More Questions than answers

After some 14 months passed since the death of Dana Seetahal, the dunceys have finally made a ‘breakthrough’ and arrested 11 persons.

DCP Hackett told reporters this was the most challenging case of his career.

“This case stands out as the most challenging case I've ever worked on. Apart from employing in the investigation new techniques we have been exposed to, what became our greatest challenge was coordinating and synchronising the technological aspect of this investigation. This new technology we had to employ… we had to seek help from international law enforcement agencies in putting together a coherent and cohesive technological case with respect to the charges laid against those persons,” Hackett said.

He also showered praise on all the officers and agencies involved that assisted in the investigations.

“I would like to express my deepest appreciation to DPP Roger Gaspard SC for his invaluable legal advice in this matter. I would also like to thank the commissioner of police Stephen Williams for all his support, logistical and otherwise in this matter and to all other law enforcement agencies, both local and international, for their assistance rendered to TTPS during the course of this investigation.

“I would like to thank all the units, sections, branches of the TTPS that contributed to the success of these investigations. Including the Homicide Bureau, the Special Branch, the CGIU, the Cyber-crime unit, amongst others. And I want to express gratitude to each member of the team of investigators charged with the responsibility for the conduct of this investigation. In particular for their exemplary devotion and dedication to duty.

“Additionally I would like to thank ACP Wayne Dick for the contribution he made to this investigation prior to his embarkation on vacation leave. Special mention must also be made to the diligence of Superintendent Kenrick Edwards, and ASP Christopher of the CGIU, as well as Superintendent Ancel Corbet, ASP Rampersad and Inspect Michael Veronique,” Hackett said.

Pay attention to those words above. Now pay attention to the words of the brother of Dana Seetahal, Omar Seetahal:

Speaking with the Sunday Express by telephone yesterday evening, Seetahal said crime has been on the rise in recent days. He referred to the murder of four members of a Chatham family shortly after one of them reported information of a crime to the police. He noted that this and other matters have contributed to the erosion of public confidence in the police service, and suggested that a press briefing held yesterday at Police Administration Building in Port of Spain to announce the charges for 11 men, was more about restoring the police image than about justice for his sister.

“When I looked at the news briefing, a good half of the briefing was spent by the DCP praising various departments of the police force and thanking them for their help in the matter, talking about how hard they worked and all that, as though the matter has been solved and they have gotten a conviction,” he said.

“They talked about how competent they were in this matter and how complex this matter was and how they had to use modern cutting-edge technology to solve this matter. I find that a little odd that they are acting like the matter has now come to a conclusion.”

Seetahal also suggested that the 11 men charged had no motive to want to kill his sister and that there was more to investigate.

“These 11 people, nine of them are in their twenties, most of them are from Carapo, what do they have to benefit from Dana's death?” he asked. “What would they have killed Dana for? I'm not saying they didn't but why would they have done it? Therefore the question has to be asked if they have gotten all the people involved.”

These words resonate with me, especially since the conviction rate in murder is an abysmal 1% of the 6% (USA verified) arrest rate. And by arrest rate I mean the investigation, arrest and ‘solving’ of the crime. It’s useful to document these words in this blog, because 4 or 5 years from now, when the trial collapses, I can look back and know that once more, the dunceys were smack on the money… upholding their less than sterling reputations.

And speaking of less than sterling reputations, the mother of deceased PC Maynard has asked the question no law enforcement official has asked about the jail-break on Friday… “How were the escapees armed?”

“I wonder how they (the escaped prisoners) came out of the prison armed. It’s a jail. You can’t have people coming out with a firearm. There must be prison officers in the jail and they must have made certain observations or made certain searches. I don’t know...what I believe is that if there was more security, may­be this would have been avoided,” Abraham said.

It’s an embarrassing question, and certainly not one the dunceys will bring up in public. The other question I have is, “Did Prison Officer(s) supply the arms?”

[Acting CoP Stephen] Williams also sent condolences to the family of the slain officer, PC Sherman Maynard. He added that he had no information on how the prisoners were able to escape and declined to comment further saying it is an on-going investigation.

Observe: 1) As usual, he is clueless, and 2) He falls back on the usual excuse of ‘an on-going investigation so no comment’.

Rock Crawlers were not happy with Gibbs and Ewatski who actually had the crime rate reducing and had well-planned long-term objectives. Instead, they bleated for ‘a local who understand dey culture’ and the result is plenty of chest thumping, plenty of sound bites (which appears dotish coming from Williams who sounds illiterate in the first place).

There’s more on these two stories to come, I’m sure.

And it continues…

While Acting Commissioner of Police toots his own horn, claiming serious crime is down, and marching with religious leaders for peace, it’s murder as usual in Trinidad and Tobago.

• Gardener shot dead at bar ...Brother, woman also injured
• Missing man found dead in van
• Man, 24, gunned down in Laventille
• Police recover vehicle of murdered jailer
• Laventille man guilty of soldier’s murder

Those are headlines from just today, 19th July 2015.

