of the Biche Police Station charged with misbehaviour in public office. The charge was related to the disappearance of a gun belonging to a police sergeant attached to the same station.
October 2014: SRPs Avinash Hajaree and Jeremy Tenia of the Praedial Larceny Squad charged with assaulting and falsely imprisoning Basraj Tooolsie in Debe.
March 2013: SRPs Kevon Marshall and Kenrol Patterson jointly charged with Mark Collette for the abduction and murder of Johnny Noel.
June 2013: SRP Andy Britto jailed for four months with hard labour for assaulting his neighbour. The court believed that Britto hit his neighbour in the head with a big stone. In this matter, the magistrate seemed spooked by the contents of a probation officer’s report on Britto. She concluded, “You ought not to be in the Police Service. It is a noble profession…” Britto, she noted, had shown no remorse during the trial despite having known the victim all his life. Prior to his arrest, Britto was doing guard duty at Police Administration Building, Port of Spain.
August 2012: SRP Bryan Chadband charged with attempted murder of a close relative.
August 2012: An SRP expected to appear in court charged with robbing several ATMs in Princes Town and possession of ammunition.
June 2011: An SRP expected to appear in court charged with several counts of larceny, corruption and fraud.
November 2011: SRP Rennie Deowah charged with indecently assaulting a six-year-old girl.
September 2010: SRP Summer St Clair of the Transit Unit charged with possession of 107 grammes of marijuana.
This list is selective; an exhaustive compilation would be even scarier.
Average citizens could watch this and see that there is a problem somewhere in the recruitment of SRPs. The instances are too many. In a serious country experts would have noticed this, studied it expansively and submitted recommendations to improve the quality of men and women who, after truncated training, are handed police identification cards, uniforms and guns.
Note that the recent Rapid Response Unit (RRU) comprises SRPs exclusively. Seventy-six of them also populate the Praedial Larceny Squad. Unlike regular officers, SRPs undergo no polygraph and psychometric testing so there are few opportunities to exclude those recruits who may have violent inclinations, who may be paedophiles or suffer from mental illnesses. While they are trained in the mechanics of firearms, they are not trained in a use-of-force policy or restraint in dealing with civilians.
The educational requirements of five O-Levels are also waived.
With far inferior education and less training than a regular police officer, SRPs are thrown in at the deep end, attending to reports just like regular officers. The public makes no distinction between regular officers and SRPs and SRPs are mandated to respond to any incident they witness.
There have never been regulations in place for SRPs; there is no code of conduct. Many people who are rejected as recruits by the TTPS secure employment as SRPs.
The SRP Act speaks to discipline but no process is outlined.
Yet these SRPs, some of whom no doubt perform admirably, are foisted on a citizenry already reeling from the effects of sometimes incompetent, sometimes downright abusive, police behaviour.
There are SRP-only squads, SRPs in almost all police stations, SRPs with guns, SRPs in Tobago, SRPs patrolling our cities over Christmas.
The TTPS cannot allow this to continue; citizens must ensure that the TTPS and the Ministry of National Security conduct a comprehensive review of the process by which SRPs are employed and let loose on an unwitting population.
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Facebook slap victim suing State.
Reshma Ragoonath (Guardian)
Charges of misbehaviour in public office, assault and malicious damage are to be laid against two south Special Reserve Police (SRP) officers for the alleged abuse of a wheelchair-bound man last week. Officers of the Professional Standards Bureau received instructions yesterday from the Director of Public Prosecutions to lay charges against two suspended officers, arising out of the December 27 incident involving paraplegic Robby Ramcharitar.
They will both appear before a San Fernando Magistrate on Monday to answer the charges. The male officer will be charged with misbehaviour in public office, while the woman officer will be charged with assaulting Ramcharitar and maliciously damaging a car which was parked on High Street. The car was damaged when Ramcharitar’s wheelchair collided with it after he allegedly was pushed away by the woman police officer.
The alleged incident shot into the national spotlight last week and created a social media firestorm after a video of the officers allegedly assaulting Ramcharitar, 46, on High Street, San Fernando, surfaced on Facebook. The video showed Ramcharitar being violently slapped and pushed away. Both police officers were expected to attend identification parades and be interviewed by officers at the Professional Standards Bureau’s San Fernando office at 10 am yesterday.
The woman police officer turned up for the interview, which lasted for two hours. She later attended the identification parade. The male officer, citing advice from his attorneys, declined to attend the identification parade and interview session at the San Fernando Police Station. However, around 4 pm yesterday, officers from the Professional Standards Bureau detained the 32-year-old man at a house in Princes Town and took him to the San Fernando Police Station.
Ramcharitar was interviewed by Cpl Joefield. Up to late yesterday, Joefield was interviewing the male officer.
Ramcharitar to sue state
Wheelchair-bound paraplegic Robby Ramcharitar says he will be initiating legal action against the State, even though charges are to be laid against the two officers accused of abusing him last week. Ramcharitar’s attorney Rekha Ramjit, instructed by attorney Alvin Pariag Singh, confirmed she had received instructions to initiate proceedings on Ramcharitar’s behalf.
She said by Monday she would issue a pre-action protocol letter to the Attorney General’s office and the two officers signalling her intention to take legal action on Ramcharitar’s behalf. “We are exercising his right to take action against the Government because the police officers are servants of the Government and he has the right to sue them. The pre-action protocol letter is the first aspect of that (course of action),” Ramjit said.
She said if the officers were charged that criminal matter would have no impact on the civil proceedings being initiated by Ramcharitar. “They are two separate matters. The State can charge the officers, but the civil action for the assault and battery and humiliation that he was subjected to is a separate (legal) action,” she said. Ramjit said Ramcharitar remained a patient at the San Fernando General Hospital.
She gave the assurance that the wheelchair-bound man was not seeking protective custody. “The San Fernando General Hospital is not the safest of places, but we have no reason to believe that the officers are going to do anything further or untoward. We would not be going down that road at this point in time (to seek protective custody),” Ramjit added.
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DPP: Female cop in wheelchair incident must face court
By Rickie Ramdass (Express).
CHARGE HER
DIRECTOR of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard last night gave the green light to officers of the Professional Standards Bureau to lay two criminal charges against the female Special Reserve Police (SRP) officer who was involved in an incident last Saturday that was captured on video, which showed the officer vigorously pushing Robbie Ramcharitar in a wheelchair down High Street, San Fernando, in oncoming traffic.
The officer was charged around 8.30 p.m. with causing malicious damage and assault by beating. Her male counterpart, who was seen slapping Ramcharitar
to the face and head, is to be placed on an identification parade today at a police station in the Southern Division before any move is made for charges to be laid against him.
If he is pointed out during the parade by Ramcharitar, he is to be charged with misbehaviour in public office.
Public relations officer with the Police Service Supt Joanne Archie confirmed last night that Gaspard gave the directive to charge the WPC but stated the charge had not been laid up to 8 p.m. She said if the male officer is pointed out during the identification parade today, they “may both be charged together”.
Earlier yesterday, both officers were again interviewed by Professional Standards Bureau officers in Port of Spain. Following the completion of the interview, the officers met with Gaspard sometime around 6.30 p.m. after which the directions were given.
Other police sources said if the officers are charged today, it is possible they may be granted bail by a Justice of the Peace at the police station and be made to appear in the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court on Monday. “If they are charged, I doubt that they will be kept in custody over the entire weekend,” the source said.
The video footage, which was captured along High Street, San Fernando, showed 46-year-old Ramcharitar, a paraplegic having his wheelchair pushed down the roadway in traffic by a uniformed female officer. “If you think you mad, I more mad,” the officer was heard saying. The chair later came to a stop after it made contact with the side of a parked white car.
Ramcharitar was then urged by the man filming the video to “drive back up the road.” It was after doing so that Ramcharitar was approached by the male officer, dressed in civilian wear, who slapped him across the face and head three times.
The video went viral on Facebook resulting in many expressing outrage over the incident, with some citizens calling for the immediate dismissal of the officers, who were both last attached to the Mon Repos Police Station in San Fernando. Several vendors and store employees who said they witnessed the incident said Ramcharitar was spitting and using obscene language and racial slurs to passers-by, and he appeared intoxicated before the officers became involved.
Following the release of the video, acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams ordered an immediate investigation into the incident. The officers were instructed to cease duties pending the outcome of the criminal charges.
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De owner of that car that geh hit keeping quiet?
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Wheelchair-bound paraplegic Robby Ramcharitar says he will be initiating legal action against the State, even though charges are to be laid against the two officers accused of abusing him last week. Ramcharitar’s attorney Rekha Ramjit, instructed by attorney Alvin Pariag Singh, confirmed she had received instructions to initiate proceedings on Ramcharitar’s behalf.
Ah a lil cynical regarding this. Follow de $?
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Not sure what the WPC is being charged with... perhaps the local equivalent of "reckless endangerment." Unless there's damage to the vehicle in question then there's no need for the owner to come forward.
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Fuad: Normal people don’t behave like that
By Anna Ramdass (Express).
SEND HIM TO ST ANN’S
Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan has instructed that wheelchair user Robbie Ramcharitar be sent to the St Ann’s Hospital for psychiatric evaluation and treatment.
Ramcharitar has received national attention over the past week after an unidentified 17-year-old filmed an incident on his cellphone on December 27 last year where two Special Reserve Police (SRP) officers allegedly struck the man and pushed him in his wheelchair down High Street, San Fernando.
The video footage, which was posted on Facebook, showed a uniformed woman officer pushing Ramcharitar’s wheelchair down a roadway.
It also showed a male plainclothes officer allegedly slapping Ramcharitar three times across his head and face.
The video went viral on Facebook, resulting in many people expressing outrage over the incident, with some citizens calling for the immediate dismissal of the officers, who were both last attached to the Mon Repos Police Station in San Fernando.
Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard has instructed officers of the Professional Standards Bureau to lay two criminal charges against the woman officer.
Witnesses to the incident claim Ramcharitar was verbally abusive to the officers and others people.
Ramcharitar has denied this, saying he told the woman officer: “I love you.”
Speaking to the Sunday Express by phone, Khan said Ramcharitar’s behaviour was cause for concern and also the fact he has been practically living at the San Fernando General Hospital for months.
Ramcharitar had admitted he was homeless and staying at the hospital.
He also said he left the hospital to go to High Street to buy presents for the nurses.
Khan said it was unacceptable an acute patient bed was being utilised by someone who does not warrant it when there were others in need.
He also said he was very concerned and alarmed Ramcharitar was being allowed to come and go from the hospital as he pleases as though it were a hotel.
Asked why he instructed Ramcharitar be taken to St Ann’s, Khan said: “The way he was behaving as seen in the video, normal people don’t behave like that in the presence of police officers.”
“I’m extremely concerned that someone can go on a ward and occupy a bed for months when there is a problem for beds,” said Khan.
The minister said 30 to 40 per cent of beds are being utilised by peo-
ple who do not require acute care.
“I am also extremely concerned that a patient can come and go as he pleases, go shopping.... I want to ask those in charge why this is happening. Why is such a thing being allowed?” said Khan.
“It is disheartening that such a situation has occurred. It is very selfish of these people’s families to put this burden on the hospital and be denying ailing people beds.”
“(Ramcharitar) is denying very sick people the use of a bed. He needs to be clinically assessed for his own good,” said Khan.
The Sunday Express understands Ramcharitar was supposed to be taken to the St Ann’s Hospital last night or today.
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I always thought police brutality was allowed in T&T, I remember men getting real licks from police and no one did anything.
;D
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I always thought police brutality was allowed in T&T, I remember men getting real licks from police and no one did anything.
;D
It wasn't so much allowed but tolerated as long as the recipients were from certain socioeconomic groups and areas such that no one would ever take their word over that of a lawman. Also that was a day and age before cell phones and social media. If nobody made that video yuh think the media or Griffith woulda pay any attention to that man complaint.
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Fuad: Normal people don’t behave like that
By Anna Ramdass (Express).
SEND HIM TO ST ANN’S
The Sunday Express understands Ramcharitar was supposed to be taken to the St Ann’s Hospital last night or today.
What a backwards shit hole of a place, where one man can diagnose another as having a mental illness from simply observing him on film. “The way he was behaving as seen in the video, normal people don’t behave like that in the presence of police officers.”
Yuh mean de way he head whip around when he get slap and how he just stay quiet and helpless in face of the assault? That is exactly how normal people does behave because f**king kakaholes like Fuad Khan to focused on peripheral, irrelevant shit to address what is really wrong with the country.
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Fuad: Normal people don’t behave like that
By Anna Ramdass (Express).
SEND HIM TO ST ANN’S
The Sunday Express understands Ramcharitar was supposed to be taken to the St Ann’s Hospital last night or today.
What a backwards shit hole of a place, where one man can diagnose another as having a mental illness from simply observing him on film. “The way he was behaving as seen in the video, normal people don’t behave like that in the presence of police officers.”
Yuh mean de way he head whip around when he get slap and how he just stay quiet and helpless in face of the assault? That is exactly how normal people does behave because f**king kakaholes like Fuad Khan to focused on peripheral, irrelevant shit to address what is really wrong with the country.
Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan is a qualified vet; he is not a qualified doctor for assessing the health of human beings and should never have been appointed Minister of Health by our PM unless they view the general population on the same level as animals.
At any rate based on Fuad Khan's own assertion of abnormal behaviour the whole PPG including himself also need to visit St Ann's for mental assessment.
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Fuad Khan isnt a vet...he's an urologist.
I think the real intention is the fact that he basically lives at the hospital...like many others...which arent designed for long term occupancy. St. Anns is. If he want somewhere to stay and as eye witness reports show him to be a pest...well...let him get evaluated and work from there.
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Fuad Khan isnt a vet...he's an urologist.
I think the real intention is the fact that he basically lives at the hospital...like many others...which arent designed for long term occupancy. St. Anns is. If he want somewhere to stay and as eye witness reports show him to be a pest...well...let him get evaluated and work from there.
Bourbon, the larger point is that in a proper society, outside of a court order, you can't pick somebody up off the street and take them to a mental hospital for evaluation. The only times you see that happening in the US is if the person behaving in such a manner that they pose a threat to either themselves or to others, and there is an indication that they would benefit more from an evaluation than from jail. There is nothing on that video indicating this fella has mental issues. You can't go by what observers say and use that as the basis for either jailing or committing somebody. If so then I could say "I see Bourbon exposing himself to young schoolgirls and talking to de sky... I think allyuh need to take him St. Ann's". That is shit, call it what it is.
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And I could tell you...having worked in Emergency Response that one of the frequent calls that the ambulance service gets locally is for psychiatric calls. Family, passers by, anybody can do something as simple as call (and waste) an ambulance, have them pick up a person, get them carried to the hospital, go through triage and if the doctor finds nothing medically wrong with them, and hears that the medical complaint was a psychiatric call can write a referral letter to St. Anns. If they violent then police should assist, and if the police have no resources to use then it left as is. And I talking about family members not willing to take responsibility and calling an ambulance service to help.
Sad to say but its true. The reality is that in most instances locally...the systems so slow and backward something like that would take ages.
Tangentially related to that....he should be glad the police didn't follow the process..cause it might very well be worse. The amount of licks he would have gotten off camera I sure it would have been worse.
And you know why that happened like that? Is a total waste of police time to have to pick up a man...carry him to the station to be charged....have to now monitor and baby sit him cause of his condition..wait for a case to come up..might very well be delayed..have to make court appearances and all that. Much easier to hit the man some hard slap and send him up de road. Which is what they did. Only reason this getting so much coverage is because some youth man chain him up to go back and video tape it. I almost certain that if this were full police officers and not SRP's then this wouldn't have come to a conclusion so quickly. The whole situation eh right...but...in the circumstances I not surprised how it turned out...and as I said..the man is a known nuisance.
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And I could tell you...having worked in Emergency Response that one of the frequent calls that the ambulance service gets locally is for psychiatric calls. Family, passers by, anybody can do something as simple as call (and waste) an ambulance, have them pick up a person, get them carried to the hospital, go through triage and if the doctor finds nothing medically wrong with them, and hears that the medical complaint was a psychiatric call can write a referral letter to St. Anns. If they violent then police should assist, and if the police have no resources to use then it left as is. And I talking about family members not willing to take responsibility and calling an ambulance service to help.
Sad to say but its true. The reality is that in most instances locally...the systems so slow and backward something like that would take ages.
Tangentially related to that....he should be glad the police didn't follow the process..cause it might very well be worse. The amount of licks he would have gotten off camera I sure it would have been worse.
And you know why that happened like that? Is a total waste of police time to have to pick up a man...carry him to the station to be charged....have to now monitor and baby sit him cause of his condition..wait for a case to come up..might very well be delayed..have to make court appearances and all that. Much easier to hit the man some hard slap and send him up de road. Which is what they did. Only reason this getting so much coverage is because some youth man chain him up to go back and video tape it. I almost certain that if this were full police officers and not SRP's then this wouldn't have come to a conclusion so quickly. The whole situation eh right...but...in the circumstances I not surprised how it turned out...and as I said..the man is a known nuisance.
It should be apparent then how that situation differs from what Fuad Khan has suggested, and why I talk about how backwards Trinidad is. The rest of what you say about police taking out their frustrations/meting out summary judgment on people on the streets, that only confirms my statements.
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"Backwards" ... hmmm.
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That man in de wheel chair shoulda be related to me, I woulda beat de both police officers like a f00cking judas.
That big head indian babaylon feel he bad because he have on a badge.
Boy, he really know who to pick on, yuh feel he woulda slap a creole?
Indian to f00cking soft we.
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That man in de wheel chair shoulda be related to me, I woulda beat de both police officers like a f00cking judas.
That big head indian babaylon feel he bad because he have on a badge.
Boy, he really know who to pick on, yuh feel he woulda slap a creole?
Indian to f00cking soft we.
It is safer to shoot a creole or dougla like you who is not in a wheel chair than to slap him. Just saying.
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vet :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
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vet :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
I heard it on a T&T raido talk show I was listening to. Should have doubled checked before taking it as gospel. My bad but don't forget that many of the current T&T government minsiters have false papers/qualifications and are not the best qualified for the positions they hold so it was easy to believe! :devil:
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Yuh know it never surprise me how we culturally do things- is like a kinda doltish backward genetically programmed defective gene running in we veins despite all the scholars and smart people we have.
Now imagine we brought in two high priced police commissioners from Canada and then we let the go - with all the methodology knowledge and training they have yuh go tell me we could not learn from that?
Now in today's Guardian uh reading of the need for better training for police officers. How. A 21 year old with seven months training go walk into a bar and confront bandits? Did he know that a robbery was in progress? Did his partners not cover the exits? Like what really happen end here?
Now people calling for better training- ent this government had ' a supposedly top qualified' police officer in position? Was he satisfied then with the level of training accorded to the recruits? Now the minister on NS bumping gums again and talking after the fact?
Trinidad Guardian
' A need for better Police Training '
January 8th 2015
Gerald Kowlessar
Sacrificing quality for quantity. That was how president of the Police Service Social and Welfare Association Insp Anand Ramesar summed up the training of police officers. He said if modern policies were not implemented to train police recruits there would be more incidents like that of the shooting of PC Kashyap Lochan and even worse. At the same time, Ramesar commended Lochan, who has been in the service for only seven months, for displaying dedication and bravery in the line of duty.
