The relevance of the PCA

It is deeply concerning when an institution that is supposed to hold law enforcement accountable, such as the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) in Trinidad and Tobago, fails to take meaningful action following investigations of serious allegations, including extrajudicial killings and police misconduct. Based on available information, the PCA has indeed faced significant criticism over the years for its lack of effective follow-through and transparency regarding its investigations.

While the PCA is mandated to investigate complaints against police officers, including allegations of misconduct and extrajudicial killings, the authority’s actions (or lack thereof) have often been scrutinised by both the public and advocacy groups. The PCA’s annual reports have, at times, highlighted the number of complaints and investigations undertaken, but there have been very few instances where those investigations resulted in tangible outcomes such as disciplinary actions, prosecutions, or public accountability.

Key Issues with the PCA’s Effectiveness

1. Lack of Transparency: One of the main criticisms of the PCA is its perceived lack of transparency. Despite having investigated numerous allegations over the years, there is often little public information on the results of those investigations. Victims and their families are left without answers, and the public loses confidence in the authority's ability to act decisively.

2. Delayed or Inactionable Outcomes: In many cases, investigations seem to drag on indefinitely without any clear resolution. Allegations of extrajudicial killings, in particular, have been prominent, yet no significant action appears to have been taken. This can lead to a perception of impunity within the police force, undermining the public’s trust in both the PCA and the police.

3. Political Influence and Institutional Resistance: The PCA's role as an independent body is meant to ensure that law enforcement officers are held accountable without political interference. However, the influence of political actors and institutional resistance within the police force has often been cited as a barrier to the PCA’s effectiveness. This creates a lack of political will to take strong action against police officers, especially in high-profile or sensitive cases.

4. Limited Resources and Powers: The PCA’s ability to hold police officers accountable may also be limited by insufficient resources, legal powers, or support from other state institutions. For instance, the PCA does not have the same powers of prosecution as the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), which limits its ability to enforce actions based on its findings. Its role is largely investigative, but without the power to prosecute or make binding decisions, its impact can be limited.

Extrajudicial Killings and the PCA

The issue of extrajudicial killings by police officers has been a longstanding concern in Trinidad and Tobago. While the PCA has been tasked with investigating these serious allegations, many of these cases remain unresolved or have not resulted in the prosecution of officers involved. The lack of convictions or meaningful disciplinary actions sends a troubling message that there are few consequences for police officers who engage in unlawful killings or other misconduct.

Examples of Criticism and Public Sentiment

Over the years, human rights organisations, civil society groups, and the media have repeatedly criticised the PCA for its inaction. There have been public calls for greater oversight and reform, but the response from both the PCA and government institutions has often been insufficient. The perception of a "culture of impunity" among the police, especially in cases of extrajudicial killings, only deepens when investigations by the PCA result in no concrete actions or outcomes.

Moving Forward

For the PCA to become a truly effective body in ensuring accountability for police actions, it must:

• Ensure transparency in its investigations and outcomes, providing the public with regular updates and clear explanations of its actions.

• Strengthen its legal and operational capacity, perhaps by seeking the ability to make binding recommendations or refer cases directly to the courts for prosecution.

• Reform the institutional and political environment that may be preventing the PCA from acting independently, ensuring that the police are held to account in all cases, including extrajudicial killings and other serious misconduct.

• Engage with civil society to foster a stronger relationship of trust and accountability between the public, law enforcement, and oversight bodies.

Unfortunately, there seems to have been a persistent failure to take action in cases of police misconduct in Trinidad and Tobago, leading to widespread disillusionment with the PCA's effectiveness. Until there is a substantial shift in both the operational capacity of the PCA and the political will to hold the police accountable, it is unlikely that public confidence in the institution will be restored.

No, You Don’t Get to Breach Copyright Because Your Husband Was Black Stalin

 

I’ve read Abdon Mason’s hand-wringing letter [https://trinidadexpress.com/opinion/letters/have-mercy-on-stalin-s-widow/article_da11ca3f-141f-42ab-a57e-bd2e5de22edf.html] about the copyright judgment against Black Stalin’s widow. Let me say what he wouldn’t: it’s legally illiterate nonsense.