I recall some years ago that the dunceys were saying that the murder detection rate was 20%. I estimated it then to be nearer 8% and lo and behold, I was right. In fact, the USA just confirmed it is somewhere in the region of 6% which is quite high for the dunceys. Until you realise that figure includes those murders that stem from domestic disputes and where the attacker is seen/witnessed/known.

In the majority of murders, like Dana Seetahal’s, there are no witnesses and thus, the dunceys are lost… my description is that they can’t find cascadoo in a bucket. If you think I’m being a bit harsh, think about it a minute. Over 400 murders a year, over 4000 in the past ten years and they have ‘detected’ less than 6%.

Of those ‘detected’ the ‘investigation’ is often so incompetent that the conviction rate is a staggering … 1%.

Led by a man who speaks as if he is completely illiterate, the dunceys have shown themselves, time after time, to be incompetent, immoral, corrupt, and generally a blight leaching on the financial blood of the country.

In another situation, a prisons officer was shot dead in Morvant. The duncey in charge, aside from making the usual dotish statements regarding crime, unrelated to this or that, no expected increase, etc. etc., amply demonstrated that the entire police service is bereft of ideas. Aside from ‘increased patrols’ and ‘road blocks’, they have no other workable ideas to bring crime down.

In reaction to the death of the prisons officer, his compadres are baying for guns to protect themselves. Which, as anyone with a grain of brain, will realise is a stupendously dotish idea.

Most of the deaths are unexpected ‘ambushes’. The possibility of having a warning, and getting out a firearm, and knowing who to shoot at, aiming and firing, is certainly almost 0%. Guns will make no difference except to put more innocent bystanders at risk, as if we didn’t have enough of them already from dunceys unable to shoot straight and abusing their power.

Oddly though, if you tell prisons officers they may be less at risk if they stop thumping on prisoners, who will certainly be looking for payback upon release, they will never see the connection. It is far more likely that thumping on prisoners is a ‘norm’ rather than an exception, and while it is practically a tradition in prisons, the said prisoners are now far more aware of their rights and resentment is surely growing for abuses of those rights.

Sadly, I foresee both situations will continue…

C’est la vie

I’ve oft had to repeat myself on this blog. A simple search of “crash dummies” will explain what I mean.

Despite a breathalyser law/device coming into effect some time ago, there is the usual road fatalities for the Christmas period. Trinis like their rum, after all. Now, the articles from the different newspapers did not specifically mention alcohol; but it is part of the Trini culture embedded into the people. The police annually have to send out caution messages.

The deaths of Daljir, Ramroop and Jane Rampersad-Reichel, 49, of Pro Queen Street, Arima, brought to eight, the number of people killed in vehicular accidents over the past two days. On Christmas Eve, four Guyanese nationals—Redison Roberts, 38, his wife Indrani Roberts, 28, Wrenson Lewis, 34, his Trinidadian wife Melissa Watteron-Lewis, 24, and their two-year-old daughter Renesha died when their car ran off the road.

8 deaths. 8 which might have been avoided with a little caution, less speed and more thought on arriving safely. C’est la vie!

On another topic:

PRISONS COMMISSIONER John Rougier says he does not intend to subject his senior officers to scrutiny searches while entering the prisons because statistics have shown that the corrupt officers were within the junior ranks.

Commissioner Rougier said he stands firm in his decision that his senior officers would not go through scrutiny searches because the officers are not involved in the trafficking of drugs and contraband into the prisons.

Rougier said, “I would not allow my senior officers to come out of their cars to go through a baggage scanner system. What is happening is that we have systems in place where we search under people’s cars and that their trunks will be opened.”

“All officers including senior officers would be subjected to that, but I am not prepared to have my senior officers come out of their car and go through a baggage scanner.  Mr Richards farse with himself... as far as I am concerned he is farse and out of place,” Rougier said during a telephone interview on Friday.

He added, “The thing about it is that they (POA) are bringing a lot of allegations to distract from the problems in the systems where the rogue and young officers are concerned, and are always trying to bring my senior officers in the fray.”

Rougier said he was certain that his senior officers are not engaged in the illegal trafficking trade within the prisons.

“I know my senior officers and they are not corrupt officers. When they come to a station to do their work and carry out supervision and monitor the same junior officers. I trust my senior officers and let me tell you something, my senior officers are not involved in this trafficking,” he said.

“People could say what they want, but I know my senior officers and they are not involved in this drug trafficking and bringing in cell phones and all this sort of thing for inmates.

He added, “I am confident about that and as a matter of fact they (senior officers) have been putting pressure on junior officers... Mr Richards is only farse with himself and that’s the level of disrespect that Mr Richards and the association have for senior officers. That is what is creating the indiscipline within the service where a man can go on the radio and speak that disrespect, going to the public and implying that senior officers are involved in trafficking,” Rougier said.

However, in response to Rougier’s statements, president of the POA Rajkumar Ramroop yesterday maintained that both senior and junior officers should go through the same level of searches.

He said there are similar systems in prisons across the Caribbean, where every member of staff is subjected to scrutiny searches.