Ramesar said an examination of the incident involving Lochan showed the service sorely lacked proper policies. He said back in the 1980s, officers underwent some 18 months of training—six months in what was known as the Police Barracks, six months on the job and six months back in the barracks, with one month of vacation. Now a person undergoes six months of training to become a police officer and six weeks for a Special Reserve Police.
“The training is more academic than actual physical training. A lot of the drills have been cut out. “When we evaluate it, we recognised that the organisation lacks policies and proper modules when it comes to training and development that is structured to providing the relevant competencies for police officers,” Ramesar said. He said simulation exercises must be a part of the training process if the service was expected to produce quality officers.
“The Commissioner of Police needs to put proper modules in place when it comes to training. We need the simulation training that is taking place in first world countries like that of New York. “We need to look at those countries where policing and best practices operate. We need to bring real training where officers would be faced with dangers like close combat and real shooting situations,” Ramesar added.
He said such recommendations were made to acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams but were yet to be implemented. Executive members of the association are expected to meet with Williams early next week and top on the agenda is the issue of training. At the weekly press briefing held at the Police Administration building in Port-of-Spain yesterday, public information officer Supt Joanne Archie said the service was faced with challenges, but this would not deter officers from carrying out their duties.
She said members of the public needed to be reminded that crime was not a static phenomenon but rather dynamic. “The guarantee I would give members of the public is that the police officers would continue in all their initiatives to ensure crime is reduced and the fear of crime is also reduced.
“The public’s fear needs to be allayed. In some areas we have had some successes but we are also saying we need to do more. When we look at our statistics and feedback from members of the public we agree there is so much more to do and which we are working on,” Archie added. She said many of the investigations which were solved were based on information from the public.
On the issue of training, she said, officers in their line of duty were faced with combatting lawlessness. “We are aware of what is happening and it is not the first time one of our officers have been shot. “We continue to train our officers and ensure they are equipped when they go out there to deal with crime and the lawlessness that pervades,” Archie said. When contacted, DCP Simon Alexis, who is the provost at the Police Training Academy, in St James, said he was in a meeting and could not comment.
Griffith: Simulation training for police soon
Minister of National Security Gary Griffith said arrangements were being made to have simulation training organised for all police officers through the Ministry of National Security Training Academy. “We will be getting an indoor shooting range. We have to do the tender process for this. We will also have simulation training to give the officers the opportunity to look at different scenarios based on the threat.
“We will train them to use minimal force. They will be trained in how to use verbal persuasion and then the baton, then pepper spray and tasers before using their firearm. There will be drills for proper operation,” he said. Griffith said training directors went to the Waterloo Training College, in the United States, last year for training in dealing with all scenarios including road blocks, vehicle searches, car chases, aggressive confrontations, and customer service.
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I believe the person in charge of National Security should be a properly qualified person rather than a political appointment attached to any particular political party. Crime and health are the most important issues in the country followed by Jobs, Education, Sports and Culture which can all be linked to helping to reduce crime.
This Gary Griffith fellow spewing all this political rhetoric and taking the T&T public for fools in preparation for them trying to win the next general elections despite a dismal performance in all areas of government and a long list of broken promises has convinced me of that.
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Cops in fist fight
By NALINEE SEELAL (Newsday).
Monday, January 26 2015
The arrest of the officer came minutes after he reportedly began cursing his colleagues on their way to a murder scene at St Paul Street, Port-of-Spain on Saturday afternoon. According to police reports, the officer who was last attached to the Western Division, but who is now on vacation leave reportedly parked his vehicle close to a bar where he was reportedly seen having drinks.
According to reports, his vehicle was parked in a manner which was blocking the free flow of traffic.
Shortly after 6 pm, homicide officers as well as officers of the Port-of-Spain division were called to St Paul Street, after gunshots were heard in the area. When officers arrived on the scene they saw the senior officer’s vehicle blocking the traffic as well as their access to get to what was now a murder scene. Police sources told Newsday that Kern Lewis, 29, of Quevado Circular, East Dry River, was standing in the vicinity of St Paul Street when he was shot several times about the body and head. When homicide officers tried to get to the scene, they realised the senior officer’s vehicle was blocking their pathway and they reportedly asked him to remove the vehicle. It was there, the senior officer allegedly began cursing the officers and refused to move his vehicle.
Acting ASP Richard Smith of the Port-of-Spain Division, who was on his way to the murder scene observed the confrontation and intervened by asking the senior officer to move his vehicle and desist from using obscene language. It is alleged that the senior officer again refused prompting acting ASP Smith to detain him and take him to the Besson Street Police Station. According to well-placed sources, while at the station, the officer continued cursing, and then reportedly attacked ASP Smith resulting in a fist fight between the two officers.
Other officers at the Besson Street Police Station quickly intervened and subdued the cursing officer and then asked him to submit himself to a breathalyser test. Newsday understands that the senior officer refused, promoting acting ASP Smith to seek guidance from his senior officers.
Newsday understands, acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams was contacted and informed of the situation. Contacted by Newsday yesterday, the acting Commissioner confirmed that he was told of an incident involving two senior officers but he was awaiting a full report on exactly what transpired before commenting further. He said that he had appointed Deputy Commissioner Harold Philip who is in charge of operations in the police service to detail a senior officer to probe the incident. However, Newsday understands that the senior officer involved in the brawl remained detained all of Saturday night and yesterday he was slapped with the three charges by acting ASP Smith. Up until midday yesterday, the officer had not arranged bail for the three offences although his relatives were trying to make contact with his attorney to represent his legal interest in the matter.
Sources at the Besson Street Police Station told Newsday that they were appalled by the behaviour of the senior officer especially at a time when morale in the police service was low and the public seems to have a lot of distrust in the police service because of the behaviour of some officers.
One officer who witnessed the incident inside the police station involving the senior officer and acting ASP Smith said, he could not believe what he witnessed because he never expected that type of behaviour from a senior officer.
Yesterday, secretary of the Police Social and Welfare Association, acting Inspector Michael Seales, told Newsday, “I am appalled, I am stunned but I hope that swift action is taken in the circumstances to ensure that someone who is guilty of an offence be it a senior officer or civilian face the full brunt of the law.”
Newsday understands that the officer’s vehicle was eventually towed from where it was blocking the free flow of traffic and impounded at Traffic Branch pending further investigations. The murder scene was visited by several other senior officers and the body of Lewis viewed by District Medical Officer Dr Pounder and ordered removed to the Forensic Science Centre, St James.
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Wining cop praised by police body
By Jensen La Vende (Guardian)
The police officer video-taped wining at a fete on Carnival Sunday was fulfilling his marital responsibilities, while doing his job and should be applauded and not reprimanded, according to secretary of the Police Second Division Association Insp Michael Seales.
Speaking during CNC3 Morning Brew yesterday Seales said officers are challenged to have quality time with their spouses as a result of their work schedule and the officer in question, a sargeant attached to the West End Police Station, “took advantage” of the situation.
Seales added that the best person to gyrate on the officer’s wife was the officer himself.
“The whole thing has been blown out of proportion. We want to promote healthy living between a spouse and her husband.” Seales said adding that he have seen people in uniform belonging to other arms of the National Security, dance with their significant others in the past but since the officer was gyrating there were some derogatory comments.
“We would want to applaud him because we are talking about him maintaining his marriage,” Seales said.
Also backing the officer was president of the association Insp Anand Ramesar who said the entire incident needed to be placed in context. Ramesar said the officer ought not to be dismissed but given some training in maintaining the public image of the police service.
On Wednesday, acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams during a Carnival post mortem media briefing said that officers are guided by their training and are held in high standard by the public.
Williams also said an investigation has been launched into the wining officer’s conduct
(http://www.guardian.co.tt/sites/default/files/field/image/POLICE%20wine.jpg)
A police sergeant attached to the West End station dances with a partygoer during the annual Sunny Side Up Breakfast Party in Santa Cruz last Sunday. The officer’s conduct is currently under investigation after a video of him wining with another woman surfaced on Facebook.
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Is that nonchalant or what?
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Steups... what a backwards cesspit this country called Trinidad has descended into. What we should be serious about we skylarking with, and what we shouldn't even give two thoughts to his front page news.
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Steups... what a backwards cesspit this country called Trinidad has descended into. What we should be serious about we skylarking with, and what we shouldn't even give two thoughts to his front page news.
We are now officially a drinking and PPing country but hopefully that will change once elections are called.
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‘Disgruntled’ cops plan to stay away next week
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Disgruntled-cops-plan--to-stay-away-next-week-295430961.html (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Disgruntled-cops-plan--to-stay-away-next-week-295430961.html)
By Alexander Bruzual
Monday and Tuesday seems to be shaping up as a day of “rest and reflection” for several men and women of the Police Service (TTPS) as they plan to stay away from work to “think about” the current situation regarding their salary negotiations.
Yesterday afternoon, several police sources called Express to indicate there were “serious rumblings” among the membership of the TTPS to “call in sick” or “declare an emergency” as a means of showing their frustration and unhappiness with the state of negotiations.
On Tuesday morning, the executive members of the TTPS Social and Welfare Association, led by Inspector Anand Ramesar, stormed out of the office of the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO), Stephanie Lewis, as they refused to accept the offer which was laid out for them.
Since then, Ramesar and his team have been meeting with officers of the First and Second Division units of the TTPS throughout the country as they seek instructions on what to do next. The instructions they received were that “under no circumstances” were they to accept the current officer from the CPO.
However, police officers seem to be prepared to take the matter even further as they have informed the association’s executives that if the situation was not addressed soon, they would stay away from work next week.
“Your information is correct. The membership has indicated that there is an intention to engage in some sort of informal behaviour next week.
“Clearly, this is behaviour which the association has not spearheaded or instructed its members to conduct. But rather, the information presented to us seems to suggest that officers may rest and reflect on what is happening regarding their salary negotiations on Monday and Tuesday.
“Simply put, this means that the availability of TTPS will not be what is usually expected,” Ramesar explained.
And if this does come to fruition, this action, the association president noted, would potentially “paralyse operations in this country” and as such, he was hoping sometime over the weekend, the acting Commissioner of Police, the Minister of National Security or even the Prime Minister would intervene.
“This is a situation we would all like to avoid. But the CPO is offering 60 per cent of a 16 per cent market shift, and this is something our membership is unwilling to accept. So our officers are disgruntled and frustrated, and they are showing this clearly.
In a brief interview with the Express yesterday, acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams, up to press time, said he was not aware of any reports of officers intending to stay away from work on Monday and Tuesday and, as a result, he was not prepared to comment on the issue at the time
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Cop offers bribe after alleged sex assault: $1,800 to stay quiet
By Camille Clarke (Guardian)
Two policemen were put on an identification parade last evening in connection with the sexual assault of a woman and bribery. They are accused of sexually assaulting the woman in a squad car while they had her in custody on a matter. The officers—a constable and a member of the Special Reserve United—were also questioned by their colleagues from the Professional Standards Bureau (PSB) after the woman made a report on an incident in which they were allegedly involved.
Both officers are assigned to a station in western Trinidad. On Monday, officers assigned to the station where the accused are assigned said ten members of the PSB entered the building asking for the accused. After being told the officers were not at the station, the PSB members asked for the sergeant on duty. The sergeant reportedly told them one of the suspected officers was present but the other was on mobile patrol.
The senior officer assigned to the PSB then instructed his colleagues to arrest the officer who was at the station and asked that a wireless be sent out for the mobile patrol unit to return to the station immediately. When the unit returned the other officer was taken into custody and the PSB members took both accused away. However, their arrests were not lodged in the station diary. The officers have been detained at the Central and Belmont Police Stations since their arrests.
The T&T Guardian understands that one of the officers is accused of sexually assaulting the woman while she was in custody, while his colleague was held for allegedly offering the victim $1,800 not to report the matter. The victim claims she was with the officers along the North Coast Road, Maracas, after being picked up on a report of possession of marijuana on February 25.
It is alleged that one of the officers took her into the back seat of the police vehicle where he searched her. He then allegedly placed his hands into her underwear and sexually assaulted her. He then allegedly told the victim, “I never see one like this before.” Contacted yesterday, members of the Professional Standards Bureau denied the officers were under arrest although they were still in police custody. The accused officers were placed on parade last evening where they were pointed out by the victim.
Williams not yet briefed
Contacted yesterday on the matter, acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams said he was unaware of the case as he was out of the country. “I haven't heard about the matter. I am sure they would not want to tell me but it could be simply dealt with by other officers,” Williams said. Attempts to contact Police Service Social and Welfare Association president Anand Ramesar were unsuccessful yesterday. Also contacted, the association’s secretary Michael Seales said he had not heard about the matter and did not wish to comment.
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Sex assault victim makes positive ID: Two cops in court today
By Camille Clarke (Guardian).
Two policemen assigned to the Maraval station will appear in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court today charged with nine offences. PCs Adrian Jack, of Curepe, and Omari Gonsales, of Laventille, were charged by members of the Professional Standards Bureau yesterday after the Director of Public Prosecutions gave the instructions to do so.
Jack, a police constable with nine years’ service, and Gonsales, a special reserve police officer with less than a year’s service, were charged with nine criminal offences, including indecent assault and grievous sexual assault, arising out of an incident involving a female suspect which occurred last month. In addition to the assault charges, the accused also face charges of kidnapping, false imprisonment, attempting to pervert the course of justice and corruptly soliciting and receiving $1,800 and $3,000 respectively from the alleged victim.
According to a release from the T&T Police Service yesterday, the charges arise from incidents on February 25 along Saddle Road, Maraval. The T&T Guardian understands that the victim, who was a suspect in a report of possession of marijuana, was initially taken into custody during a road block along Saddle Road, Maraval. The victim was then reportedly put into a police vehicle by two officers and taken to North Coast Road, Maracas.
It is alleged that while on the North Coast Road one of the officers went into the back seat with the suspect and sexually assaulted her. The other officer then allegedly offered her $1,800 to stay quiet. The victim, however, subsequently made a report. The officers were questioned and taken into custody by members of the Professional Standards Bureau on Monday. The two officers were pointed out by the victim during an identification parade at the Central Police Station on Wednesday night.
Colleagues stunned
Colleagues of the two officers yesterday expressed their disappointment and embarrassment over the incident. The T&T Guardian learned that some of their colleagues, friends and relatives even cried after hearing of their arrests. Concern was also raised yesterday over how the officers were allowed to take away the suspect from the road block exercise without permission from their seniors. It is the first time in years that the Maraval station has had any serious accusations of misconduct made against their officers, police said.
In a telephone interview yesterday, president of the Police Service Social and Welfare Association said he was still in shock over the incident. “I find it to be inconsistent with police behaviour. This is almost to difficult to believe,” he said. He noted that cases like those often took too long to be investigated and “the persons making the complaint lose interest and confidence in the process.” He said as the body representing officers, they would ensure their members were given fair treatment.
“We always advise our members if there is an investigation into any misconduct or criminal behaviours. At the end of the day they must be held accountable and must abide by the rule of law,” he said, adding the association will also make itself available to their families and their colleagues.
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COPS IN JAIL
Shocked magistrate increases bail to $.8m on sexual charges, but accused unable to secure bonds
By Rickie Ramdass (Express).
THE two police officers on multiple criminal charges including the kidnapping and sexual assault of a woman will spend this weekend in custody after appearing in the Port of Spain Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
Even though Cpl Adrian Jack and PC Omari Gonzales were granted bail in the sum of $500,000 and $300,000 respectively, the officers, who were last attached to the Western Division, were unable to have their bail bonds secured before the closure of the court.
The officers appeared before Senior Magistrate Gail Gonzales in the Fourth (A) Court around 11 a.m. and were not called upon to enter a plea on any of the indictable charges.
The charges
They face a total of 12 charges.
Jack is accused of indecent and grievous sexual assault against the woman; accepting bribes of $3,000 and $1,800 to forego a possession of marijuana charge against her; attempting to obtain $1,800 to forego the charge; perverting the course of justice; kidnapping and false imprisonment.
Gonzales is charged with kidnapping the woman; corruptly agreeing to accept $3,000 to forego the charge; accepting $1,800 as a reward to forego the charge and false imprisonment.
The offences are alleged to have taken place on February 25, 2015 along Saddle Road, Maraval, during a roadblock exercise.
Bail increased
Both officers were able to obtain bail at the police station on Thursday in the sum of $250,000 by a Justice of the Peace after the charges were laid, but upon their appearance in court, Magistrate Gonzales questioned why police officers with such serious allegations against their names are allowed station bail.
Pointing out the seriousness of the charges, the magistrate said she was “shocked” and “concerned” that the granting of bail was allowed to take place at the police station.
She said the courtroom was the appropriate jurisdiction for bail to be considered.
Soon after making the comments, the magistrate had the courtroom cleared of members of the public and the media to read the charges, given that some were of a sexual nature and the name of the victim is not allowed in the public domain.
Members of the media were later informed by court staff that Magistrate Gonzales had revoked the bail granted to the officers at the police station and granted the fresh bail bonds to be approved by a Clerk of the Peace.
Jack was represented by attorneys Keith Scotland and Chase Pegus, while Patrick Godson-Phillip represented Gonzales during the hearing.
Media photographers camped outside of the courthouse for close to four hours after the appearance in an attempt to capture photos of the officers but this was not attainable.
Court and Process Branch officers ordered members of the media to remove themselves to the far side of the roadway opposite the prisoners’ entrance to the courthouse.
Members of the public also gathered along the roadway to catch a glimpse of the accused officers but as they left the building, the officers hid their faces before being swiftly placed in a heavily-tinted Amalgamated Security Service van by their colleagues before being whisked away to prison.
They will return to court on April 9.
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Online photos expose senior fire officer: Alleged victim fired
By Camille Clarke (Guardian).
A senior fire officer is now at the centre of a sex scandal after photos of him allegedly assaulting a former colleague and exposing himself were distributed by members of the Fire Services via the social media. The photos of the alleged assault show the officer attacking the female victim, who ends up crying with blood coming from her nose and mouth at the end of the assault.
Sources told the T&T Guardian that the victim, who is alleged to have been in a relationship with the officer, was forced to take sick leave after the attack and was fired from her position in the Fire Services soon after the incident, which occurred late last year. The matter was not reported to the police but some of the victims colleagues were so upset over the attack that they reportedly began sharing the photos of the attack online. The other photos which were circulated show the officer lying on a bed exposing his private parts.
Contacted yesterday, the officer in question confirmed the incident occurred last year. However, he claimed it was the woman who entered his Port-of-Spain office and “assaulted him.” Asked if anyone could visit his office and abuse him, he said: “My door always open.” Within moments of the conversation, the official contacted his attorney who then called the T&T Guardian to say it was important to let his client “comment before the photos were published.”
Threatening calls
Also contacted yesterday, the victim, who is now pregnant, said she was living in fear. “I am threatened, I fear for my life and making a report to the police because I am afraid to go to the police with it. “What did I do to deserve this? How long can I do that for?” she asked. She said since the incident and the sharing of the photos online she had been receiving calls from blocked cellphone numbers with the caller threatening her.