A woman used a copyrighted photo of her late husband in a promotional campaign for a public tribute concert. She didn’t have the photographer’s permission. That is copyright infringement. It doesn’t matter who her husband was.

Leroy “Black Stalin” Calliste was a national treasure, yes. But fame does not override the law. It never has and never will. No amount of nostalgic calypso lyrics, funeral tributes, or patriotic flag-waving makes theft of intellectual property magically lawful.

Let’s deal with the facts.

The photographer, Angelo Marcelle, owns the rights to the image. It had been licensed before. It had value. Using it again, publicly and commercially, without consent, breached those rights.

The widow didn’t defend the legal action. She didn’t respond. She didn’t instruct a lawyer. So the court entered a default judgment. That’s not heartlessness. That’s civil procedure. Ignore a claim and lose—simple.

Mason calls this “tone-deaf” and “asinine”. I call it lawful. If you want to honour your late husband, you don’t do it by trampling on someone else’s legal rights. You certainly don’t rally public outrage to gaslight the courts.

This is not about punishing grief. It’s about protecting creators who—unlike the subject of the photo—are still alive and working. Photographers, artists, musicians—every one of them deserves control over their work, whether or not the person pictured is famous.

The argument that this is “just one image” is pitiful. That’s like stealing one painting and saying it’s fine because the artist painted more. It’s not only wrong, it’s insulting.

Mason asks if this is the nation we’ve become. I hope so—a nation where copyright means something. A nation where creators aren’t sacrificed on the altar of nostalgia.

And let’s be honest—what’s actually “tone-deaf” is using Stalin’s legacy to excuse unlawful conduct. Stalin sang truth to power. He stood for fairness and rights. His name should not be dragged into a campaign to vilify someone for protecting their intellectual property.

Respect the dead—but obey the law. No one is above it. Not even the widow of a legend.

A Systems Failure in Trinidad and Tobago

The problems plaguing Trinidad and Tobago are systems problems. Systems thinking is a separate field, evolved from handling complexity and problems that cannot be resolved through simplifying. It looks at variables and connections/interrelationships, and looks at where small iterations or influence can affect meaningful change. Trinidad and Tobago suffers from many such complex problems, but each of those problems are connected to the other so you can see that there are systems nested within systems, or sitting parallel to the systems. Complexity and chaos is the result. It is not helped by corruption, lack of critical thinking and downright stupidity. The last 10 years of political governance is a prime example.

Let us deal with national security. I note that Roger Alexander is already mouthing off. Nothing surprising there. His internal character was on full display during his television programme – a bully, lack of critical thinking skills (and probably qualifications), and resorting to the "brute squad" mentality of the Randolph Burroughs era. It seems he did not learn anything from Gary Griffith. Shutting your mouth and go about your job quietly. I trust that we will soon see police officers wearing and using body cams and full investigations for all these extrajudicial killings.

Firearms users licences – I suppose soon we can load up the "matic" and empty the clip. There is a disturbing shortsighted thinking coming from the newly installed Prime Minister. She seems bent (from her actions so far) in following the failed USA (Ministry of homeland security? Please!). The solution is not more guns, but the opposite. Statistics and real-world examples abound where countries that do not have armed citizens are safer. In fact, many of these countries do not even have armed police. What we need is more effective policing. Over the last 20 years I have written that the purported solve rate of serious crimes is 6%. This itself is a misleading figure because the robustness of evidence presented to the court for a conviction remains at 1% of that 6%. This means that the police are either not trained sufficiently to gather forensic evidence in a robust manner sufficient enough to satisfy the court and rules of evidence, or that the police force remains generally lazy and prone to shortcuts and corruption. The public sphere is inundated with cases of police officers taking bribes to forego prosecution. There is also a notable lack of will to take disciplinary action against police officers by its leadership.