First of all, the statistic that ‘show the corrupt officers were within the junior ranks’ doesn’t necessarily explain why only junior officers are caught… for obvious reasons. Neither does it explain that junior officers can’t really be corrupt unless that corruption is condoned and/or shared by senior officers.

Like judges ruling to exempt themselves from the Integrity Act, this decision by Rougier shouts to the rooftops that the senior officers do have something to hide. I can well believe the reporter who wrote:

Three weeks ago, there were allegations that a senior officer assigned to the Maximum Security Prison in Arouca, had given a prisoner a quantity of marijuana and other contraband items.

A search was conducted on the inmate’s cell but the drug was found in the court yard. Police who were called to the facility believe that the inmate tossed the drug through his window moments before the search.

One of the officers who conducted a search at the inmate’s cell was subsequently transferred to the Port of Spain State Prison, the Express was told.

Of course, now we must understand that a junior officer, deemed corrupt by his boss, will eventually get promoted and … upon promotion to senior, go on the straight and narrow…

Take Don Mascal, pictured on the left. Last year Mascal, who has 18 years service as a Prison’s Officer, was arrested.

Officers from the Organised Crime, Narcotics and Firearms Interdiction Bureau, reacting to information received, conducted a search of the prisons officer’s vehicle. They discovered and seized the quantity of marijuana, as well as several “contraband” items.

The items included a bottle of alcohol, ten cigarette lighters; three cell phones; three cell phone chargers; nine packets of wrapping paper for the marijuana; seven packets of hemp; three cartons of Du Maurier (20 per pack); one carton of Du Maurier (10 per pack); and 21 packets of assorted cigarettes. Mascal was found with the drugs while parked outside of the Port-of-Spain Prison.

C’est la vie.

Fighting back

Prisons Officers (another type of duncey, eh) want to have a firearm issued to each for off duty hours. The reason: several have been 'taken out' under questionable circumstances.

What I have noticed however, is that all those deaths occurred while the officers were drunk and liming. So my question is: Is a drunk prison officer any safer to himself, family or the public? 

Giving these arses firearms is like pouring gasoline on a fire.

Now I have no bias against them besides stupidity... it is their brutal behaviour of prisoners that make them targets when those same prisoners are released. So primarily the situation is of their own making, and the proposed solution is a pretty shiny tinfoil that can support no rationalisation.

The prisoners are only fighting back.

What’s reasonable..and not?

The outcome of a recent court case here in England has rocked the law and fired emotions! [The following information, gathered from several media reports, has not been verified].

What is known

It is the case of Munir Hussain, who was convicted of grievous bodily harm with intent, for retaliating against burglars, in balaclavas, who entered his home, put him and his family to lie face down on the floor and threatened to kill them. Hussain managed to confront one of the burglars, Waled Salem – a criminal with more than 50 convictions. Hussain was joined in a chase after the burglar by his brother Tokeer. They bashed his brains with a cricket bat, which in the process broke in three places.

Hussain was arrested charged and convicted of grievous bodily harm with intent and given a 30 month sentence!! Tokeer was given a 39 month sentence.

Munir Hussain, was a 53 year old businessman, and self-made millionaire. He was returning to his home from Ramadan prayers at a local mosque on Sept 3 2008. He and his family were confronted by three men wearing balaclavas in his home. Their lives were threatened; knives waved at them. Hussain’s teenage son was chased by two of the masked men. Hussain turned on Salem (the burglar) who escaped the house. Hussain’s, brother Tokeer arrived shortly after and they pursued Salem. They caught him and delivered a severe beating with a cricket bat, causing Salem a fractured skull, a broken jaw, and brain damage.

Witnesses reportedly said that four Asian men were seen beating Salem with a hockey stick and a cricket bat.

The criminal

Salem was eventually charged with false imprisonment but released on a supervision order. He was found unfit to plead in court but was  of sufficient capacity to boast that he was untouchable. Daily Mail 2009-12-21.

The Court

Judge John Reddihough in Dec 2009, described the attack on Salem as a "dreadful, violent attack" by the Hussain brothers.  Judge Reddihough added:

"It may be that some members of the public, or media commentators, will assert that Salem deserved what happened to him at the hands of you and the two others involved, and that you should not have been prosecuted and need not be punished," the judge added.

"However, if persons were permitted to … inflict their own instant and violent punishment on an apprehended offender rather than letting justice take its course, then the rule of law and our system of criminal justice, which are the hallmarks of a civilised society, would collapse."

Recent judgment

However, on 20th Dec 2010 – three judges at the Appeal Court  in London, replaced Hussain's 30-month prison term with one of a year, and ordered that it should be suspended for two years. Tokeer’s sentence was similarly reduced but he remains in prison. This recent judgment has rekindled fierce debates about self-defence and a person’s right to protect their property and family.

 

Lawyers have cautioned people not to read too much into the judgment. Guardian 2010-01-20.

Lord Judge said  that the principle “that you cannot take the law into your own hands without punishment” must be upheld, but that the truly exceptional circumstances of the case, allowed the court to “reflect the principles of justice and mercy”.

Essential reading: Times 2010-01-21

What do you all think about all this?