“I was on sick leave after I was abused. They (officers) did not want me to take my sick leave. This was after the incident happened, so I couldn’t work. The leave goes straight to him,” she said. The victim said she even left the country because she felt she was not safe here. She claimed to have become involved with the officer after she finished training. Asked if she did not think it inappropriate to be involved in a relationship with a senior officer, she said: “I knew certain things he didn’t want the public to know and he is afraid of letting them know.
“All I wanted was my job back and I was victimised and was physically assaulted. You can’t advantage people and do things to them if you have a reputation to hold.” She alleged that other female members of the Auxiliary Department were also being victimised. “If they don’t do certain things in the auxiliary you won’t get permanent work. So you have to sleep with a man to get somewhere in the service? “They come as a civilian. Do you need to sleep with someone to get rank?”
“I don’t really want to go back and I am a single parent with one (child) on the way. I am independent. I want to reason things out peacefully,” she said.
Association responds
President of the Fire Services Association Leo Ramkissoon called for an investigation into both incidents. “That is very serious and our regulations take this seriously. The law frowns on those who bring the service into disrepute. Those are serious allegations and must be investigated,” Ramkissoon said in a telephone interview. However, he said according to the Public Service Commission regulations officers of a lower rank could not investigate an officer of a higher rank.
“If any investigation is to take place it must come from the permanent secretary at the Ministry of National Security or the Service Commission Department,” he said.
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Pray for TnT yes
POLICE BRUTALITY
Surprise roadblocks cripple T&T
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/POLICE-BRUTALITY-297324431.html (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/POLICE-BRUTALITY-297324431.html)
By Richard Charan
It was described as “total policing” but outraged citizens considered it an act of police brutality.
In a calculated move that brought torture to thousands of citizens yesterday, the police found a way to protest the compensation package being offered by the State by setting up surprise road blocks along all major roads in Trinidad and Tobago.
Just after daybreak, police officers began moving in convoys of buses, motorcycles and squad cars.
They took up positions at strategic points along the highways and secondary roads, stopping vehicles leading to Port of Spain, San Fernando, and Scarborough, Tobago.
The roadblocks were timed to coincide with rush hour, on the first day of the work week, when people were driving or seeking transportation to get to work, school, the airports, hospitals, doctors’ offices, and other places.
With an estimated 170,000 vehicles entering the capital daily from every part of Trinidad, and 180,000 people being moved along the Priority Bus Route along the
East-West Corridor, the police action brought the country to a standstill.
The chaos extended to the air and sea ports, with Caribbean Airlines having to delay departure of international and domestic flights because of the number of passengers trapped in vehicles going nowhere for hours; the ferry from Tobago was delayed and the water taxi service from San Fernando to Port of Spain was over-subscribed.
Countless people simply gave up and returned home with their children as schools closed, and end-of-term examination rescheduled. With taxis and Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) buses unable to move, thousands more people had no way of getting anywhere.
Alarmed stakeholders have pointed out that the police action hurt productivity, came at a huge economic cost, hurt the country’s image internationally, and had damaged the public’s already low confidence in law enforcement.
Vice-president of the Police Service Social and Welfare Association Inspector Roger Alexander, in a TV6 Morning Edition interview, defended the roadblocks, saying that it was in response to Saturday’s shooting of a police officer, meant to rid the country of guns, and was done to show the police were hard workers.
In the same breath, however, he also said it was outrageous that a police constable worked for the same salary as a ministry clerk, and that commuters should prepare for more road blocks and walk with “breakfast, lunch and dinner”.
Association secretary Michael Seales described the work done by his officers yesterday as “total policing”, and not protest action.
However, at the roadblocks, drivers reported that no vehicle searches were done.
They said they were asked for licence and insurance documents by slow-moving police officers who, in some cases, poked around in purses and asked that motorists honk horns, switch on headlights, and check the tyre pressure and oil level on the engine’s dipstick.
The Police Service could not say last evening how many arrests were made or tickets issued during the exercises, and in its daily press release which details the crime-fighting work of the TTPS, no mention was made of the roadblocks.
However, the exercise revealed the vulnerability of the nation’s transportation system, and showed the power of the rank and file of the Police Service, with Transport Minister Stephen Cadiz admitting that nothing could be done about the police blocking roads, which apparently was coordinated and executed without the knowledge of the most senior officers of the Police Service.
Acting Commissioner of Police Ann Marie Alleyne-Daly, at a press conference yesterday afternoon, apologising to the country, saying she would have prevented the police plans had she known.
The gridlock only ended when National Security Minister Carl Alfonso called on Alleyne-Daly to order her officers to stop the roadblocks but the damage was already done.
The directive had the desired result, since an emergency meeting was called to discuss the wage issue and to prevent a rumoured second round of roadblocks last evening.
However, the police lost big in the court of public opinion, with officers condemned for showing no consideration for people who took no chances and began streaming out of Port of Spain early last evening.
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This not ah joke ting. Is rhel pressure.
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Alexander-Prepare-for-more-297323781.html (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Alexander-Prepare-for-more-297323781.html)
Police Insp Roger Alexander advised yesterday that because of how the police needed to treat with the current crime situation, citizens had better “walk with their breakfast, lunch and dinner” when leaving home.
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Well played Police.
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Well played Police.
they lost whatever little credibility they had with dat move................dey lucky nobody "take een" and dead in dat traffic ..........doh tink it was well played at all...........a gross miscalculation on their part.............given the public reaction ,the govt would be foolish to be seen to be "playin ball" as it relates to their demands...monday will not be easily forgotten or forgiven .................and yuh know we famous for short memories
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Well played Police.
they lost whatever little credibility they had with dat move................dey lucky nobody "take een" and dead in dat traffic ..........doh tink it was well played at all...........a gross miscalculation on their part.............given the public reaction ,the govt would be foolish to be seen to be "playin ball" as it relates to their demands...monday will not be easily forgotten or forgiven .................and yuh know we famous for short memories
I think most people with a little common sense supported them and remember they were just doing their job so they technically did nothing wrong.
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Well played Police.
they lost whatever little credibility they had with dat move................dey lucky nobody "take een" and dead in dat traffic ..........doh tink it was well played at all...........a gross miscalculation on their part.............given the public reaction ,the govt would be foolish to be seen to be "playin ball" as it relates to their demands...monday will not be easily forgotten or forgiven .................and yuh know we famous for short memories
I think most people with a little common sense supported them and remember they were just doing their job so they technically did nothing wrong.
dread nobody with any kind of common sense supported dat jackassness, it was a stupid idea born of selfish ignorance and typical TTPS boorishness, any manner of shit coulda happen...........dat was a cruel and unusual waste of time..........all d people dat singin praises knew full well to stay home and guess who they were.........why dey didn' come an' siddung in it to show support from dey family.............ah suppose is common sense to support children gettin car sick and missing exams steups
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Well played Police.
they lost whatever little credibility they had with dat move................dey lucky nobody "take een" and dead in dat traffic ..........doh tink it was well played at all...........a gross miscalculation on their part.............given the public reaction ,the govt would be foolish to be seen to be "playin ball" as it relates to their demands...monday will not be easily forgotten or forgiven .................and yuh know we famous for short memories
I think most people with a little common sense supported them and remember they were just doing their job so they technically did nothing wrong.
dread nobody with any kind of common sense supported dat jackassness, it was a stupid idea born of selfish ignorance and typical TTPS boorishness, any manner of shit coulda happen...........dat was a cruel and unusual waste of time..........all d people dat singin praises knew full well to stay home and guess who they were.........why dey didn' come an' siddung in it to show support from dey family.............ah suppose is common sense to support children gettin car sick and missing exams steups
You just unwittingly admitted that many folks were supporting the action.
The reality is that the police did what they did because they are not allowed to officially strike and that was a last resort to get the government to listen to their request for fairer treatment when it comes to their wage package.
A poll was done on one of the popular T&T radio stations that I happened to tune in to on Monday and even though most of the callers were negatively affected by the police roadblock action most of them (over 90%) understood and supported the police action.
Also in your emotional state you have lost sight of the FACT that the police technically did nothing wrong as they were only doing their jobs and did not go on a strike which they are not allowed to do by law.
I commend them for attempting to make the government sit up and listen by hitting everyone where it hurts as that is the only way you seem to get the current government to take your grievances seriously when they regard you as their working class slaves.
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Sadly trinis block roads to show displeasure. Unable to take industrial action and being treated with scant regard by the cpo and by extension the finance minister they found a way to do nothing that contravened their responsibilities. Innovative thinking... One has to admit that.
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Acting Inspector among detained cops
By Rhondor Dowlat and derek Achong (Guardian)
Twelve police officers have been arrested in connection with the alleged abuse of 22-year-old Ralph Lewis of Sangre Grande. The officers, who were arrested yesterday, will be placed on identification parades today at the Sangre Grande Police Station. When contacted yesterday, Lewis confirmed that he was called in by investigating officers to identify the officers who allegedly abused and burnt him while in custody on February 24.
Lewis, of Boys Town, Coronation Road, Sangre Grande, said he went into the district station after he learnt he was wanted in connection with house breaking and larceny. It was not until the next day, having been forced to stay at the station, that he was badly beaten and burnt. Lewis sustained burns to the genital area and his buttocks after he was doused with hot water, allegedly by a woman police officer while at the police station.
He also claimed that subsequent to the incident he was offered monetary bribes as much as $150,000, to drop all proceedings against the officers. Lewis’s incident was initially highlighted on the Crime Watch programme with host Ian Alleyne, on March 2, one week after the alleged incident took place. Once the identification parades are completed, investigators are expected to approach Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard, SC, for advice on possible charges.
Police sources said one of the officers, an acting Inspector, was detained by detectives of the Professional Standards Bureau at his Sangre Grande home yesterday morning. Before the team of investigators could visit the homes of the others, a corporal and a constable, the men surrendered themselves at the Sangre Grande Police Station—where the incident occurred. Three officers who were present in the interrogation room when the incident of police brutality allegedly occurred, were taken to police stations in Port-of-Spain where they remained detained up to late yesterday.
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12 cops held for questioning
T&T NEWSDAY REPORTERS
FIVE police officers were yesterday arrested in connection with the burning of Ralph Andre Lewis with hot water last month, while nine others surrendered to officers of the Professional Standards Bureau.
According to sources, the exercise to arrest the lawmen began at 4 am. One of the three is an acting Inspector of Police, who was held at his home in Rio Claro.
The 12 are expected to be charged with misbehaviour in public office, attempting to pervert the course of public justice and failing to act in accordance with the Police Service Act.
The arrest of the three and subsequent surrender of the remaining nine were the result of a complaint made by Andrew Lewis, of Boys town, Sangre Grande, who was detained for questioning on February 24, at the Sangre Grande Police Station as a suspect in a house-breaking and larceny matter.
It has been alleged that Lewis refused to cooperate, he was then stripped naked, a bowl of water was heated in the microwave and then thrown on his lower extremities and stomach.
He was taken to hospital where he was treated and warded.
A catheter had to be inserted for him to urinate and doctors have had to do corrective plastic surgery to his lower extremities.
Within 24 hours of the incident, a senior officer reported the matter to his superiors and five officers — an acting inspector, an acting corporal, two police constables and a woman police constable — who were present during the interrogation of Lewis were transferred to other stations in the Eastern Division.
Sources said the officers of the PSB, assisted by officers of the Guard and Emergency Branch, Inter-Agency Task Force and the Criminal Gang and Intelligence Unit, obtained arrest warrants for the police officers and early yesterday morning went to the homes of those allegedly involved.
Five of the 12 were taken to the Port-of-Spain Criminal Investigations Department where they are being detained for questioning. Those who were not arrested and learnt that there were warrants in their names, surrendered themselves to investigators.
The Police Service has a zero tolerance policy on all allegations of police misconduct. Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams could not be reached for a comment.
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Cops lackadaisical
By Jada Loutoo (Newsday).
DEPUTY Commissioner of Prisons Roland Morgan has yet again placed the blame for the late arrival or non arrival of prisoners to court squarely on the shoulders of the police.
He accused the police officers who escort prisoners from the prisons to the courts of being “lackadaisical” in the conduct of their duties.
Morgan gave examples of police officers standing around doing nothing while prisoners were being shackled and of even hiding in the prison bus rather than entering the prison to get the prisoners. Oftentimes, he added, they behaved in a hostile manner.
“(Prisoners) leaving the prison on time depends on the early arrival of the police,” he said.
Morgan was summoned to appear before Justice Malcolm Holdip, who is presiding over the Vindra Naipaul-Coolman murder trial in the Port-of-Spain Second Criminal Court, to explain why prisoners were not taken to court for the trial for three days last week.
While no police officers went to the prison for prisoners on the Monday and Tuesday, on Wednesday only eight of the 12 accused were taken to court. The remaining four, who are incarcerated at the Port-of-Spain Prison on Frederick Street, were not taken to court.
Morgan said yesterday he personally endeavored to have the High Court prisoners leave the Port- of-Spain Prison before those destined for the magistrates’ court, but was told by the police that the court began at 10 am.
This explanation drew the ire of Holdip who said he was in shock by what he heard.
“This despite the Remand Warrant issued by the court says 9 am? We have been coming here for months and prisoners are arriving late. I am in shock to hear that although the Remand Warrant says 9 am, the prison officer says the police told him this court starts at 10 am. Police are saying ‘we run this show tonight. Don’t worry about him. We starting at 10 am’,” the judge remarked.
Morgan has been mandated by the judge to provide documentary evidence as it relates to the transfer of prisoners from the prison to the court and the arrival times of the police escort at the jails, for the last eight weeks and return to court on April 14.
On Friday, Morgan appeared before Justice Maria Wilson who is presiding over a six-accused murder trial in the Port-of-Spain Fifth Criminal Court and attributed blame to the police for the late arrival of prisoners
But while, the deputy prisons chief said it was the fault of the police, Snr Supt (Court and Process) Kenneth Cordner, who appeared before Justice Holdip and Justice Wilson, last week Thursday and Friday respectively, said the late arrival or non-appearance of prisoners weren’t always the fault of the police, but oftentimes inmates were not handed over to them at the prisons.
“Sometimes we have no reason why they aren’t handed over. We cannot force the prison to hand over prisoners,” he said. Cordner said it was an uphill battle to synergise the operations between the Prison Service and the TTPS.
He suggested a change in the current legislation as it relates to the police escort of prisoners to allow for the correctional facility to undertake the task as is done in first world nations.
Earlier this month, police and prison officers stayed away from duty to “rest and reflect” in opposition to stalled negotiations for better remuneration packages, causing a partial shutdown of the courts. Morgan said yesterday it was not industrial action but his officers were utilising their sick days.
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This laughable really.
I saying this in the context of what I heard lead to this: Years ago I think due to the unavailability of vehicles due to VMCOTT, Amalgamated got the contract to transport prisoners. At 90 million a year. That was the total I heard when somebody explained this to me. Problem is with them being a security company..they need police to escort them. So Amalgamated needs to go to the station...get the police....go meet prisoners...and head down to court.
Would this happen if VMCOTT (a government agency for vehicle repair and management) had prisons trucks in proper working order? Would the powers that be allow this to happen knowing that a contract possibly worth in excess of hundreds of millions to lose out on?
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The Courts need their own security force. Not to suggest that the US is some paradigm or operations and efficiency, but the system works well. Typically it's the Marshalls (alternatively, the "Sheriffs" in some jurisdictions) who are responsible for not only courthouse security and courtroom safety, but prisoner transport as well. This would remove the reliance on the TTPS and put more police officers/constables back where they belong, on the streets.
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The Courts need their own security force. Not to suggest that the US is some paradigm or operations and efficiency, but the system works well. Typically it's the Marshalls (alternatively, the "Sheriffs" in some jurisdictions) who are responsible for not only courthouse security and courtroom safety, but prisoner transport as well. This would remove the reliance on the TTPS and put more police officers/constables back where they belong, on the streets.
Right... From what I gather prison officers originally did the transport and escorts. This situation arose because their vehicle fleet wasn't maintained and apparently never replaced since. Ridiculous.
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The Courts need their own security force. Not to suggest that the US is some paradigm or operations and efficiency, but the system works well. Typically it's the Marshalls (alternatively, the "Sheriffs" in some jurisdictions) who are responsible for not only courthouse security and courtroom safety, but prisoner transport as well. This would remove the reliance on the TTPS and put more police officers/constables back where they belong, on the streets.
Right... From what I gather prison officers originally did the transport and escorts. This situation arose because their vehicle fleet wasn't maintained and apparently never replaced since. Ridiculous.
Replace the vehicles?? Why?? And a man could make $90 million a year and grease some government official's hand in the process??......Bourbon, Bourbon....please.....
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12 COPS IN HOT WATER
...charged with burning suspect in police station
By Mark Bassant
CCN Senior Multimedia Investigative Journalist
THE 12 police officers allegedly involved in pouring hot water on a detained suspect at Sangre Grande Police Station in late February, and arrested by officers of the Professional Standards Bureau, last Sunday were charged last night following instructions issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), according to reliable police sources.
The Professional Standards Bureau is charged with the responsibility of investigating allegations of misconduct against officers in the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.
Among the officers charged are an acting inspector, a sergeant, an SRP sergeant, three acting corporals and six constables (including one WPC).
Some of the charges the officers allegedly involved in the incident could face include occasioning actual bodily harm, beating by assault, misbehaviour in public office, and perverting the course of justice.
The story was exclusively reported by CCN TV6 and the Express two days after the incident occurred.
The majority of the police officers charged were held at Sangre Grande Police Station, while others were arrested at their homes in Sangre Grande, Biche and Rio Claro.
One police officer was found hiding in the ceiling of the dormitory at Mayaro Police Station.
The arrests stemmed from an incident involving Andrew Lewis, the victim, from Boystown, Sangre Grande, who gave himself up to police at the Sangre Grande station on February 25 for questioning in a house-breaking and larceny matter.
Present during his interrogation were an acting inspector, an acting corporal, two police constables and a woman constable.
The Express was told Lewis refused to budge when questioned about the alleged crime involving the theft of a weed whacker.
Certain police officers then allegedly stripped Lewis naked, heated a bowl of water in the microwave oven and then threw the boiling water on his lower extremities and stomach.
Sources say Lewis’s injury may have been aggravated by something he had on his body—a small piece of metal inserted in the foreskin of his penis known as a domino, a sex enhancement device.
The metal melted with the heat, causing further injury.
Following that, the five officers who were allegedly involved in the actual incident were transferred out of the station to remote police stations in Toco, Manzanilla and Mayaro.
However, senior police sources reliably informed the Express the Professional Standards Bureau threw a wider net during their investigations, and discovered that immediately after the incident several other officers who had knowledge of it refused to report the matter.
Sources say this included an acting corporal who spoke with Lewis in the holding cell mere minutes after the incident occurred, but he refused to report the matter, even as Lewis implored his intervention.
The police officers are expected to appear before a Sangre Grande magistrate on Tuesday.
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Wow, a domino effect. Actually this kind of behavior is nothing new.
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Why protect ‘wicked’ police?
By Alexander Bruzual (Express).
It was a chaotic scene outside the Sangre Grande Magistrates’ Court yesterday morning as dozens of persons gathered on the roadway in front of the courthouse to catch a glimpse of the 12 police officers who are charged with their alleged involvement in burning a prisoner with hot water in late February.