In terms of the economy, the entire countries know that we are in for a hard time. Clearly, the country is bankrupt or nearly so. Billions have gone missing with no explanation. The former minister of finance was an arrogant pompek. There is more than one prima facie case of corruption sitting in his lap. Steps must be taken to diversify income streams, decentralise public services, build/repair the decades-neglected infrastructure, find ways to bring wages to match living costs without further bankrupting the country. Reduce national debt, manage the collection of income tax, and put a curb on imports. A harsh measure, I know, but a temporary solution.

Remove egos from all members of the new government. Accept criticism, chew on it and digest it. It is a sign of maturity and growth to do this. Take on-board that you do not know everything, and members of the public may have solutions also. You are not expected to have all the answers. But you can seek answers from those with the correct expertise. In doing so, do not use it as a means of corrupting the process, by hiring unqualified family and friends.

Fear, Favouritism, and the Fall of a Nation – A Rebuttal to Lynette Joseph’s PNM Hagiography

In her recent commentary [Daily Express https://tinyurl.com/2x4rbhda], Lynette Joseph offers readers a lyrical but profoundly misleading take on the upcoming 2025 general election. She champions Professor Hamid Ghany’s polling analysis but then veers into a full-throated defence of the People’s National Movement (PNM)—not as a political party, but as a fixed point in national destiny. Her piece masquerades as political insight; in truth, it is a partisan hymn to a ruling elite who have governed without vision, without transparency, and without accountability.

Let us confront the facts: Trinidad and Tobago is not thriving. It is treading water in a sea of missed opportunities, systemic patronage, and elite impunity.

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The Real Legacy of the PNM: Cronyism, Cutbacks, and Captured Institutions

Lynette Joseph’s portrayal of the PNM as an inclusive, reformist movement would be laughable—if it were not so offensive to the thousands of citizens who have been shut out, let down, and sold short by this administration.

1. The Dismantling of Educational Opportunity

Under the PNM, access to higher education has been gutted. The Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (GATE) programme, once a passport to progress for working-class families, has been rolled back. Postgraduate students have been pushed out, and those from middle-income households now face crippling fees. Meanwhile, those with political connections receive scholarships in secret, with no application process, no criteria, and no requirement to repay.

One scandalous example: Laurel Lezama-Lee Sing, a former PNM senator, received over TT$500,000 in state funds for overseas education. This “scholarship” was never publicly accounted for, raising red flags in the Auditor General’s 2010 Report. The lack of transparency violated the principles of natural justice and fiduciary duty—yet not a single minister was held accountable.

This is not governance. It is state-sanctioned nepotism.

2. The Institutionalisation of Crony Contracts

The PNM has entrenched a system of state contracts awarded not on merit, but on loyalty, family name, and political proximity.

• The Young family, including the Prime Minister’s brother, has been linked to security contracts with NGC and Heritage Petroleum. No competitive tendering. No public scrutiny.

• The Al-Rawi family, with substantial real estate holdings, has benefitted from state leases, housing consultations, and untendered legal briefs.

• Projects in Point Fortin, Moruga, and EMBD land developments have exploded in cost—often doubling initial estimates—without explanation or consequence. Where are the audits? Where is the procurement oversight?

These are not isolated incidents. They are symptoms of a system designed to reward insiders and exclude the rest.

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Silencing the Watchdogs, Stalling the Law

The PNM deliberately starved the Procurement Regulator’s office of funding, delaying the enforcement of legislation that could curb precisely the abuses listed above. It has hollowed out independent offices, discouraged transparency, and actively undermined Parliamentary Joint Select Committees, refusing to answer hard questions or produce key documents.

This is government by evasion, not oversight.

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The Myth of Inclusivity

Joseph claims the PNM “welcomes all and sundry”. But inclusivity is not a slogan—it is a practice. In reality:

• Dissenters face blacklisting.

• Whistleblowers are silenced or sidelined.

• Only those who “play the game” are rewarded with jobs, contracts, or housing allocations.

In contrast, she paints the United National Congress (UNC) as merely “salivating over crossover citizens”. Yet it is the UNC that has opened its candidate slate to youth, women, and professionals from across the social spectrum. Has it made mistakes? Certainly. But unlike the PNM, it is no longer operating as a closed family firm.

