Live Wire notes: Police pull kyat tail; plus media vs media vs media…

Read slowly: The police are about to launch a police investigation into the actions of the police in conducting a nationwide exercise that used police officers to frustrate motorists and essentially bring Trinidad and Tobago to a standstill.

The police top brass have asked for two weeks to find out who was behind it. And, yes, the police still hope to get a raise at the end of this.

It is like a madman holding himself hostage as he reads out ransom demands. And then stabbing himself in the leg so that everyone knows he is serious.

Like the Jamaat-Al-Muslimeen in 1990, the Police Service has exerted itself on the Trinidad and Tobago power structure and captured the attention and awe of the local public. It is akin to the pothound that chases the motorcar somehow managing to get behind the wheel.

Now what?!

The police dare not threaten a repeat of yesterday’s perceived industrial action and, presumably, have two weeks to negotiate a settlement with the CPO that includes an amnesty of sorts. Or a scapegoat will have to be sacrificed.

The police have pulled the tiger’s tail without first finding a hiding spot or considering the response. And the CPO must be grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Photo: Is not only Gerry who loves dem Trini rat and them...
Photo: Is not only Gerry who loves dem Trini rat and them…

As Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley should testify, this is no time to be walking around pulling kyat tail.

Kyat in bag, of course, is almost a hobby in Trinidad and Tobago, where the national motto should read: Act Now, Think Later.

The three daily newspapers led the charge at windmills today.

The Trinidad Guardian claimed yesterday that National Security Minister Carl Alfonso ordered the police to immediately halt all roadblocks. Alfonso denied the suggestion and said it would obviously be outside his remit to do so.

And the Guardian’s response?

The newspaper published a follow-up today in which acting acting Commissioner of Police Ann Marie Alleyne-Daly—she is acting in the absence of the acting CoP Stephen Williams—explained that Alfonso had no authority to dictate to police on that manner.

Sometimes, Guardian readers should know, the hardest word to say is: sorry.

The Trinidad Express was at its confuffling best too.

Clive Bacchus, President of the Association of Caribbean Media Workers, issued a press release yesterday that expressed concerns about the “unlawful and defamatory” social media attacks on Express investigative reporters and contributor, Asha Javeed, Denyse Renne and Sunity Maharaj, and Wired868 editor, Lasana Liburd.

Photo: Mr Live Wire can't tell if he is reading a defamatory Facebook page... Or the Trinidad Express!
Photo: Mr Live Wire can’t tell if he is reading a defamatory Facebook page… Or the Trinidad Express!

“We believe that a well-resourced, concerted attempt is being made to intimidate and to smear the characters of some journalists in the face of their investigative and analytical work,” stated Bacchus. “… We have also been advised that in the run-up to elections due later this year, there has been an increase in social media attacks, some of them legally actionable, against targeted journalists.

“We encourage media professionals to exercise their legal options when deemed necessary.”

The Express, in covering the story, repeated the libels without even offering the journalists—their own employees, mostly—the chance to respond and possibly slandered them worse than the vitriolic bloggers did in the first place.

It was like putting a complex rescue mission in the hands of Mr Bean.

The Trinidad Newsday was not to be left out of the fun.

On Monday, newly minted Law Association president Reginald Armour SC informed the media, via press release, that he would no longer be representing Rowley in a legal matter so as to insulate his new position from accusations of political bias.

The Newsday’s headline was: “Armour drops Rowley’s briefs.”

Ouch. It was a worthy follow up to the paper’s recent headline of a dispute between West Indies batsman Lendl Simmons and his former mistress, Therese Ho, which read: “Ho accuses Simmons of sex photo leak.”

Did Newsday hire “Zandolee” as its Editor-in-Chief per chance?

But it pales in comparison to the acting acting CoP’s claim that an unidentified rogue had cleverly used a loophole within the police’s operations to mobilise enough roadblocks to temporarily shut down Trinidad and Tobago.

Photo: Careful guys. The Trinidad and Tobago Police is investigating...
Photo: Careful guys. The Trinidad and Tobago Police is investigating…

Roadblock-gate perhaps? Personally, Live Wire prefers to file this one under “Operation Valkyrie.”

Tom Cruise is my second suspect.

The first suspect, naturally, is Rajaee Ali.

In unrelated news, Trinidad and Tobago limited overs cricket star Dwayne Bravo made a brief appearance on a UNC platform on Monday night after spending part of the night alongside former high profile athlete and now Sport Minister Brent Sancho.

Live Wire cannot confirm whether Bravo was disappointed to later learn it was not the IPL Draft.

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About Mr. Live Wire

Mr. Live Wire is an avid news reader who translates media reports for persons who can handle the truth. And satire. Unlike Jack Nicholson, he rarely yells.

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37 comments

  1. Sing it out loud …Himself told himself… you are charged for speeding
    Himself start to shout…. the policeman lying
    Himself told himself don’t shout
    This ent no sport
    then charged himself for contempt of court.

  2. Lasana, you have outdone ourself on this one. When the history of T&T journalism gets written, your name is going to come up alongside Choko’s as a pioneer and exponent of a completely new – and brilliant genre. As the lady said, take a bow.

  3. Question for the bards.. “Who going guard the guards”……. King Austin said it back in 80

  4. Lasana tonigh’ts news call for a sequel. Want to see if you could top this one. Cracking up laughing. Dwayne Bravo thought it might be a call up for the IPL. LMAO.. Maybe he thought it was the ILP. Cyah,cyah,cyah.

  5. She is acting in absence of the actor then. Yes?

  6. I know there had to a cat in here somewhere, even if it’s the Cheshire one….. :'(. If you do this every day, it would save me having to read the papers yes!

  7. Loved this! Definitely one of my favourites.

  8. For some of your “friends” Lasana

  9. 5 Stars Mr Live Wire⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A non-Trini would think this was fiction!

  10. Multilingual long time. Just now I will have to start speak $%^^* for some of those bloggers! 🙂 🙂

  11. Lasana Liburd looks like you are also beginning to be multilingual I see you also speak Sarcasm like myself!

  12. Lasana Liburd u cdnt hv said it better…Ouch!!!

  13. Andrea. That’s the most technical of technicalities I’ve ever heard. Smh

  14. He’ll be paid his acting allowance while he is on vacation because he is acting for more than a certain time. But the job is not his until he is confirmed

  15. Stephen Williams on vacation. He still acting and she is acting in.his absence.

  16. The job is not his until he is confirmed!

  17. Still recovering from laughing until I cried…take a bow!!

  18. Really Andrea? Stephen Williams is gone?

  19. Lasana, small correction, she is not acting for Stephen Williams, she is acting in the vacant position of CoP. Great read as usual!

  20. Horrible eh Lasana!!! But, they also singing this one….. http://youtu.be/NFC4k67woFc

  21. The behaviour of the three dailies was very important I think… And that is one of my favourite tunes this year Ravi! 🙂

  22. ” It was like putting a complex rescue mission in the hands of Mr Bean.” was my favorite line, until I read the analysis of the 3 dailies -I go ded here yes.

  23. Lasana I have a calypso for this one – Spoiler’s Magistrate who tried himself.

  24. Lasana, just for the last piece of the article….

    http://youtu.be/96ymnUuR69s

  25. i have a song for the last part of the article….

  26. They will need to find some high ranking officers accountable, therefore they will find no one responsible.

  27. Geeesss Lasana, you had to sit and think LONG and HARD for the amount of puns in this one….lol

  28. It is like a madman holding himself hostage as he reads out ransom demands. And then stabbing himself in the leg so that everyone knows he is serious.

    *flatlines*

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