Screams of “Don’t hide them!”, “Let them walk out!”, “Why are you protecting them wicked officers so?” echoed throughout the scene yesterday, even while officers of the Eastern Division Task Force, under the supervision of Senior Supt Sacenarine Mahabir, lined the entrance to the First Court where the 12 officers were expected to appear.
Woman SRP Giselle Skeete, acting Insp Kenneth Rampersad, acting Cpl Allan Khan, PC Anil Mootoo, PC Keron Nanan, PC Joel Boodoosingh, SRP Ryan Williams, PC Ashki Charles, PC Marvin Mendosa, SRP sergeant Glen Elder, acting Cpl Ravi Doon, and Cpl Nicholas Vialva, all appeared before Magistrate Alexander Prince at the Sangre Grande First Court.
Skeete, Rampersad, Khan, Mootoo, Nanan, Boodoosingh, Williams, Charles, and Mendosa, were charged with misbehaviour in public office.
Elder and Doon were charged with perverting the course of public justice.
Charges against these 11 were laid indictably and they were not called upon to enter a plea.
Vialva, however, was charged summarily for failing to act after receiving information.
He pleaded not guilty to this charge.
The arrests of the police officers on March 29, stemmed from an incident involving Andrew Lewis from Boystown, Sangre Grande, who gave himself up to police at the Sangre Grande Police Station on February 25 for questioning in a house-breaking and larceny matter.
The Express was told Lewis refused to budge when questioned about the alleged theft of a weed whacker and it was alleged the accused police officers then stripped Lewis, heated a bowl of water in a microwave oven and threw the boiling water on his lower extremities and stomach, burning him in the process.
The State was represented yesterday by attorney Richard Taylor.
Taylor will be representing the interests of the State until a prosecutor can be appointed to oversee the matter.
Attorneys Shade Lee Duprey, Patrick Godson Phillips, and Shivan Jadoo represented the interests of the accused.
The attorneys all successfully made applications for their clients to be granted reasonable bail but Magistrate Prince did so under the conditions that none of the accused persons go near the virtual complainant (Andre Lewis), staying at least 100 metres away from him at all times and even his home. Other conditions were also implemented.
Sgt Vialva was granted bail at $20,000, due to the nature of the allegation laid against him.
The other 11 accused were all granted bail at $250,000 each.
Representatives for all the accused, said to be relatives, all stood behind them when they were called to be granted bail. They were previously out on station bail.
The matters were adjourned to May 5.
By this time, a large crowd had gathered outside of the Magistrates’ Court hopeful to see the officers as they exited the building.
Several of these persons levied claims of police brutality against officers who were stationed at the Sangre Grande station and the officers who were before the court, and they loudly professed that they hoped that the police would “get their just due”.
As a result of the large crowd on the roadway, which had begun to affect the free flow of traffic on the street in front of the court house, a decision was made by senior officers in the Eastern Division to utilise two heavily tinted police vehicles to transport the accused officers from the court house.
This came under heavy protests from citizens gathered outside the courthouse who declared that they too should be granted similar rights to “hide from the public” if they were ever brought before the courts.
“Why they getting any special treatment? Shame! When they claim somebody do something wrong they want to put those persons faces all over the news and papers, yet when it’s one of their own they trying to hide them? Na man! How is that fair?” asked one of the persons gathered outside the building.
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$2.5M BAIL FOR 12 COPS
By DARCEL CHOY
Wednesday, April 8 2015
TWELVE police officers were yesterday granted a total of $2,520,000 bail by a Sangre Grande magistrate before whom they appeared to answer charges arising out of an alleged incident in which a man was burnt with hot water while in police custody.
The 12 officers made their way into the courthouse under the protection of an unusually large number of their colleagues — some armed with machineguns — while a large, angry crowd of onlookers looked on. Many in the crowd demanded that the accused officers be made to walk out of the court in handcuffs like normal accused persons.
“Let them walk out!” was the chant which was picked up by some in the crowd who gathered outside the courthouse waiting to get a glimpse of the 12 accused officers who were charged in connection with the alleged burning of then prisoner, Andre Lewis, with hot water at the Sangre Grande Police station in late February.
Those who gathered outside the court expressed their anger over what they believed to be special treatment for the 12 accused officers as opposed to the usual treatment when handling civilians charged with crimes.
When the officers were leaving the court, two heavily tinted vehicles drove to the back of the courthouse to collect the accused 12 — an act not normally accorded to civilians who face the courts on criminal charges.
Some persons who were waiting under a tent outside the courthouse for their matters to be called or for court matters of their loved ones to be called, shouted, “shame!” as heavily armed officers surrounded the vans as they drove out.
One man noted that when he was arrested and charged, he was not allowed to be taken out of the court in a heavily tinted vehicle. “That not fair at all, why should they get special treatment? Because they are officers,” the man asked. Earlier in the courtroom, an unusual amount of officers gathered, looking on at the proceedings. The 12 officers appeared before Magistrate Alexander Prince in the Second Court in two groups to answer charges. Nine of the 12 officers appeared first and included SRP Constable Giselle Skeete, Ag Insp Kenneth Rampersad, Ag Cpl Allan Khan, PC Anil Mootoo, PC Keron Nanan, PC Joel Boodoosingh, PC Ryan Williams, PC Ashki Charles and PC Marvin Mendoza. Prince read out the charge to each of the officers individually. Prince then called a family member of each officer who stood their bail to come forward. The nine officers were granted $250,000 bail each with special conditions.
These conditions included that they (the accused officer) shall not communicate directly with the virtual complainant (Andre Lewis) and they shall not go within100 metres of the virtual complainant or his home. Lewis was not present in court.
Appearing later were Sgt Glen Elder, PC Ravi Doon and Sgt Nicholas Vialva. Elder and Doon were charged with perverting the course of justice, also on February 24. These two were each granted $250,000 bail with the same conditions given to the first batch of nine accused officers.
Vialva was charged with failing to act pursuant to a report of a serious crime being committed on the said date. This was a summary offence and when asked to plead, Vialva said he was not guilty. He was granted $20,000 bail with a surety.
The charges facing the 12 officers stemmed from an alleged incident in which Lewis of Coronation Road, Upper Sangre Grande, was detained under suspicion of being involved in criminal activities. He was detained on February 24 at the Sangre Grande Police Station.
It is was further alleged that Lewis refused to cooperate and was stripped naked with a bowl of water which was heated in a microwave oven being thrown on his stomach and groin. Lewis subsequently made a report at the same station where he was beaten and burned while in custody. He was taken to the Sangre Grande District Hospital where he was treated for first and second degree burns. The 12 accused officers were represented by attorneys Patrick Godson-Phillip, Keith Jadoo and Sade Lee Duprey. The officers’ matters were adjourned to May 5. It has been reported that the virtual complainant is in protective custody.
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Murder accused complains about police treatment
T&T Guardian
Exactly one week after 62-year-old La Horquetta resident Stephen Vialva was beaten to death in a scuffle outside his home, his roommate appeared in court yesterday charged with murder.
Michael Jones, 58, was not called upon to plead to the charge when he appeared before Senior Magistrate Indrani Cedeno in the Arima First Court.
Jones is accused of murdering Vialva in front of Vialva’s sister’s home at Aldwyn Roberts Crescent, La Horquetta, Arima, where he and Vialva shared a room. The two men, one armed with a knife and the other a hammer, were reportedly arguing over a woman. Before Jones was remanded into custody and the case adjourned, his lawyer Fareed Ali raised several issues which arose while his client was in police custody over the past week.
Ali claimed police refused to give Jones the medication he was prescribed for serious head injuries he sustained in the altercation. Ali also claimed investigators convinced Jones to give a statement before they contacted him (Ali) on Jones’ behalf. He also said he (Ali) was not allowed to have private meetings with his client throughout his stay at the La Horquetta Police Station.
Cedeno chastised the police for failing to assist Jones in obtaining proper medical attention for his wounds and for denying Ali private access to his client. She also ordered that Jones be medically examined as soon as he was admitted to the Remand Yard facility at the Golden Grove Prison, Arouca. Jones will reappear in court on May 12.
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Misbehaviour in public office, mistreatment of prisoner in police custody
By Alexander Bruzual (Express)
FOUR COPS CHARGED
Four police officers are expected to appear before a Tunapuna magistrate today to face charges of misbehaviour in public office and for mistreatment of a prisoner while in police custody.
This development comes less than two weeks following the appearance of 12 police officers before a Sangre Grande magistrate on similar charges.
This incident, however, is said to have taken place on August 30, 2014, at the St Joseph Police Station and involved the alleged maltreatment of a male suspect while in custody of the police.
According to police sources, in this incident officers of the St Joseph Police had received a report of a stolen vehicle and a party of officers had been dispatched to conduct enquiries.
The officers had cause to intercept a white Nissan Tiida motor vehicle and had detained a young suspect who was in the car.
The suspect was taken to the St Joseph Police Station, where he was questioned and allegedly beaten by several officers.
A report of this incident was subsequently made and investigations were launched by the Professional Standards Bureau (PSB) under acting Assistant Commissioner of Police Harrikrishen Baldeo and supervised by acting Superintendent Gregory Renwick.
As a result of these investigations, the four police constables, identified as Dave Ramkissoon, 37, Sean Hutchinson, 29, Gary John, 26, and Aquilan Baptiste, 26, all of the St Joseph Police Station, were yesterday morning slapped with two charges of misbehaviour in public office and mistreatment of a prisoner.
The charges were laid by Insp Eric Parks of the Tunapuna Police Station after consultation with the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Ramesar: Disheartening
Speaking to the Express yesterday, president of the T&T Police Service Social and Welfare Association Insp Anand Ramesar said these arrests were disheartening for him and his membership.
“Me personally and the membership, from communications the executive has received, are hurting over this incident and over what has happened. Hurting not in the context that we are against these officers being charged. Far from it.
“We are hurting over the fact that these men and women have decided to commit such acts that are simply betraying the values and principles for policing that we are sworn to uphold.
“At the same time, though, we are glad that the process is in place to filter out any officers who experience shortcomings in their roles as policemen and women, and we are pleased that the said processes are bearing results,” Ramesar said.
The association president also said with these arrests, he hoped the management of the TTPS would “take note” and put things in place for “quality policing” in this country.
“It can’t be business as usual in the TTPS for the management. Because what we are seeing is the management taking the gamble of taking police constables straight out of the training academy and, within six months to a year of service, are putting them in units which need officers who have actually demonstrated value for policing.
“And then we have issues which the association has deemed as failures of the assessment process. Because at the end of the day, it a process which is only being done four times a year, which we think is unacceptable. It should be more frequent. This is especially the case where, at the end of the day, we have a situation where in less than two weeks, we have 16 officers before the courts following allegations of misbehaviour,” Ramesar said.
The State was represented yesterday by attorney Richard Taylor.
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Don’t give up on TT cops
T&T Newsday
Monday, May 4 2015
Governments in Trinidad and Tobago, within the past 15 years or so, have not had the will power to address the crime situation, prominent Presbyterian minister Reverend Daniel Teelucksingh said last Saturday.
Officiating at a one-year memorial service to commemorate the life of slain Senior Counsel Dana Seetahal at the Aramalaya Presbyterian Church, Tunapuna, Teelucksingh said the failure of governments to comprehensively address crime was one of his “great disappointments.”
“No government in power has really had the will power to deal with the question of crime and government means the whole Parliament,” he said.
“I am not only talking about the administration in power (People’s Partnership). I am talking about all of them coming together, looking at the laws that are weak, trying to clear up all the loopholes in the law. “We have not done it and they spend so much time quarrelling with one another and our people are suffering by the thousands.”
Teelucksingh, a former independent senator and close family friend of the Seetahals, said there were answers to the problem of crime.
“We have brilliant minds and many of them are here,” he said alluding to the slew of attorneys, judges and magistrates present at the service to honour Seetahal’s legacy.
Seetahal, 59, was gunned down on Hamilton Holder Street, Woodbrook during the early hours of May 4 , 2014, while en route to her One Woodbrook Place apartment. Her killer remains at large.
Teelucksingh said the time had come for the Government and Opposition to unite in the fight against crime.
“I dare say this because I belong to this society. It is too very sad for us as a people to know that the people in the Parliament are divided over finding a solution to help us solve the crime situation,” he said.
“They have never gotten together. Not the Government and not the Opposition. This is one of the reasons why the solution to solving the crime problem has slipped away from us. Never will they get together because one will say ‘if I support this I will make you look good’ and they forget all the killings.”
Acknowledging the anxieties and frustration of the Seetahal family and the public in seeking closure to the murder, Teelucksingh warned that persons must never lose faith in the Police Service and the Judiciary.
“There must be no loss of confidence otherwise we will be in serious trouble,” he said.
“We must never downgrade our justice system. If other people want to do that, its is their right but we must rally around our Judiciary and Police Service.”
President Anthony Carmona headed a list of dignitaries at Saturday’s memorial service. Among the attendees were Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard, retired Justice Amrika Tewarie-Reddy, Police Complaints Authority Chairman David West and his predecessor Gillain Lucky.
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2 policemen held for DUI bribery
By Nalinee Seelal (Newsday).
Wednesday, May 27 2015
TWO male constables assigned to the Central Division were detained at their workplace on Monday by officers of the Professional Standards Bureau and taken to the Port-of-Spain CID where they remained detained up until late yesterday.
The officers who are both in their twenties were expected to be placed on identification parades last evening. It is alleged that the two were on duty at St Helena Junction on May 2, when they stopped the driver of a car and ordered that he undergo a breathalyser test. The driver of the vehicle reportedly failed the test and claimed he was asked to hand over $600 to the two officers to forego prosecution.
The man also alleged that he was taken to a police station in the Central Division where he was again asked to undergo another breathalyser and again made to pay another $600. In his statement to the officers of the Standards Bureau he also alleged that he was taken by the two officers to an ATM in the Central Division and forced to withdraw $800.
That money he claimed was given to the two officers. The man was then allowed to go free but alerted the E999 officers who took his report and the matter was referred to head of the Central Division, Snr Superintendent Johnny Abraham.
Snr Supt Abraham advised that the matter be referred to the Professional Standards Bureau and an investigation was launched. Newsday understands that the station diary where the two officers worked were seized and CCTV footage obtained from the ATM where the alleged incident occurred.
On Monday senior officers gave instructions for the two officers to be detained. The two constables have vehemently denied all allegations levelled against them and have given statements claiming that the driver made false accusations.
Sources at the Professional Standards Bureau told Newsday that following the ID parades the matter will be referred to the Office of the DPP for directions in the matter. The two detained constables were visited by their respective attorneys yesterday and they were allowed to meet with their relatives.
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Acting CoP suspends Seales, orders probe: I acted with a clean heart
By Geisha Kowlessar (Guardian).
Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams yesterday suspended secretary of the Police Service Social and Welfare Association Insp Michael Seales for apparently talking out of turn and bringing the service into disrepute but he says he did so with a clean heart.
Williams suspended Seales from duty one day after he said on a television talk show that Government was attempting to provoke the police so that a state of emergency could be declared in order to delay the September 7 general election.
A full-scale probe has also been ordered into the comments made by Seales and Assistant Commissioner of Police Deodath Dulalchan has been appointed to conduct the investigation.
In a brief interview yesterday, Williams said he ordered the suspension after a lot of careful consideration.
In defending his decision, Williams said: “I stay on the side of being conservative. I am not a radical.”
A release from the Police Service yesterday said Seales’ suspension arose as a result of an allegation of serious misconduct.
Seales had also claimed the Government was using the current wage negotiations with the Police Service to frustrate officers and to force them to react so there would be a reason to call a state of emergency.
“The fact is that the intelligence coming to us at the association is that there is a concerted effort to bring a situation about that they provoke the membership of the Police Service so that the membership will react outwardly,” Seales had said.
But urging officers not to be “duped” by the ploy, he added: “And so let me say publicly and appeal to the membership: Please do not be duped into doing anything foolish because the reason why we are saying that is because we are hearing that there is a position to provoke the police so they can call a state of emergency to delay the election.”
He had made the statements while he and the association’s president, Insp Anand Ramesar, were guests on TV6’s Morning Edition with host Fazeer Mohammed.
On Wednesday, the association suddenly cancelled a press conference which it had called earlier in the day to deal with salary negotiations with the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) for the period 2011 to 2013. The media was given no explanation for the sudden cancellation.
Pressed then for a comment, Seales only said that “circumstances changed suddenly.”
The sudden cancellation comes just two days after CPO Stephanie Lewis had cancelled her weekly Tuesday morning meeting with the association, saying she had nothing new to offer them beyond her 14 per cent proposed wage increase.
Calls to Seales’ phone went unanswered yesterday.
Griffith shows support
Interim Political Leader of the Alliance of Independents (AOI) Gary Griffith has thrown his full support behind acting Commissioner Stephen Williams, commending him on his decision to suspend Seales for what the AOI described as an irresponsible and reckless statement.
Griffith said Seales’ statement was a continuation of a series of “imprudent acts and public statements” made by a few representatives of the Police Social and Welfare Association which had done little to foster and develop a stronger bond between the public and members of the Police Service.
“These statements come on the heels of the 'Day of Total Policing,' which caused undue hardship to thousands of citizens and a virtual shutdown of the main arteries of the capital,” Griffith said.
“Whilst we recognise and understand the role of the Police Social and Welfare Association, we must be aware that a firm and decisive line must be drawn between what is considered responsible and irresponsible behaviour.”
He added that responsible behaviour was even more important by those who were charged with upholding the law.
“Further, the constant public interrogation of the Commissioner of Police only adds to the perception of an undermining of his authority and adds to the already challenging issues of public confidence,” Griffith said.
One of the roles of the Police Service, he added, was to ensure a sense of calm and stability among the population.
But Griffith said a representative of the association suggesting he has intelligence a state of emergency could be pending as an attempt to stall a constitutional general election had done just the opposite of the role of maintaining order.
“And hence this statement must be condemned at the highest level and the person who made such a dangerous allegation, which equates to a sitting Government attempting to affect our democracy, must immediately submit any shred of evidence to justify this allegation,” Griffith added.
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Senior cop: A cancer that has spread
T&T Newsday
A senior police officer who spoke to Sunday Newsday on condition of anonymity said the situation in the entire Enterprise area was allowed to get out of control because police failed to eradicate the scourge of drugs and guns in the troubled community years ago.
He said, “This didn’t start today, you know and right now we are frustrated as it is totally out of hand. Many of them (police officers) have retired and gone home and today this is what we are up against.”
Describing the situation as “a monster created years ago in Central”, the police officer said criminals in the area were allowed to buy and sell drugs in Bhagaloo Street and the guns were to enter Enterprise without being touched.
“Right now is like Bhagdad in Crown Trace and Bhagaloo Street. Walking through those areas you will find endless bullet casings on the street which tells you how much shooting goes on in there.”
Sunday Newsday was told that the reason the war has started all over again was because one man who for years had been a soldier of the main drug lord in the area, decided to branch out on his own. “This man (name called) had been running a drug block for years and one of his main men (name called) decided to go and open his own block and therein lies the problem. Right now, they want to shut down that block and the man is fighting for his own safety.”