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A Nation in Decline, A Future at Risk

Joseph closes by suggesting the 2025 election is “not about ethnicity or religion” but about “who will wake up and smell the fearsome IMF coffee”. On this, we agree—but she fails to mention that it is the PNM’s economic mismanagement that brewed that coffee in the first place.

With oil and gas revenues volatile, and no serious economic diversification, Trinidad and Tobago stands on a precipice. Corruption, brain drain, and inequality are not abstract risks—they are daily realities. This is not just bad politics. It is an existential failure of leadership.

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Conclusion: Reject Fear, Demand Accountability

Lynette Joseph’s article asks us to ignore history, forgive betrayal, and accept the status quo as inevitable. But we must reject nostalgia for a past that never served all of us equally. The 2025 election is not a coronation. It is a chance to reclaim the republic from a political cartel that governs by favour, not fairness.

We are not powerless. Our votes are not valueless.

Let us vote not for party, but for principle. Let us rebuild a nation not for the connected few—but for the many who have waited too long for justice, jobs, and dignity.

Gun control vs Accountability

 

This letter rebuts recent public comments (especially by PM in waiting Stuart Young [Daily Express 12/04/25]) suggesting that the solution to Trinidad and Tobago’s violent crime crisis may lie in expanding access to firearms for law-abiding citizens and in the creation of elite police squads. While these proposals may sound appealing to a fearful public, the evidence—both local and international—overwhelmingly shows that such approaches are ineffective and potentially dangerous. What is urgently needed is not more guns, but more justice.

Guns do not solve crime—they escalate it.
The United States offers a cautionary tale. It leads the developed world in both gun ownership and gun-related homicides. The 2023 Small Arms Survey estimates over 393 million civilian-held firearms in the US—more than one gun per person. Yet, rather than feeling safer, Americans face a gun death rate 25 times higher than other high-income countries (Everytown for Gun Safety, 2023). Rather than acting as a deterrent, widespread gun availability often escalates conflict and leads to tragic outcomes—whether in domestic disputes, community altercations, or mistaken identity.

Arming the public not only increases the number of firearms in circulation but also increases the chances of those firearms ending up in the wrong hands—through theft, trafficking, or loss. It is no coincidence that studies show more guns equals more gun crime. Trinidad and Tobago’s focus should not be to emulate failed models, but to learn from them.

The real crisis is not lack of firepower, but lack of justice.
Trinidad and Tobago suffers from a chronic collapse in law enforcement effectiveness. According to recent figures, the detection rate for homicides hovers around 6%. Worse still, the prosecution rate is just 1% of that 6%—an effective prosecution rate of roughly 0.06%. This means that nearly all perpetrators know they are unlikely to face any consequences. No society can claim to be governed by the rule of law when the odds of being caught and punished are that low. The problem is not the absence of weapons in citizens’ hands—it is the near-total absence of consequences for violent crime.

Rather than introducing more firearms into an already volatile environment, the Government should prioritise:

• Judicial reform to ensure speedier and more efficient prosecutions;

• Investment in forensic and investigative capacity so that evidence gathered is robust and admissible;

• Training and oversight of the police to improve professionalism, reduce corruption, and increase detection rates;

• Public trust and community policing, which are the true foundation of sustainable security.

Elite squads and undercover units may have a place in specific tactical operations, but they cannot replace a police force that the population trusts and a judiciary that delivers timely justice. Additionally, the proposal for legal immunity for undercover officers involved in criminal acts raises grave constitutional and human rights concerns and must be subject to robust legal safeguards—not political promises.

Conclusion: A nation armed is not a nation safe.
If Trinidad and Tobago truly wishes to combat violent crime, it must resist the false comfort of arming its populace. Guns are not justice. Swift detection, credible evidence, and timely, transparent trials are the only sustainable deterrents to violent crime. Without these, even the best-equipped elite squads will be chasing shadows while the streets remain unsafe.