Continued the police source:
“‘N’ fighting his own war — is a case of who block making more. What the gangs do is come out and fire several shots and call police on each other.”
Muslims and Rastas carry around more firepower than police officers, the senior officer also told Sunday Newsday.
“They have AR 15, UZIs, Galils, walkie talkies — they have their own command centres set up and they are able to be ahead of us all the time. They have a well co-ordinated unit.”
On several occasions, officers said when they respond to calls they often meet roads blocked with debris.
“In Connection Drive in Bhagaloo, that is a narrow road, imagine going in there and meeting the road block with old fridge, barrels car parts strewn all in the road so police cannot pass.
Officers going into the hot spot is almost like going on a suicide mission,” the officer said. He said too, that whenever they go in these troubled areas, they are often referred to as “outside police.”
“And they call us that because they have been left alone for too long, it never used to be that way before. I would say it is a cancer that has spread. It is known that some officers in this division are close with the Muslims and Rastas. What we need in Central is the help from officers from other divisions in a covert operation to crack down on the area. If not, things will only get worse,” he declared.
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Cops cost TT million$
By AZARD ALI (Newsday).
THE ACTIONS of police, first in the arrest of several alleged gang leaders during the State of Emergency (SoE) back in 2011 and the tasering of prisoners while in custody at a police station have cost the State over $1 million following two successful lawsuits brought by persons against the officers.
In one case, the State lost its first lawsuit for wrongful imprisonment of alleged gang leaders during the 2011 SoE and has been ordered to pay one man deemed by the authorities as being a gang leader the sum of $400,000.
Over 600 alleged gang leaders and gang members were arrested during the limited SoE in August 2011 in parts of the country considered crime hot spots. Justice Joan Charles handed down a historic ruling yesterday in which she held that in the case of alleged gang leader Kevin Stuart, police had fabricated evidence against him.
Commenting on the ruling, attorney Kevin Ratiram who argued the malicious prosecution case, declared the judgment as a victory for the rule of law. Newsday was told that with Stuart’s victory, a floodgate of litigation by more than 600 persons arrested during the SoE could take place, leaving the State vulnerable to paying out tens of millions of taxpayers’ dollars.
Charles ruled that Stuart’s constitutional rights were breached as he was arrested merely on suspicion of being involved in gang-related activity and by virtue of the fact that he had a previous conviction for marijuana possession.
The Anti-Gang legislation was enacted in 2011, to deal with criminal gang activity. In August of that year, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar declared a State of Emergency, when intelligence gathered by the Special Branch, revealed a plot to assassinate her.
After the men spent entire month in jail, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard went to the Port-of-Spain and San Fernando Magistrates’ courts to tell magistrates that the State could offer no evidence against the men and they should be released.
Stuart was arrested on August 27, 2011, and released on September 29, under Section 5.1 (a) of the Anti Gang Act. He spent 34 days in jail without bail on the charge of being a member of a gang.
Charles awarded Stuart special damages of $1,800, with interest at the rate of three percent. The State is to pay Stuart $300,000 in general and aggravated damages, plus exemplary damages of $50,000. The judge ordered that the State also pay cost.
Ratiram said the judge’s award was a lesson that even during a State of Emergency, the police cannot act as a law unto itself.
3 men tasered by police
In an unrelated case, a High Court judge described as horrific, the tasering of three accused men while they were in custody at the Chaguanas Police Station. The court heard in a lawsuit that the three were placed in barrels of water and shocked with taser guns.
This amounted to torture, stated Justice Andre Des Vignes, who awarded the men over $700,000 which the State must pay. Judgment was handed down yesterday in an 81-page ruling, in which the judge detailed how on March 11, at 8 pm, brothers Ricardo Youk-See, Randy and Kairon Baptiste, drove into SuperPharm at Price Plaza in a Nissan Sentra car.
Police officers dressed in task force uniform, were at the time conducting surveillance in Price Plaza, for car thieves. Youk-See, Randy and Baptiste were arrested and taken to the CID section of the station on suspicion that they were car thieves. Upon checks being made it was discovered that two of them had pending charges. The three men alleged in their lawsuit that the police grabbed them with one shouting, “allyuh is gunman and car thief...we go deal with allyuh. We will show allyuh how Central police does do it.” They were handcuffed and dragged into a room at the side of the station.
They claimed in their lawsuit that they were kicked and slapped by eight policemen, who forced them to sit in barrels of water. They claimed, “One of the police officers came into the room with a taser gun which he referred to as “mammy”. The first and second claimants (Youk-See and Randy), were thrown in a barrel of water and electrocuted several times with the taser gun. Baptiste was held down by other officers who struck him in the belly, back, hands, groin and genitals with a golf club. He was also shocked with a taser gun.
One of the officers then brought out another taser gun which he referred to as ‘daddy’, and said, “feel big daddy now because mammy ain’t doing nothing.”. They were kept in a cell from 2.30 am on March 12, until March 14, when they were released without being charged.
The State defended the lawsuit in a trial before DesVignes, in which police officers gave evidence and the three accused men also testified. Attorney Kent Samlal and Abdel Mohammed argued the case for the men.
In his ruling, Des Vignes stated that the conduct of the police officers at the station was arbitrary, oppressive and unconstitutional. The judge stated, “The claimants were subjected to horrific treatment by the police while in custody at the station, which included threats to kill them; severe beatings by the police officers and shock to their wet bodies with an electric taser, which, in my opinion, amounted to torture.” The judge awarded a total of $763,914.25 to all three men.
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Ramesar happy cops getting new guns...
By Rhondor Dowlat (Guardian)
Long overdue
The T&T Police Service (TTPS) has signed a multi-million dollar deal with a firm to equip all police officers with some of the latest and hi-tech guns to even the playing field against the criminal element.
Two of the main guns to be purchased include the SIG PRO and the SIG Sauer P226 Pistol. The latter—SIG Sauer P226 Pistol—will be assigned to every “ordinary” police officer in the TTPS, while the SIG PRO will be assigned to officers in the Special Branch Unit, the T&T Guardian has been told.
According to a source who wished not to be identified, the new guns will replace the present ones being used in the service, which include the Smith and Wesson and M&P 9mm, which is similar to the Glock pistol.
The source added that Special Branch had already been issued with the new SIG PRO firearms.
“That particular weapon is used by counter-terrorism specialist firearms officers, hence the reason it was assigned to the Special Branch Unit,” the source said.
Contacted for comment on the matter yesterday, Social and Welfare Association president Anand Ramesar said the acquisition of new guns for officers was long overdue.
“The association has been clamoring for this change long time now and I am giving my total endorsement and support to the Commissioner of Police on this move,” Ramesar said.
Ramesar said he was part of a team that attended a demonstration and exhibition on the use of the guns last month.
“I believe it was from there everything may have happened. The firearms we have now are very much outdated and what you find is that when it goes defective it has to remain defective because the parts of the firearms are not accessible,” he added.
Ramesar said some of the guns being used by the TTPS date as far back as the early 1970s.
“These new firearms appear to be superior to what we have now but in the long term the cost of it will be worth it,” he said.
Asked if there were any concerns about the disposal of the firearms which will be replaced, Ramesar replied: “There are no concerns because we believe that there are sufficient mechanisms in place to discard our firearms.”
Asked if there were concerns that the “old” firearms would end up on the streets and in the hands of gang members, he replied: “We are not concerned of this either because we never had a problem with our firearms ending up in the wrong hands out there. They all will be destroyed properly.”
Contacted yesterday, acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams laughed as he said: “I cannot comment on such information for the public out there.”
However, Minister of National Security Carl Alfonso said purchasing the new guns was deemed necessary to enhance the service.
“It is all for obvious reasons... new assets, whether it be arms and vehicles, it is all in the effort to enhance the TTPS,” Alfonso said.
He pledged his continued support to the TTPS and promised if given a second term in office he would ensure his ministry gave whatever was needed to the TTPS.
“Whatever they think they need or want to improve the service they will have my full support,” he said.'
(http://www.guardian.co.tt/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/SIG%20PRO%20516.jpg?itok=685Pnnu9)
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cool now are all going to be fired and their ballistics records, so that police weapons can be identified should they end up in the hands of criminals for some reason. other than that the move to standardize police equipment across the service is a good step forward
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VIDEO Report; https://www.facebook.com/cnewslive/videos/10153574323465610/ (https://www.facebook.com/cnewslive/videos/10153574323465610/)
The police service says it's doing all it can to build a stronger, intimate and caring relationship with the residents of Beetham Gardens, Laventille. The Inter Agency Task Force Hearts and Hands Community Outreach is part of this effort.
Ian Wason tells us about the officers visit to Beetham on Friday evening.
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(https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpt1/v/t1.0-9/12006232_1196897943658757_204367815282846821_n.jpg?oh=6a8609230d47052c155301166fad896a&oe=5694F3BD)
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He definitely doesn't care for the top cop job and it shows in his performance.
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VIDEO Report; http://www.tv6tnt.com/sevenpm-news/-POLICE-BUDGET-WISHLIST-2808-330352541.html (http://www.tv6tnt.com/sevenpm-news/-POLICE-BUDGET-WISHLIST-2808-330352541.html)
National Security is under heavy scrutiny with the rise in crime and with the budget only a few days away many are anxiously waiting to see how funds will be allocated including the Police Social and Welfare Association. The Association's President Inspector Anand Ramesar is hoping that along with the new government and a new spending plan a new way of managing the TTPS will be implemented.
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VIDEO Report; https://www.facebook.com/CNC3Television/videos/10153695172117996/ (https://www.facebook.com/CNC3Television/videos/10153695172117996/)
POLICE OFFICER MONTGOMERY GUY LAID TO REST
49-year-old Montgomery Guy a police officer with 13 years' service was given a military send off today. Guy was shot and killed last week Sunday in St James while plying his taxi.
As Jannelle Bernard tells us, Guy was remembered today as a man of honour by his family and colleagues.
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VIDEO Report; https://www.facebook.com/cnewslive/videos/10153674535195610/ (https://www.facebook.com/cnewslive/videos/10153674535195610/)
For yet another time, prison officers have threatened to withhold their service if they do not get meaningful protection. This latest call by the Prison Officers Association follows the assassination of Superintendent of Prisons, David Millet, who was gunned down near his home in Morvant on Monda
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I have a song fuh allyuh
https://www.youtube.com/v/a4CZSullLvM
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WATCH REPORT; https://www.facebook.com/cnewslive/videos/10153743735525610/
A police officer attached to the St Joseph Police was killed along with another man on the Aranguez Main this morning. According to reports gunshots were heard in the area around 5:30 am and the bodies of the men were found in a car near Halaal Kitchen sometime after. Police are still conducting enquires we will have more details soon
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North Eastern Division seizes 112 guns for year
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20151231/news/north-eastern-division-seizes-112-guns-for-year
With the recovery of a hand-held firearm in Morvant on Wednesday night, the North Eastern Division has recovered 112 weapons for 2015.
This number is just two short of the 114 firearms recovered by police officers of the Northern Division.
However, while the North Eastern Division may not have attained the “top spot”, its outgoing divisional commander, Senior Supt Radcliffe Boxill, wished to thank all the men and women who worked under his command for the past year.
“With last night's exercise, we've recovered 112 firearms. This is a high number, especially when you bear in mind that this division is one of the smaller divisions in the country. So to reach this number, it shows an exceptional piece of work by the men and women in this division, and I would really like to thank them.
“They gave me a lot of support, took instructions, showed initiative when they could and were just generally outstanding officers and did their best to try and keep crime down in the jurisdiction.
“I would also like to give special thanks to all the Special Reserve Police officers who are stationed in the division, as we would not have been able to do all the things we did this year without their assistance.
“When we experienced crime spikes and things looked like they could leave the service, they really held it down and aided with the 24/7 hotspot patrols. Their efforts went a long way this year in suppressing crime, so they must be recognised,” Boxill said.
As of Monday, Boxill will be heading the Port of Spain Criminal Investigations Department.
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COPS IN JAIL
By JADA LOUTOO (Express).
SI X police officers of the North Eastern Division Task Force are today in jail after bail was refused by the Chief Magistrate before whom they all appeared yesterday on a total of 46 misbehaviour charges of threatening to charge several persons with criminal offences, holding them against their will and robbing at least two of the victims of almost $.3 million in cash and jewelry.
As the officers made their way into court and later out of the courthouse, when the case was heard and adjourned, each had their faces and identity shielded by large towels or jerseys. They were all handcuffed.
The six policemen who were charged late Wednesday evening by WPC Greer Britton-Lawrence and PC Marcano of the TT Police Service’s Professional Standards Bureau — appeared before Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates’ Court, just before midday.
Ayers-Caesar had to stand down the matter on the first occasion as the two officers who charged their colleagues were not present in court.
Even when she proceeded with reading out the charges against the six, the two complainants still did not put in an appearance to the ire of the chief magistrate, who described it as a disrespect to the court to lay charges and not attend court. The six officers — Dion Ottley of Bon Air Gardens, Arouca; Steve Williams of Heights of Guanapo; Brandon Thompson of Seeyjagat Trace, Tumpuna Road, Arima; Ryan Grandison, of Tunip Lane, La Horquetta; Ronald Samuel, of Duncan Trace, San Juan and Kevon Patrick of By-Pass Road, Arima — were not immediately granted bail and are to return to court next Monday when the chief magistrate will rule on whether she will accede to the application of the defence, or will have them remanded for the 120 days before they can be granted bail, in accordance with the Bail (Amendment) Act of 2015.
The six policemen were supported by family members as well as members of their unit; most of whom were in their NEDTF uniforms. The granting of bail was strongly objected to by police prosecutor Insp Winston Dillon who said his opposition was supported by the Bail (Amendment) Act of 2015. He reminded the chief magistrate that the officers were armed with firearms when they committed the alleged acts.
The officers showed no emotion when the chief magistrate indicated that she will rule on their bail applications on Monday, which meant they would be remanded to the prison until that time. Their attorney Robert Vince Charles asked that the arrangements usually implemented for the remand of serving police officers be ensured, since his clients had “locked up many of the criminals” currently on remand in prison.
Earlier, Charles reminded Ayers-Caesar that his clients were before her on the presumption of innocence, and urged that she not fall for the “mischief ” created by the Bail (Amendment) Act of 2015, and punish the officers who were only carrying out their duties as serving members of the TT Police Service.
He said they were not on a criminal frolic, but on legitimate police business “armed” with the “tools of their trade.”
‘WE OWE THESE MEN’
“These are men of good character...
In fact we owe them a debt of gratitude for putting away many criminals,” Charles said, as he asked the chief magistrate to acknowledge that the 120 day no bail provision of the Bail (Amendment) Act was intended to target criminals carrying out crimes with unlicenced firearms, and not these policemen, who were in possession of their police-issued weapons.
According to Charles, if bail is denied it will send the wrong message that policemen cannot conduct their duties as they may face jail for 120 days, if someone makes an allegation against them.
The legislation restricts bail for a period of 120 days if a person is charged with an offence during commission of which a firearm was used or in his possession.
According to the charges, it is alleged that Ottley on December 13, 2015, while at the Santa Cruz Police Station did an act intended to pervert the course of justice by making a false entry in the North Eastern Division Task Force station diary, that on the previous day (December 12) he and other officers conducted an exercise at Tapin Street, Cantaro Village, Santa Cruz, and seized a pair of camouflage trousers in which six rounds of .38 special ammunition were found wrapped in a red towel in the side pocket, as well as a white plastic bag containing 13 packets of cocaine.
He was also charged with perverting justice by failing to deliver the items to the Forensic Science Centre, or providing a reasonable excuse for not doing so. Ottley alone is charged with those offences. Ottley, Williams and Grandison are alleged to have misbehaved in public office by threatening to charge Mark Rampersad with possession of cocaine, a firearm and marijuana on December 12, 2015, at Frederick Settlement, Caroni.
They also allegedly made similar threats to Farial Rambarath and Lolita Ramdawan, also on the same day at Caroni. Each of the three officers were charged separately.
On the same day — December 12, 2015 — the three police officers allegedly misbehaved in public office by robbing Rampersad of $125,000 and $55,000 in jewelry at Arbuckle Street, Caroni.
According to that charge, the officers were armed with a firearm and used personal violence against their alleged victim.
Constables Williams, Thompson, Samuel and Patrick are alleged to have misbehaved in public office at Kelly Village on January 5, this year, by making threats to charge Mary Duncan, Peabo Duncan and Kimberly James with possession of cocaine. Those four are further alleged, on the same day, to have robbed Peabo Duncan of $53,000 in cash and $4,400 in jewelry. They were also alleged to be armed with a firearm, used personal violence and falsely imprisoned, and held against their will, the two Duncans, James and a person named Stephen Waldron.
As the six accused men were leaving the courthouse, each were each handcuffed while they were being escorted into the van to be taken to the prisons. Each of the six accused had their head covered with towels or t-shirts to sheild their faces from media photographers.
Appearing for Grandison was attorney Sterling John.
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COPS IN JAIL
By JADA LOUTOO (Express).
SI X police officers of the North Eastern Division Task Force are today in jail after bail was refused by the Chief Magistrate before whom they all appeared yesterday on a total of 46 misbehaviour charges of threatening to charge several persons with criminal offences, holding them against their will and robbing at least two of the victims of almost $.3 million in cash and jewelry.
As the officers made their way into court and later out of the courthouse, when the case was heard and adjourned, each had their faces and identity shielded by large towels or jerseys. They were all handcuffed.
The six policemen who were charged late Wednesday evening by WPC Greer Britton-Lawrence and PC Marcano of the TT Police Service’s Professional Standards Bureau — appeared before Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates’ Court, just before midday.
Ayers-Caesar had to stand down the matter on the first occasion as the two officers who charged their colleagues were not present in court.
Even when she proceeded with reading out the charges against the six, the two complainants still did not put in an appearance to the ire of the chief magistrate, who described it as a disrespect to the court to lay charges and not attend court. The six officers — Dion Ottley of Bon Air Gardens, Arouca; Steve Williams of Heights of Guanapo; Brandon Thompson of Seeyjagat Trace, Tumpuna Road, Arima; Ryan Grandison, of Tunip Lane, La Horquetta; Ronald Samuel, of Duncan Trace, San Juan and Kevon Patrick of By-Pass Road, Arima — were not immediately granted bail and are to return to court next Monday when the chief magistrate will rule on whether she will accede to the application of the defence, or will have them remanded for the 120 days before they can be granted bail, in accordance with the Bail (Amendment) Act of 2015.
The six policemen were supported by family members as well as members of their unit; most of whom were in their NEDTF uniforms. The granting of bail was strongly objected to by police prosecutor Insp Winston Dillon who said his opposition was supported by the Bail (Amendment) Act of 2015. He reminded the chief magistrate that the officers were armed with firearms when they committed the alleged acts.
The officers showed no emotion when the chief magistrate indicated that she will rule on their bail applications on Monday, which meant they would be remanded to the prison until that time. Their attorney Robert Vince Charles asked that the arrangements usually implemented for the remand of serving police officers be ensured, since his clients had “locked up many of the criminals” currently on remand in prison.
Earlier, Charles reminded Ayers-Caesar that his clients were before her on the presumption of innocence, and urged that she not fall for the “mischief ” created by the Bail (Amendment) Act of 2015, and punish the officers who were only carrying out their duties as serving members of the TT Police Service.
He said they were not on a criminal frolic, but on legitimate police business “armed” with the “tools of their trade.”
‘WE OWE THESE MEN’
“These are men of good character...
In fact we owe them a debt of gratitude for putting away many criminals,” Charles said, as he asked the chief magistrate to acknowledge that the 120 day no bail provision of the Bail (Amendment) Act was intended to target criminals carrying out crimes with unlicenced firearms, and not these policemen, who were in possession of their police-issued weapons.
According to Charles, if bail is denied it will send the wrong message that policemen cannot conduct their duties as they may face jail for 120 days, if someone makes an allegation against them.
The legislation restricts bail for a period of 120 days if a person is charged with an offence during commission of which a firearm was used or in his possession.
According to the charges, it is alleged that Ottley on December 13, 2015, while at the Santa Cruz Police Station did an act intended to pervert the course of justice by making a false entry in the North Eastern Division Task Force station diary, that on the previous day (December 12) he and other officers conducted an exercise at Tapin Street, Cantaro Village, Santa Cruz, and seized a pair of camouflage trousers in which six rounds of .38 special ammunition were found wrapped in a red towel in the side pocket, as well as a white plastic bag containing 13 packets of cocaine.
He was also charged with perverting justice by failing to deliver the items to the Forensic Science Centre, or providing a reasonable excuse for not doing so. Ottley alone is charged with those offences. Ottley, Williams and Grandison are alleged to have misbehaved in public office by threatening to charge Mark Rampersad with possession of cocaine, a firearm and marijuana on December 12, 2015, at Frederick Settlement, Caroni.
They also allegedly made similar threats to Farial Rambarath and Lolita Ramdawan, also on the same day at Caroni. Each of the three officers were charged separately.
On the same day — December 12, 2015 — the three police officers allegedly misbehaved in public office by robbing Rampersad of $125,000 and $55,000 in jewelry at Arbuckle Street, Caroni.
According to that charge, the officers were armed with a firearm and used personal violence against their alleged victim.
Constables Williams, Thompson, Samuel and Patrick are alleged to have misbehaved in public office at Kelly Village on January 5, this year, by making threats to charge Mary Duncan, Peabo Duncan and Kimberly James with possession of cocaine. Those four are further alleged, on the same day, to have robbed Peabo Duncan of $53,000 in cash and $4,400 in jewelry. They were also alleged to be armed with a firearm, used personal violence and falsely imprisoned, and held against their will, the two Duncans, James and a person named Stephen Waldron.
As the six accused men were leaving the courthouse, each were each handcuffed while they were being escorted into the van to be taken to the prisons. Each of the six accused had their head covered with towels or t-shirts to sheild their faces from media photographers.
Appearing for Grandison was attorney Sterling John.
https://www.facebook.com/cnewslive/videos/10153812892000610/
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Prison officers ‘fearful’
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20160202/news/prison-officers-8216fearful8217
Despite reports by TV6 News about a Carnival escape plot being thwarted by the actions of prison officers, there was no acknowledgement of this by Prisons Commissioner Sterling Stewart.
Instead, he issued a news release in which he told the media the Port of Spain Prison is safe.
Prison officers, however, feel differently, with some saying they are fearful for their lives.
On the heels of the TV6 expose about a jailbreak plot uncovered by prison officials, Stewart is saying he believes the Port of Spain Prison is now free of “destructive devices and weapons”.
Several attempts were made to contact Stewart yesterday, but there was no response.
Senior prison sources told TV6 News several prison officers were fearful for their lives, even before the alleged plot was brought to light, with some having decided to take extended leave.
This situation, they say, has also been exacerbated by specific gang leaders within the prison, who have allegedly been threatening to kill more prison officers if cellphone jammers are not turned off at nights.
In fact, TV6 News was reliably informed a meeting was held last Friday by senior prison officials to discuss the matter.
According to sources, the weekend search was prompted by information that guns and grenades had been secreted into the prison to facilitate a Carnival weekend escape by three gang leaders, one of whom is on a murder charge.
—with reporting by CCN investigative multimedia journalist Mark Bassant
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Inspectorate 'a welcome addition' *
Govt to set up oversight body to monitor performance of Police Service..
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20160220/news/inspectorate-a-welcome-addition
THE announcement by Government to establish an oversight body to manage and monitor the performance of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) is a step in the right direction, stakeholders have said.
Speaking to the Sunday Express last week, National Security Minister Edmund Dillon said the Police Service Inspectorate will be given the responsibility “for quality assurance, quality control, evaluation and measurement of all police stations, the results of which will be reported to Parliament”.
Dillon said the inspectorate will be monitoring the performance of the TTPS “and will also be looking at the different structures within the Police Service”.
On January 15, Finance Minister Colm Imbert told the Senate that $2 million had been allocated to establish the Police Management Agency and the Police Service Inspectorate, in a bid to deal with crime.
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Cops: Set up youth clubs in all schools
By Jensen La Vende (Guardian).
With the spotlight now on school violence and misbehaving teens, the Police Service (TTPS) is calling on the Ministry of Justice to set up police youth clubs in all primary and secondary schools.
Speaking at the weekly press briefing yesterday ACP Enez Joseph, in charge of community policing, made the call days after two school teens appeared in court charged with threatening their teacher and a security guard.
“We will like to see the Ministry of Education institutionalise and incorporate police youth clubs in all primary and secondary schools and we will like to see greater collaboration among government agencies to more effectively address the issue of school violence,” Joseph said.
She said there were other programmes, such as the city programme, that children who are deemed troublesome could be enrolled in with the aim of turning them into model students and averting prison sentences. She said even a child charged with a criminal offence could be placed in the programme rather than have a conviction recorded.
Joseph said there had been some decreases in criminal activity in some areas perpetrated by teens. In 2015, she said, 45 serious crimes involving students were reported to have been committed in schools, compared to 57 the previous year. Joseph said that reports of criminal offences against teachers and principals for 2015 were 44 while there were 37 such reports the year prior.
She added: “If we include all types of crimes as the minor crimes and minor offences, we had a total of 239 in 2015, down from 280 in 2014. With respect of reports of cyber bullying involving students we had 25 cases in 2015 down from 35 in 2014.
“Of the cases reported in 2015, 15 involved allegations of harassment, five for defamation of character and five pertaining to sexual offences.
“The TTPS acknowledges it has a key role in helping to shape and mold the lives of young people, especially those deemed to be at risk or vulnerable to negative influences which would ultimately redound to the overall good of society. “This focus on youth development, therefore, is part of a long term policing strategy and it is in tandem with one of the goals of the TTPS to be more citizen centred in our delivery of policing services.”
Public information officer ASP Michael Pierre said there were currently 112 police youth clubs with over 10,000 youths.
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WE'RE UNDER ATTACK *
Father of murdered prison officer:
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20160229/news/were-under-attack
For the second time in less than four months, a prison officer has been murdered near his home, prompting Prisons Commissioner Sterling Stewart to declare “we are under attack”.
This time 32-year-old Fitzalbert Victor Jnr, aka “Simon” , was shot multiple times by an unknown assailant at his home in Prizgar Lands, Laventille.
The killing has pushed the murder toll for the year to 86, compared with 60 for the same period last year.
According to police reports, Victor, who had ten years of service, was washing his black Nissan X-Trail motor vehicle in the yard of his home about 6 a.m. when he was approached by an armed assailant. It is believed the gunman jumped the wall at the back of the home to spring a surprise attack on the prison officer in the event he was armed.
Several shots were then heard and the assailant was observed fleeing the scene on foot.
Victor was said to be have been shot about seven times.
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I remember a video surfaced a few months ago with some inmates threatening prison officers lives....not sure if this is related but the way things are I will not be surprised.
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A policeman is on the run after he allegedly stabbed a woman and her cousin on Ariapita Avenue, Woodbrook early Saturday morning. The 25-year-old woman who was stabbed in her back and her cousin who was stabbed in his abdomen are said to be in critical condition at Port-of-Spain General Hospital.
https://www.facebook.com/cnewslive/videos/10153943650250610/
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Mom of murdered boy: I begged police for help.
By Radhica Sookraj (Guardian).
Forced to go into hiding after witnessing a contraband deal, 14-year-old Darian Nedd finally met his death yesterday, after two men chopped off his limbs with a cutlass and then set fire to his home, leaving him to die.
The Form One student, of Red Brick Trace, attended the Siparia East Secondary School. His charred, dismembered body was found around 12.30 am, amid the ruins of the wooden house. His right foot and left hand were missing. It is uncertain whether he was still alive when the house was set on fire.
Up to late yesterday, police had held a 25-year-old man for questioning. They were also searching for two other suspects. Investigators said Nedd had an ongoing dispute with some men who accused him of being an informant.
Nedd’s mother, Christine, who sells oysters at Otaheite Junction, said she was not at home when the fire started. Christine said she made several reports to the Oropouche police, begging for assistance to save her son.
However, police never arrested the suspects. “My son hiding for months now. He went to live with (name called) but because he had school he came back last week,” Christine said. She explained that hours before his death, Nedd cut the grass around their home and played marble pitch.
“He was happy. We didn’t think this was going to happen,” Christine said.
She explained that Nedd loved to fight with his seven-year-old sister Victoria Pekhoo. “Yesterday was the only day I did not quarrel with him. He used to be there, helping me with the oysters. Now he is gone,” Christine said, as tears ran down her swollen eyes. She said around midnight when she finished work, she got news that her home was on fire.
Her cousin Mitra ran to the house and called out to Nedd but it was only when the flames subsided that they found the body.
A witness, who requested anonymity, said two men were seen throwing flambeaus inside the house which is situated off a bumpy track at the end of Red Brick Trace, behind the SM Jaleel factory. A blood-stained cutlass was also seen at the side of the house but this was hidden before the police came, the source added. Neighbours said they did not know what happened as they were not at home. Nedd’s elder sister Kristie Benjamin said they made several reports of threats to the Oropouche police.
“Now everyone is living in fear. My brother was like my child. I used to do everything for him when he was a baby,” Kristie wept. Detectives from the South Western Division Task Force yesterday combed through the Otaheite region, searching for the suspects. The police helicopter was also used in the search.
An autopsy will be done at the Forensic Science Centre in Port-of-Spain today.
Investigations are continuing.
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Wow, just horrific...14 years old too.
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BREAKING NEWS: Policeman shot in the head by robbers
A policeman responding to a robbery in St Clement's was shot in his head on Monday night.
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20160404/news/breaking-news-policeman-shot-by-robbers
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Insp Seales charged: gets $75,000 bail*
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20160622/news/insp-seales-charged-gets-75000-bail
Almost a year after he was suspended for allegedly making seditious comments while on a television show, Insp Michael Seales has appeared before a Port of Spain magistrate to answer charges related to this incident.
Late Tuesday, Seales received information that the investigation in which he was the subject had been completed and that a team of officers led by ACP Deodath Dulalchan had visited the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for instructions on how to proceed.
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'Robocop' shot dead
Published on Jul 17, 2016, 7:23 pm AST
Trinidad Express
Enterprise businessman Selwyn "Robocop" Alexis was gunned down at his car wash Sunday afternoon.
Alexis was at his businessplace at Freedom Street, Enterprise, when unknown suspects shot at him. Two other men, including one of the assailants, were killed.
Eyewitnesses say at about 4.44 p.m., a car pulled up and men armed with shotguns and rifles came out and began firing shots. Robocop and his friend identified as Kevin Escayg, were killed.
One of the assailants was also shot and killed. His identity is still unconfirmed. Escayg's five year old son Kirchard was also injured.
He remains warded at hospital.
An Express reader was caught in traffic when word came of Selwyn 'Robocop' Alexis murder
There was a heavy police presence along Freedom Street and Railway Road in Enterprise after the incident, CCN TV6 reported.
Couva North MP Ramona Ramdial last night called for a lockdown of the area “as residents are fearful of reprisals”.
Over the years Alexis has faced the court on several charges including murder and kidnapping.
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How many will really shed tears for Robo?
Anyway ah see it here first
https://www.facebook.com/CNC3Television/posts/10154377367887996
.
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Robocop’s Uncle Upset Over Policeman’s Comments
http://ctvtt.com/ctv/index.php/c-news/news/item/43718-robocop-s-uncle-upset-over-policeman-s-comments
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Cops seize cops’ phones
By NALINEE SEELAL (NEWSDAY)
THE cellular phones of eight police officers, from Constable to Executive rank, have been seized by Professional Standards Bureau officers investigating the leak of a confidential memo which outlined the Central Division police anti-crime plan for the recent long Easter weekend holiday .
Police executed warrants on the officers who were ordered to hand over their cell phones. While some readily complied, others resisted before eventually handing over their phones. They claimed their phones contained sensitive information both of a personal and professional nature .
Officers are now examining the contacts list, jpeg images, voice notes, video recordings and WhatsApp content of the phones as part of their investigation .
The highly confidential memo, compiled by Division Head Snr Supt Kenny McIntyre, contained information pertaining to anti- crime initiatives including roadblock exercises, raids, mobile and foot patrols to be undertaken by officers within Central Division between the extended Easter weekend, from Holy Thursday straight to Easter Monday .
The memo detailed the number of officers designated to carry out a specific task in a specific location and also the time of the activity .
The memo was leaked to social media on April 13. Several officers from this division have already been interviewed including Snr Supt McIntyre who said the leak was very embarrassing to the Police Service and forced him to restructure the Easter weekend anti- crime plan .
McIntyre told investigators this was a serious breach which, had it gone undetected, could have placed the lives of officers at risk as the criminal element would have had been ready and waiting for officers .
Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams is being kept abreast of the status of the ongoing investigations which Newsday understands is close to being completed and could see several officers facing disciplinary action .
Contacted yesterday for comment, Snr Supt McIntyre said he heard, “through the grapevine” that officers’ cell phones were seized. “If that is true, I have no problem because that type of behaviour (leaking of the memo) cannot be tolerated at all,” the top cop said .
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Amazing amazing stuff
https://socamusictv.blogspot.com/2018/07/police-dog-performs-cpr-on-officer.html
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Gary: 300 suspended cops still being paid
By Peter Christopher (Guardian).
State foots $50m bill
OFFICE OF THEPARLIAMENT
Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith is looking to clamp down on the long list of officers serving indefinite suspensions due to criminal charges noting the state is paying some $50 million annually on these officers.
He revealed his plan during a Joint Select Committee dealing with the expenditure and internal controls of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) for the financial year 2018-19 at the Parliament building yesterday.
“We must never see the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service as being an avenue where you can benefit from being indisciplined,” said Griffith, who confirmed that over 300 officers were on suspension with pay despite facing criminal charges.
He said some of the officers had been suspended with pay for almost a decade but due to legal ramifications these officers cannot simply be dismissed from the service.
“We have intelligence (which) can give the police service the concern that a police officer should not be in the police service because he is a breach to national security. You can suspend him but you cannot fire him because that same police officer now will take you to court and show me the evidence that (you have used) to fire me,” Griffith said.
He said when taking into account salary payments and legal fees surrounding these cases, over $500 million had been paid in relation to the suspended officers over a 10-year period.
He pointed out that while the state was bearing these costs, many of these officers have since used their indefinite suspension period to find other opportunities while still on the TTPS payroll.
“Some of them we have already confirmed, some of these officers have migrated. Several of them are working elsewhere and getting double salary.
“So my intention is for those who have been suspended indefinitely, we need to verify whether we have enough information to warrant a tribunal,” Griffith said, noting he was attempting to adjust the legal system within the TTPS to allow for the dismissal of these officers through a tribunal in a timely basis.
“Each and everyone we intend to deal with and fast track, to ensure that police officers would either be brought back to duty, the suspension would end or they are suspended with a specific timeline as to how long the suspension would be or they would be fired,” said Griffith.
“There are several instances as well where there is enough information based on the tribunal that can warrant that police officer being fired.
“This will ensure police officers are aware that there are consequences. There will be consequences for your actions and you cannot try to beat the system and find loopholes in the criminal justice system.”
He said granting officers contracts was an option which could be used to root out truant officers.
Griffith said this adjustment would bring some balance to manpower concerns within the police while also reducing costs incurred by the police service annually.
“This is in fairness to the citizens, to the police officer and to the police service.
“It is inappropriate that you have a system of 300 police officers in just 7,000 that are on suspension indefinitely,” said Griffith, who revealed that the TTPS was in debt of $47 million as it was still paying bills from the fiscal year 2017 -2018.
“We have recurring expenditure.
“As at this time, we have not received anything for fiscal year 2018/2019, apart from the salaries.”
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$700,000 bail for 7 cops charged with conspiracy to defraud Toyota
T&T Guardian Reports.
Seven police officers appeared at the Port-of-Spain First Magistrates’ Court, before Magistrate Marista Gomez today on Tuesday, charged with various counts of conspiracy to defraud and other offences.
The officers were prosecuted as follows:
* Ag. Cpl. Marvin Bascombe, 42 with 20 years of service and former Chief Clerk of the Snr. Supt. Traffic office was charged with four counts of conspiracy to defraud Toyota; his bail was set at $100,000.
* WPC Nicole Steven, 40, the Revenue Clerk at the said office with 5 years of service was charged for eight offences; four counts of conspiracy to defraud Toyota and four counts of making false and erroneous statements on duty sheets in breach of the Prevention of Corruption Act. She was placed on $120,000 bail.
* WPC Amoy Blackette, 30, the Assistant to the Revenue Clerk with four years of service was charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud Toyota, her bail was set at $80,000.
* WPC Kerri Ann Alexander, with four years of service was charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud Toyota, her bail was set at $80,000.
* WSRP Vanda O’Neil, 32, was charged with two counts of conspiracy to defraud Toyota, her bail was set at $120,000.
* W/SRP Liz Francis, 36, of Lewis Lane Santa Cruz was charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud Toyota, her bail was set at $80,000.
* W/SRP Monifa David, 25, was charged with three counts of conspiracy to defraud Toyota, her bail was set at $120,000.
On various days during the period June 7th 2018 to 27th September 2018, several members of staff of the Chief Clerk’s office at the Snr. Supt. Traffic engaged in an activity where instead of billing Toyota an hourly rate to perform extra duties to escort new motor vehicles from the port of Port-of-Spain to Toyota’s office in Barataria, the officers multiplied the actual number of hours performed by the number of trips made during the period.
This resulted in totals of sometimes 36 and 24 hours per day.
The scope of the conspiracy widened to avoid attracting suspicion by further distributing and documenting the additional hours on extra duty pay sheets to reflect other days when Toyota did not have any extra duty escorts.
A report was made by Toyota to the Professional Standards Bureau (PSB) and investigations were conducted.
On completion the Ag. DPP Joanne Honore Paul gave advice and on Monday 8th April 2019 the PSB conducted an exercise and arrested seven members of staff of the Snr. Supt. Traffic office.
All police officers secured bail and the cases were adjourned to Tuesday 7th May, 2019.
The investigation was conducted under the leadership of ACP Ag. Totaram Dookhie and included Cpl Lawrence Joefield who laid all the charges.
(http://www.guardian.co.tt/image-3.1957598.0c14efbe21?size=1024)
Seven police officers have appeared in court charged with conspiracy to defraud Toyota. The seven officers were placed on bail amounting to $700,000.
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So who shipped and who received...Shouldn't be in newspapers yet, if at all
https://newsday.co.tt/2019/05/14/guns-found-at-pos-port/
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TTPS gets 10 horses from Holland
T&T Guardian Reports.
The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) has received ten warmbloods horses from Holland.
The horses arrived last Friday and were handed over to the Mounted Branch.
These horses, which have already been trained, are now in quarantine.
After their acclimatization and further training, the horses will be deployed for patrol, escort duties, and in the fight against crime.
Warmbloods are a group of middle-weight horse types, and breeds primarily originating in Europe, and registered with organizations that are characterized by open studbook policy, studbook selection, and the aim of breeding for equestrian sport.
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CoP: We will probe rogue police
BY SHANE SUPERVILLE (NEWSDAY).
The day after two police officers were held in relation to human trafficking, Police Commissioner Gary Griffith said the police will be going after all criminals, both in and out of uniform.
Speaking with Newsday on Tuesday, Griffith said the police were not above reproach, and vowed to go after rogue police officers. He also said there were elements within the police service that sought to undermine him by forming ties with criminals.
Referring to over 300 officers who have been suspended for suspected misconduct, Griffith said he intended to use his authority to expedite these cases and fire those found guilty of crimes.
"No one is above the law," he said. "Police officers are human, they come from society and our society is not perfect but our police must operate at a much higher standard, which is why anything even remotely close to this will not be accepted in any way. This year is what we will continue to do, the more information we get from the public is the more we will be able to target, investigate and charge. "Once I hold this chair as the Commissioner of Police there will be no covering up in any way. I have the authorisation to hire, fire and suspend and I will not have police officers suspended indefinitely. It has cost the taxpayers over $50 million per annum and we are getting nothing in return.
"Very soon you will see I take a firm approach to officers who have embarrassed the police service and committed acts of indiscipline, it gives me the authorisation through the tribunal to have them fired or suspended."
Griffith said it was difficult for a police officer who was charged for a violent crime to justify keeping him in the service.
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Police kill gunmen at murder victims’ home
T&T Guardian Reports.
Central Division police fatally shot a 25-year-old man yesterday during a search at the home of last week’s double-murder victims Cindy Joseph and Kadeem Elijah.
The man was identified as Nigel Antoine, 25, from Richplain, Diego Martin.
According to reports, the officers went to the house at Hilltop Drive, Springvale in Claxton Bay to execute a search warrant for firearms and ammunition.
When they arrived at the house around 6 am, they met Antoine at the house.
As Antoine tried to escape, he shoved one of the officers and opened fire. The officers took cover and returned, fatally wounding Antoine. His firearm was recovered and officers found a quantity of ammunition in the house. Police said Antoine was known to them and was probably hiding in the area.
Joseph, 33 and her common-law husband, Elijah, 19, were shot dead at the house last Thursday. Joseph’s 11-year-old son was struck by a bullet in the right leg. He is recovering at the San Fernando General Hospital.
Police said the couple were asleep in their bedroom around 1.15 am when gunmen entered and executed them. Neighbours said they heard the gunshots and saw three men running from the house.
In another exercise, Central Division police arrested a 57-year-old man for possession of a firearm and ammunition on Sunday.
A report stated that PCs Valley and Bramble responded to a report of a man armed with a firearm at Nimblette Street, Enterprise in Chaguanas. On arrival, the officers saw a man and questioned him.
He then took officers to his Nimblette Street home, where they found a brown and chrome Smith and Wesson revolver with five rounds and one spent shell of .38 ammunition in the living room. The man was immediately arrested.
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Police officer detained after shooting girlfriend
T&T Guardian Reports.
A police sergeant is now in police custody for allegedly shooting his common law wife, who also is a police officer.
According to reports, at about 10:30 last night, Dale Ramroop (a 48-year-old police sergeant attached to the Princes Town Police Station) and Nicolette Persad (a 29-year-old police constable), were at their home at Mohess Road in Barrackpore when they both began arguing.
The couple had just returned home from attending a function.
Reports are that a struggle ensued and three rounds of nine millimetre ammunition were discharged from a licensed Glock pistol.
It is alleged Ramroop opened fire on Persad during the argument, shooting her in the upper left of her chest.
The woman police constable was rushed to the San Fernando General Hospital where she remains warded, and is listed in a stable condition.
Ramroop has been detained for questioning.
Two guns and 69 rounds of ammunition were seized at the scene.
Reports are the couple were arguing over a text message.
(https://www.guardian.co.tt/image-3.2704614.7c7d72184c?size=1024)
The couple had just returned home from attending a function when they began arguing
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Cop shot at home
BY RIA CHAITRAM (NEWSDAY).
THE policewoman who was allegedly shot by her husband at their Mohess Road, Penal, home, on Wednesday morning is out of danger and is in stable condition at hospital.
According to reports, the husband, who is also a sergeant, assigned to the Princes Town CID, got into an altercation with his common-law wife, a constable, over text messages at about 10 pm on Tuesday.
The policewoman was injured in her upper chest.
The sergeant has since been detained at the Barrackpore police station.
Newsday will update this story as information become available.
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4 Central Division policemen arrested
BY KEN CHEE HING (NEWSDAY).
Officers from the Professional Standards Bureau (PSB) arrested four Central Division officers into reports of attempting to pervert the course of public justice. The arrests were made around 4 am on Monday in the Central Division.
A press release from the TTPS stated that among the officers arrested, are two Acting Inspectors of the Chaguanas Criminal Investigations Department, a Sergeant working in the Chaguanas Major Crimes Section and a Police Constable who works in the Chaguanas Task Force.
One of the arrested officers was held before Carnival on allegations involving human trafficking. The release said that investigations are ongoing.
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CoP: They will no longer wear TTPS uniforms
JENSEN LA VENDE (NEWSDAY).
POLICE COMMISSIONER Gary Griffith has joined in condemning the actions of police and regiment officers who recorded themselves abusing two homeless men.
In a series of videos, the officers laugh as they give two men each a 50-millilitre bottle of rum.
Speaking with Newsday on Monday, Griffith said he had received “hundreds of messages” condemning the actions of those in the video, who were part of a joint police and army patrol, believed to be along Charlotte Street, Port of Spain.
He said the condemnation was justified, but reminded the public that the actions of the minority should not be used to demonise the entire police service, where “98 per cent” are hard-working.
Griffith said what the videos show is officers abusing their authority, something he assured the public will not happen during the 14-days stay-at-home period.
“We are using CCTV cameras and tracking the GPS of police vehicles to get a location on where that happened.
“This is an isolated incident but when we find it, as Commissioner of Police, I will ensure that those officers no longer wear a TTPS uniform.”
The video also showed a soldier pointing a rifle at one of the men, threatening to shoot him if he did not drink a second bottle “in one go.”
“I feel tonight I go shoot yuh. That’s it here, you will get shoot tonight,” the soldier told the man, who agreed to outrun the police vehicle.
Voices could be heard in the video asking for leniency for the homeless man.
In a media release issued on Monday, National Security Minister Stuart Young said he had spoken with both Griffith and the chief of Defence Staff about the “inappropriate behaviour.” He added that both agreed that an immediate investigation will begin.
“The behaviour depicted in the videos is condemned in the strongest manner. The TTPS and TTDF will act in a responsible manner and carry out their important roles and duties in this time of stay at home,” Young said.
In a separate release, the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) said it has asked for a report from Griffith as it “intends to monitor and audit the current investigations of the TTPS.”
“The PCA strongly advises all police officers that this type of conduct is to be deprecated” the release stated.
The Defence Force did not comment on the videos. There were rumors that their members involved in the incidents were identified and were being disciplined but that was not confirmed.
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4 soldiers detained over theft during DSS raid
By Mark Bassant
Lead Editor, Investigative Desk
Four Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force (TTDF) members were yesterday detained for questioning into video footage showing one of them allegedly stuffing stacks of money into his tactical uniform during the raid on the Drug Sou Sou (DSS) headquarters in La Horquetta last Tuesday.
Several senior investigators said the four men were picked up for questioning by officers of the Professional Standards Bureau (PSB) of the T&T Police Service after instructions were given by Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith.
Sources familiar with the investigation said they were picked up at Teteron Barracks in Chaguaramas shortly after 2 pm yesterday and taken to the PSB office to be interviewed.
A sergeant, 39, two lance corporals, 30 and 31 and a corporal, 29, who were part of the Special Operations Response Team (SORT) raiding unit, were taken in.
Contacted late yesterday, Griffith confirmed the men were in police custody. He said he had been in constant contact with PSB head Senior Superintendent Samaroo and had written to him on September 30 after the footage of the officer had gone viral after it was reported in the media.
Griffith said, “I immediately contacted the head of SORT (Sgt Hernandez), who confirmed that they were not police officers but soldiers from the TTDF.”
The names of at least two corporals were later identified along with their regimental numbers.
“That same morning, I contacted the head of TTDF personnel who work alongside SORT(warrant officer Adams) who also confirmed that the personnel seen in the video were two corporals from the TTDF,” Griffith said.
Senior investigators said they will be awaiting instructions from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on the way forward after the interviews.
What might be particularly complicated in this matter, according to a senior source, is “that there was no report made by anyone in the house of any money stolen. If this is so, we have no victim and then there’s no crime.”
There is also the call by the Law Association of T&T for Griffith to investigate whether there was a legal requirement to obtain a warrant before the search on DSS was initiated and claims of abuse by police officers on civilians at the apartment.
Guardian Media understands that several statements have already been taken by PSB officers from civilians who were in the apartment during the raid and SORT officers could also be questioned by PSB personnel.
But the investigations don’t end there. Guardian Media also understands that the Central Intelligence Bureau (CIB) and PSB have also been tasked with a second investigation involving several top-ranking police and army personnel, who, along with others, co-opted others to retrieve the seized money and move it to a safe house. The movements and the phone conversations of these officers are now all under investigation.
A DSS insider familiar with the operations told Guardian Media several days ago that when the seized millions were taken to the La Horquetta Police Station, several telephone recordings involving senior officers with someone inside DSS reveal a deal being brokered to release the money mere hours after it was seized by police.
“I am also directing the investigation of senior officers who released millions without proper procedure. I see this as either incompetence or contributing to a crime. Whichever one, action will be taken,” Griffith said of this aspect of at least three separate probes into the DSS fiasco.
Griffith said the third investigation is being spearheaded FIB to verify the source of the seized funds and to ascertain in some measure the actual amount. As part of that investigation, the bank accounts of law enforcement personnel will also be under scrutiny.
Griffith had said on Tuesday that “based on information coming to hand and my intelligence sources, it cannot be confirmed that it was $22,157,000 million as claimed by officers. It is virtually impossible for us to verify that at this time.”
A DSS insider with knowledge about the company operations said the figure seized by police was closer to $92 million. The source claimed after a deal was struck with law enforcement officers, some $74 million was released to DSS and the other $18m to police and army personnel to be split up for their assistance in releasing the cash.
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What might be particularly complicated in this matter, according to a senior source, is “that there was no report made by anyone in the house of any money stolen. If this is so, we have no victim and then there’s no crime.”
Yet surely there's enough to urge a disciplinary outcome within the TTDF.
More broadly than this incident, there are hefty indications that a psychological assessment or tool may need to be a precursor to military service.
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DSS names crooked cops who collected money
By Mark Bassant, Lead Editor, Investigative Desk
Since last year, T&T Police Service (TTPS) and T&T Defence Force (TTDF) members have profited more than half-a-million dollars in "hush money" from the Drugs Sou Sou (DSS) operations based at Kathleen Warner Drive in La Horquetta.
Their financial reward was not only for the protection of the DSS operations but for their alleged willingness to facilitate corruption and bribery, according to the information given to Sunday Guardian by key DSS insiders.
In a document, DSS insiders pointed fingers at senior TTPS and TTDF officers, naming them and in some cases outlining in detail their roles in facilitating the multi-million dollar operation which is now the subject of at least three probes by TTPS and TTDF hierarchy, after money seized in a raid on the DSS operation, initially said to be $22 million, was returned to its CEO Kerron Clarke by junior officers of the La Horquetta Police Station without authorisation. Later, a DSS insider claimed police had seized as much as $92 million during the operation.
DSS insiders stated that "... the officers are involved in corruption, bribery and much more. This goes high up the food chain. And it seems as though they are untouchable."
Sunday Guardian understands that the information contained in these documents have also been sent to the police for them to investigate the claims.
The DSS insiders explained the inner details of the police officers' roles in helping to ensure the smooth operation of their venture and thwart law enforcement efforts to uncover and bust it. The officers ensured patrols around the clock for the DSS headquarters and in some instances security there.
"(Name of officer of the TTPS executive called) has been part and parcel of the operation and receiving money as payments (to look out and protect DSS) over the period of 2019 and up to this date (name called) has received $240,000 in cash. Not all at once," the DSS document said.
The DSS insiders disclosed that a particular inspector was very close with the TTPS executive officer when it comes to the running of the DSS operations.
"He would oversee and report back to (executive officer) as time goes by. Inspector (name called) would often have patrols set up on a regular basis to ensure that things run smoothly," revealed the DSS document.
Senior police sources told Sunday Guardian that for years, this particular inspector and a TTPS executive member have been suspected of running other illicit operations inside the police service, including extortion, bribery and money laundering schemes.
Another senior officer whom they believe was instrumental in ensuring that the purported $22 million or $92 million seized from DSS was released from the La Horquetta Police Station two Tuesdays ago, just hours after it was seized in the raid, has also been fingered as a major player in ensuring the DSS operations run smoothly.
"(Name of a senior Northern Division officer called) was also part of this operation from the late part of 2019 up to this date. And he received payments of $83,000 during the period."
But the police officers' complicity does not end there.
DSS insiders claimed senior officers handed down instructions to their juniors.
"Junior officers were also involved in such ranks from sergeants, corporals, and police constables. Inspector (named called) would often have someone (lower-ranked officer) pick up the cash and later on disburse it or in other words split it up," the DSS insiders claimed.
The DSS insiders revealed that "sergeants, corporals and constables were paid on a daily and sometimes on a weekly basis at the amount of $2000-$3000 per day."
They alleged that the inspector used a particular business as a front "to cover most of his money schemes."
DSS insiders stated that two TTPS executive officers who were working together to protect their operations have also been working to undermine Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith.
DSS insiders claimed in the document that "the Commissioner has a mole in his team and he should do due diligence to investigate or even question each of them."
They claimed that they have several phone recordings, videos and photographs that would also be critical in assisting investigators involved in this wide-reaching case.
The document stated, "(TTPS executive officer name called) using the phone number (6******) to have conversations with (TTPS executive officer name called) on (7******). And also (another senior Northern Division officer name called, but phone number not revealed) would have had recent conversations in recent days to undermine the officer of the CoP as soon as he goes on vacation."
Griffith confirmed during last week’s TTPS press briefing that one of the reasons he cancelled his vacation was because they had received intelligence that there was a plot to undermine the service in his absence.
The document further alleged that "phone calls were made to senior TTDF members (one colonel’s name called), three captains (names called), a major and two other seniors (names called)."
The DSS insiders said, "These are all members who are in the cabal."
They did not give further details about the TTDF members but promised that further information about their complicity in the DSS operations would be released in due course.
During the TTPS press briefing on Thursday, Griffith also told the media he cancelled his vacation to ensure the DSS investigation receives his full attention. He said this decision was made after meeting with the Minister of National Security and Police Service Commission (PSC).
Griffith has vowed to bring down corrupt police officers and TTDF members who have been involved in one way or the other in illicit operations surrounding the DSS operations.
Commenting on the matter, Griffith said he appointed DCP McDonald Jacob to lead the investigation. "I appointed DCP Jacob to lead this. The investigation via PSB. The financial via FIB. And the UK team would assist in the legislative arm of the investigation which they are well versed in as it pertains to white collar crime."
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UK team goes after police, soldier cartel
DARREN BAHAW (NEWSDAY).
NEW INFORMATION has surfaced during a multi-agency probe against as a "criminal cartel" operating within the ranks of the police service and the defence force which investigators say can cripple the economy.
Intelligence uncovered within the first two weeks after police busted a pyramid scheme in east Trinidad have now linked three politicians to the complex money laundering scheme involving key players of known criminal gangs to wash millions of dollars from various illegal sources.
Probers have found several similar pyramid schemes operating across the country, many operated by soldiers, which distribute thousands of dollars weekly to mainly poor and vulnerable people who see the investment as a golden opportunity to get rich quick.
And to protect the integrity of the police investigation, the matter has been assigned to acting Deputy Commissioner of Police McDonald Jacob and the case will now be referred to EdmondsMarshallMcMahon (EMM), a specialist team of forensic investigators from the United Kingdom hired to crack complex white-collar crime, according to Police Commissioner Gary Griffith.
He said the agents from the foreign team have all been sworn in as special reserve police and will have all the powers of a police officer to conduct the investigation and they have not had any interaction or involvement in any of the sou sou schemes in TT.
EMM was hired by Griffith in 2018 to help the police complete serious fraud cases including allegations of bid-rigging at the Estate Management Development Company, LifeSport, and other high-profile white-collar criminal investigations.
On the eve of the 2020 general election, the multi-million dollar contract was renewed to allow the firm to complete its work on several pending investigations.
Top police sources confirm that a number of officers, who have been identified as being involved in the scheme and facilitated the return of over $22 million which had been seized by the Special Operations Response Team on September 22 at a house in La Horquetta, will be requested to undergo polygraph testing this week and will likely be transferred from their current stations to give investigators unhindered access to information and possible witnesses.
Investigators said after the money was returned to the sou sou operators hours after it had been confiscated they have been unable to pinpoint the new location. They said as intelligence comes in, it is being leaked and the money is moved again.
The foreign team will be assisted by the Professional Standards Bureau (PSB) and the Financial Intelligence Bureau to trace the source of the funds and identify the corrupt police and soldiers linked to the scheme and liaise with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions as evidence is gathered, according to a high-ranking police source.
The Police Complaints Authority (PCA) has launched an independent investigation into the conduct of officers who have been identified through wire taps and other sources to the criminal operation. One senior officer who is currently on suspension for an unrelated offence has been identified a key person of interest in the probe.
Seasoned investigators said the scope of the criminal network rings familiar to the findings uncovered by Scott Drug Report in 1986 where scores of officers were identified as being part of a gang operating in the police service trafficking drugs, involved in murder, transshipment of cocaine and other heinous crimes.
One investigator said the current investigation was "worse than police unlawfully killing someone" by the level of cover-up and collusion taking place and seems to justify a statement once made by the PCA director David West that the police service is the "biggest gang" in TT.
According to intelligence reports seen by Sunday Newsday, criminal gangs have pumped millions of dollars into pyramid schemes operated by a a group of soldiers across the country. Many unsuspecting people have invested varying sums for inflated returns and the legitimate and illegitimate money has been mixed and paid out with receipts being given to legitimate investors.
The matter triggered a meeting of the National Security Council, chaired by the Prime Minister, last week and led to the cancellation of the Police Commissioner's month-long vacation.
National Security Minister Stuart Young told Newsday on Thursday that the probe into the sou sou bust were or "major concern" to him and he has been in constant contact with the CoP and Chief of Defence Staff Air Commodore Darryl Daniel.
Daniel has not commented publicly on the allegations involving members of the Defence Force except to issue one release that it was co-operating with the police. Four soldiers who were part of the September 22 La Horquetta raid were detained last Wednesday for questioning after one was seen stuffing an envelope in his crotch but later released pending further investigations.
Police said no one has reported any money missing during the raid, nor has there been any formal report of people being beaten by officers.
There were reports that a woman suffered a miscarriage after she was struck during the raid but no official report had been made about that too.
On Thursday, Griffith said even though there were no official reports, the police intend to look into the allegations and had video footage to support some of the claims. Investigators assigned to the PSB and the PCA have already obtained statements from people who were allegedly assaulted during the raid.
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2 cops held for $.25m roadblock robbery
By Rhondor Dowlat-Rostant (Guardian).
Two police officers in uniform and using a marked police vehicle allegedly pulled off the daring robbery of over a quarter-million dollars from a courier after setting up a fake roadblock earlier this month.
The officers, an acting corporal and constable, were taken in for questioning on Thursday following an investigation by senior Western Division officers.
According to police sources, the officers had been pointed out in connection with a $250,000 robbery that took place along the Western Main Road in Cocorite on October 3.
The victim, a well-known businessman, who did not want either his name or business identified, confirmed the robbery and the amount stolen to the Guardian Media last evening.
Investigators were told by the victim that he was robbed by the officers, who were dressed in full uniform and using a marked police car. The officers allegedly took $1,500 in cash that he was carrying on his person, as well an estimated $250,000 he was transporting for his company, which represented money from sales.
Guardian Media understands the officers, who are attached to the Western Division, borrowed a marked vehicle from the St James Police Station to do an “extra duty” and reportedly robbed the courier before actually doing the extra duty.
A police source said the key for the vehicle was usually kept in its glove compartment and is not usually one that is required to be booked in and out in the station’s vehicle logbook.
It is believed one of the officers took the vehicle from the station and followed the businessman’s courier money collector, who was picking up sales money at the Tunapuna and Port-of-Spain branches of the popular clothing store. The officer picked up the other officer before they proceeded to set up the fake roadblock, where they allegedly stopped the courier and robbed him of the cash.
The courier made a report to the police station and an investigation led to the arrest of the officers on Thursday - six days after the alleged incident.
PC Phipps is continuing investigations.
Contacted for comment on the issue yesterday, Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith said whilst he wouldn’t comment on an ongoing investigation, he wanted to reassure the public that the police service is being cleaned up of all rogue officers.
“The point being is that this shows the constant activity by the police service in ensuring that we do all that is required to weed out rogue elements in the police service. It is not that we go witch-hunting but nobody is above the law, so where it is people are getting this perception that police will try to protect police, it is not so,” Griffith said.
He said this year’s activity was a continuation of the past two years actions where over 80 officers have been suspended and over 60 officers have been charged for various offences.
“So we are doing all that is required and we will continue to do so. So over the last two years, you speaking about 140-plus officers that have either been suspended based on disciplinary action or charged for offences. So you are speaking about every week a police officer is either suspended or charged in the last two years, so that shows that we do not cover any police wrongdoing.”
Griffith also asked that this latest incident not to be used by the public as an avenue to discredit the police service.
“I will also ask for the public not to use this as an avenue to discredit the police but just the opposite because we are cleaning up the police service. So this should be something that the public should be pleased with, to know that so many police officers are being arrested and if at any time they break the law they will be cleaned up and removed as soon as possible.”
Also contacted yesterday, Police Complaints Authority head David West said they too will initiate a probe into the incident.
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DSS names crooked cops who collected money
By Mark Bassant, Lead Editor, Investigative Desk
Since last year, T&T Police Service (TTPS) and T&T Defence Force (TTDF) members have profited more than half-a-million dollars in "hush money" from the Drugs Sou Sou (DSS) operations based at Kathleen Warner Drive in La Horquetta.
Their financial reward was not only for the protection of the DSS operations but for their alleged willingness to facilitate corruption and bribery, according to the information given to Sunday Guardian by key DSS insiders.
In a document, DSS insiders pointed fingers at senior TTPS and TTDF officers, naming them and in some cases outlining in detail their roles in facilitating the multi-million dollar operation which is now the subject of at least three probes by TTPS and TTDF hierarchy, after money seized in a raid on the DSS operation, initially said to be $22 million, was returned to its CEO Kerron Clarke by junior officers of the La Horquetta Police Station without authorisation. Later, a DSS insider claimed police had seized as much as $92 million during the operation.
DSS insiders stated that "... the officers are involved in corruption, bribery and much more. This goes high up the food chain. And it seems as though they are untouchable."
Sunday Guardian understands that the information contained in these documents have also been sent to the police for them to investigate the claims.
The DSS insiders explained the inner details of the police officers' roles in helping to ensure the smooth operation of their venture and thwart law enforcement efforts to uncover and bust it. The officers ensured patrols around the clock for the DSS headquarters and in some instances security there.
"(Name of officer of the TTPS executive called) has been part and parcel of the operation and receiving money as payments (to look out and protect DSS) over the period of 2019 and up to this date (name called) has received $240,000 in cash. Not all at once," the DSS document said.
The DSS insiders disclosed that a particular inspector was very close with the TTPS executive officer when it comes to the running of the DSS operations.
"He would oversee and report back to (executive officer) as time goes by. Inspector (name called) would often have patrols set up on a regular basis to ensure that things run smoothly," revealed the DSS document.
Senior police sources told Sunday Guardian that for years, this particular inspector and a TTPS executive member have been suspected of running other illicit operations inside the police service, including extortion, bribery and money laundering schemes.
Another senior officer whom they believe was instrumental in ensuring that the purported $22 million or $92 million seized from DSS was released from the La Horquetta Police Station two Tuesdays ago, just hours after it was seized in the raid, has also been fingered as a major player in ensuring the DSS operations run smoothly.
"(Name of a senior Northern Division officer called) was also part of this operation from the late part of 2019 up to this date. And he received payments of $83,000 during the period."
But the police officers' complicity does not end there.
DSS insiders claimed senior officers handed down instructions to their juniors.
"Junior officers were also involved in such ranks from sergeants, corporals, and police constables. Inspector (named called) would often have someone (lower-ranked officer) pick up the cash and later on disburse it or in other words split it up," the DSS insiders claimed.
The DSS insiders revealed that "sergeants, corporals and constables were paid on a daily and sometimes on a weekly basis at the amount of $2000-$3000 per day."
They alleged that the inspector used a particular business as a front "to cover most of his money schemes."
DSS insiders stated that two TTPS executive officers who were working together to protect their operations have also been working to undermine Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith.
DSS insiders claimed in the document that "the Commissioner has a mole in his team and he should do due diligence to investigate or even question each of them."
They claimed that they have several phone recordings, videos and photographs that would also be critical in assisting investigators involved in this wide-reaching case.
The document stated, "(TTPS executive officer name called) using the phone number (6******) to have conversations with (TTPS executive officer name called) on (7******). And also (another senior Northern Division officer name called, but phone number not revealed) would have had recent conversations in recent days to undermine the officer of the CoP as soon as he goes on vacation."
Griffith confirmed during last week’s TTPS press briefing that one of the reasons he cancelled his vacation was because they had received intelligence that there was a plot to undermine the service in his absence.
The document further alleged that "phone calls were made to senior TTDF members (one colonel’s name called), three captains (names called), a major and two other seniors (names called)."
The DSS insiders said, "These are all members who are in the cabal."
They did not give further details about the TTDF members but promised that further information about their complicity in the DSS operations would be released in due course.
During the TTPS press briefing on Thursday, Griffith also told the media he cancelled his vacation to ensure the DSS investigation receives his full attention. He said this decision was made after meeting with the Minister of National Security and Police Service Commission (PSC).
Griffith has vowed to bring down corrupt police officers and TTDF members who have been involved in one way or the other in illicit operations surrounding the DSS operations.
Commenting on the matter, Griffith said he appointed DCP McDonald Jacob to lead the investigation. "I appointed DCP Jacob to lead this. The investigation via PSB. The financial via FIB. And the UK team would assist in the legislative arm of the investigation which they are well versed in as it pertains to white collar crime."
Soldier captured on video stuffing cash in crotch: 'Money is mine'
DARREN BAHAW 22 HRS AGO
THE SOLDIER who was caught on tape stuffing an envelope into his crotch during a raid at La Horquetta three-weeks ago claims that the envelope did in fact contain a wad of cash, but it was his money, according to investigators.
In a statement to police, the regiment officer who accompanied a contingent of special operations response team officers, to search a house at Kathleen Warner Avenue, said he was merely trying to secure his own money to prevent any allegations of wrongdoing, sources familiar with the probe told Sunday Newsday.
Police found over $22 million in cash at the home of a soldier who operated the drugs sou-sou (DSS) on September 22 but later released the money after they claimed the received instructions from officers of the financial investigations branch of the police.
Police Commissioner Gary Griffith was livid after SSA agents told him the money had been returned without his knowledge and approval mere hours after it was seized.
Since then, police intelligence reports claim that a significant number of police, including senior-ranking officers, and soldiers are involved in an intricate money laundering scheme to wash millions of dollars from criminal gangs as part of pyramid schemes.
Unsuspecting people have invested between $3,500 and $10,000 for unbelievable returns within three weeks. Police said the operation at La Horquetta is just one of many similar pyramid schemes operating in the country and have unearthed the names of several high-ranking officers, criminal gang leaders and politicians as they build their case.
The National Security Council, chaired by the Prime Minister, met to discuss the matter, which threatens to destabilise the economy, but police admit they are having a difficult time in getting evidence to support their case.
A plan to request police officers undergo polygraph test after they authorised the release of the $22 million has been reportedly shelved by Griffith as investigators pursue another line of enquiry.
To date, the operators of the DSS cannot tell police exactly how much money is missing from the La Horquetta raid and have not made any complaints of police abuse of power.
Ok...First read the top article...evidence, ppl involved, named, phone numbers, amounts etc..
next article...difficult to get evidence, unknown amounts, unknown people, and a fella was caught on camera was securing he won money..
Lawd have mercy. And we studying Coaches ain't getting paid, and boys not training to be so much less than they they could ever be, Wallace, Hadad and Fifa...look T&T first
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Griffith embraces foreign help for DSS probe
By Mark Bassant
Lead Editor, Investigative Desk
Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith has gone to Ireland on vacation embracing Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley comments about rogue elements in the T&T Police Service and other protectives agencies linked to the Drugs Sou Sou (DSS) investigation and a plan to bring in help from Barbados and the United Kingdom for the probe.
Reacting to Rowley’s decision to invite foreign investigators to help with the case, Griffith, who will be on vacation until November 1, yesterday told Guardian Media, “I welcome the opportunity of what the Prime Minister has done. It would assist me greatly in trying to weed out exactly the rogue elements that have been involved in this situation.
“I have already started the action by suspending certain police officers, reassigning others and we will continue the investigation to verify if it is much more than disciplinary matters that should take place internally within the police service and if criminal charges can be laid.”
During a meeting post-Budget virtual meeting in Belmont on Thursday, Rowley said he was disturbed by the allegations of corruption levelled against police officers and other law enforcement members named in the DSS matter. He said this was the reason why he felt foreign assistance was necessary.
Griffith, who had ordered the suspension of four officers and transfer of 11 others earlier on Thursday, said the foreign officers will be sworn in as Special Reserve Police on arrival and will have the powers of the TTPS officers.
According to information obtained by Guardian Media, the suspended officers were an acting assistant superintendent, acting inspector, acting corporal and a constable. All of them were allegedly involved in providing paid protection to the DSS members and also allegedly had a hand in allowing the purported $22 million that was seized by officers in the September 22 raid on the DSS base to be released back into the hands of CEO Kerron Clarke—without proper checks done to verify the source of the funds.
Griffith agreed with Rowley that this matter was of paramount importance when it came to national security in the country.
“This is a matter of national security concern and the Prime Minister is the chair of the National Security Council. So, this matter is far greater than just a concern as it pertains to the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service,” he said.
“This goes straight into possible rogue elements in the protective services. It has been very difficult for me in this investigation because it’s obvious there have been Trojan horses within the police service that have affected this investigation. We have numerous reports of police officers who are still in the service, they continue to interfere and make it difficult for this investigation to proceed. Obviously, it seems people are using their position to cover tracks.”
In a subsequent release, Griffith said having external investigators could ensure a strong degree of transparency. He said he had selected a special team of officers he can trust to work alongside the international investigators to deal with any possible rogue elements in the TTPS and to pinpoint persons outside the Police Service who may be committing serious criminal activity via the DSS.
Over the last few weeks, Guardian Media had reported exclusively about the alleged police and army involvement in facilitating the DSS operations over a period of time and of officers and soldiers collecting protection money for their services.
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UK, Bajan cops co-ordinate 2nd DSS raid
By Mark Bassant
Lead Editor, Investigative Desk
Five weeks after police first raided the Drugs Sou-Sou (DSS) headquarters in La Horquetta, officers of the Professional Standards Bureau and Financial Investigations Branch returned to the venue yesterday and seized millions of dollars, several receipt books and other documents as they intensified their investigations into the matter.
This time, however, the two Bajan police officers and one UK investigator now here on the invitation of the Government to assist officers in the case, were instrumental in co-ordinating the operation, according to Ag Commissioner of Police McDonald Jacob.
“They were somewhat of the brainchild in this operation, though they were not there physically,” Jacob told Guardian Media hours after the raid.
Questioned about the UK investigator’s arrival in T&T, since this was not revealed before, Jacob confirmed one of them was already here and on the ground.
“He came just after the officers from Barbados arrived and has been helping since then,” Jacob said.
Asked about the arrival of the other UK investigators, Jacob said they were currently assisting “virtually.”
Guardian Media was told that a Professional Standards Bureau team under Sgt Silver returned to the house where DSS operates, along Kathleen Warner Drive, Phase One, La Horquetta, shortly after 10.30 am yesterday. They later called in members of the Financial Investigations Branch to assist after money was recovered. The officers, armed with the appropriate warrants, spent close to four and a half hours at the house and seized millions in cash, hundreds of receipt books, documents containing line payments to thousands of individuals and other relevant documents.
The cash, seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act, was secured by Financial Investigations Branch officers and taken away to be checked and properly verified. This was done to prevent what occurred five weeks ago, when money a purportedly $22 million seized at the site was taken to the La Horquetta Police Station, only to be returned to DSS head Kerron Clarke mere hours later by junior cops at the station unauthorised to do so before the amount and source of the funds could be verified.
The return of the seized money to Clarke during the first raid on September 21 triggered a major investigation by Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith with the help of the Professional Standards Bureau and Financial Investigations Branch. This after one member of the raiding unit was caught on video allegedly stuffing money into his uniform and other TTPS and Defence Force members were named as affiliates of the DSS operation who were paid to protect its operations. Four cops were suspended and 10 others transferred during the early stages of the probe by Griffith, who is expected back from vacation in Ireland on the weekend.
Jacob, who is overseeing all the probes in Griffith’s absence, yesterday confirmed they wanted to confirm the figure this time before identifying the quantity.
“It is millions, so the FIB has to count the money, so we cannot say at this point the exact sum,” he said.
Jacob acknowledged that the Financial Investigations Branch and Professional Standards Bureau were working together in the DSS investigation, which is not only looking at why police officers released the seized money in the first raid before it was counted but the TTDF member accused of theft during the raid. Added to this, Financial Investigations Branch investigators are still trying to piece together the DSS’ source of funds and are tracing complex financial trails and banking transactions associated with several banks during their investigation.
A senior investigator told Guardian Media that during yesterday’s operation, Professional Standards Bureau officers called in the Financial Investigations Branch after discovering close to $6 million in cash on the premises. The money was taken to the Financial Investigations Branch headquarters in Port-of-Spain and Clarke, along with lawyer Sio Sookdeo, accompanied them there, where the money was to be checked and verified in Clarke’s presence.
Earlier on, when police arrived at the DSS base, Clarke, clearly perturbed by their presence, live-streamed the raid on Instagram to show officers were there a second time and briefly remarked in the two-minute video, “I am being raided again.”
Several people commented during his live stream.
One person said: “All I want to know is what going on with Tobago.”
Another remarked, “Like Barbados reach,” while another viewer said, “I dunno why I cyar get my money, all yuh police sickening.”
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said Government had sought foreign assistance with the DSS investigation due to the allegations of corruption levelled against TTPS members.
Speaking at a PNM post-Budget forum in Belmont, Rowley had warned, “For a member of the Defence Force to stand up on the front page of the newspaper telling the country I am the one organising this, that is not a sou-sou, that is a threat to the national security of Trinidad and Tobago and if we don’t investigate it properly it will be cancer that will eat the soul of this nation.”
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Over 500 cops investigated by PSB in last 4 years
ELIZABETH GONZALES (T&T NEWSDAY).
Over the past four years, the Professional Standards Bureau (PSB) conducted investigations into the conduct of almost 500 police officers across Trinidad and Tobago.
This was revealed by Acting Snr Supt Suzette Martin head of the PSB during a joint select committee meeting on the performance of the police service on Wednesday.
In addressing public concerns about the police, the performance of the service and ways it can be improved to strengthen public confidence in the police, members of the bureau were asked how many police officers were under investigation.
Martin said 30 per cent of the investigations were launched from complaints lodged by other police officers.
In a breakdown, ASP Ricardo Montrichard said, in 2021, 133 police officers came under investigation. In 2020, investigations into the conduct of 124 officers were started, in 2019, 90 officers and 82 officers in 2018.
Some of the officers being investigated remain on duty and some are on suspension.
He added, “So far for 2021 we have 18 of those matters completing meaning that we had 18 police officers that were charged and placed before the court.
"In 2020 we had 16 matters that would have been completed and those officers also placed before the court. In 2019 we have 23 matters of 23 police officers who were charged and placed before the court and 19 in 2018.
"Of course, there will be other matters where no criminal charges were preferred and those matters are closed with no further police action."
He said most of the police officers were brought before the court on suspicion of misbehavior in public office.
“Then we have corruption under the prevention of corruption act. This is if a police officer engages in taking a bribe or any sort of money to do something that he’s not required to do. We also have instances of perverting the course of public justice. Those are prevalent.
“We must be able to deal with discipline matters in order to prevent criminal behaviour.”
According to the TTPS website, there are over 6,500 police officers in varying ranks stationed throughout the service.
Acting Commissioner of Police McDonald Jacob said police have an up-to-date system that is tracking the progress of these matters before the court involving police officers.
Sgt Amir Mohammed said the main challenge with the operations of the bureau is technological issues with poor quality CCTV footage.
“When we get the footage of police misconduct or otherwise sometimes the footage isn’t clear. Technology isn’t available to have it enhanced so it can be evidence and offenders could be identified.
The extraction of cellphone footage doesn’t happen as fast as needed. In addition to those, we engage the assistance of the Special Investigations Unit to assist with surveillance so we can gather intelligence through that means."
Mohammed said there were mechanisms in place to protect whistleblowers which he believes would encourage other police officers to come forward with information.
The bureau will soon be expanded to become more efficient in dealing with these matters in a more timely way.