The Independent Senators appointed by the President of the Republic are currently in the news for all the wrong reasons. One of them, albeit a temporary one, has responded obscenely to criticism, including deployment of lurid phrases, which I decided not to quote. The said President has on occasion shown …
Read More »Intelligence and SSA 101: attorney Thane Pierre offers insight on controversial bill
National Security is the concept that the government, along with its parliament, should protect its sovereignty and its citizens. What is inherent in this concept is a belief that actions taken are necessary and justified. The recently concluded debate of the Strategic Services (Amendment) Act brought to the forefront a …
Read More »Live Wire: Slowpoke acting CoP, Dr Rowley’s violent diagnosis and the Duke’s Hazard
Is there a fine for slow brain movement in the fast lane? Should there be? Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams might have sparked another round of road rage for Trinidad and Tobago motorists yesterday, as he offered a moral lecture to local drivers about their dissatisfaction with the 80 km/h …
Read More »Call for reformation: Why Archbishop Joe’s petition spells trouble for hardened criminals
Archbishop Joseph Harris’ initiative to petition Government to free from prison petty offenders who have remained on remand for an inordinately long time is laudable and deserving of support. However, if it’s accepted and implemented in its current form, it would deal an unjust blow to many more accused persons, …
Read More »All ah we dead: Raffique Shah says citizens caught in crossfire between police and thief
I had planned not to address crime in my columns; to waste space on an issue that, while it grows grimmer by the day, is seemingly intractable. When last I tackled it, I admitted to having become inured to the barbarism into which the nation has descended. Decapitation, mutilation, suffocation …
Read More »Realities we are not facing: the dangers of disadvantaged conditions in T&T
Even though it is said we have become desensitised, the murder rate is once again front and centre of a very grim stage and we have been told to “brace ourselves for more murders.” This warning contains the grave implication that the authorities are not in control. It is also …
Read More »Champion Dynamics: Daly suggests how to save Rowley’s “monsters”
From my very first year as a columnist in 2002, I criticised our dysfunctional national security system and took up then, by their names, the cases of several murder victims. I have consistently continued to do so. Even then, murder was already being carried out with impunity. There was no …
Read More »An offbeat look at: Drug dealing
Wired868 abandons satire to go straight for the forehead in this new series called: “An offbeat look at…” Scene: A police station interrogation room. A young man wearing handcuffs looks across the table at a police sergeant and constable. Young man: Man is born free and everywhere he is in …
Read More »Johnny-be-good: Superintendent oversees five slayings in one week
Finally, Trinidad and Tobago is getting the police service it wants and deserves. Whether it is the police service that the country needs is another question entirely. On Monday, a 20-year-old mother of one, Shantel Ali Bocus, and 35-year-old Marvin Trotman were brought before a San Fernando Magistrate for smoking …
Read More »Cry havoc: Beware Persad-Bissessar’s war for peace
In my last blog, published on 5 June 2014, I suggested that our political situation was not unlike George Orwell’s Oceania, which was the fictitious setting for his timeless novel, “1984”. On 11 June 2014, within a week of my post, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar declared that we must “unleash …
Read More »Policemen find gangster shooting school in D’go Martin… then go home
The Trinidad and Tobago Police service yesterday revealed the discovery of a “horrifying” criminal target range in a forested area off Unity Lane, Diego Martin with over 3,000 spent shells from various high calibre weapons. What? Are you still reading? No; that’s it. The policemen returned to the station and …
Read More »Sport Ministry allegedly handed taxpayers’ millions to murder accused
Buckle up, Trinidad and Tobago; it’s about to kick off now. It turns out that, according to the Sunday Express, “Mr Big” was actually “Mr Big Mouth.” When National Security Minister Gary Griffith spoke about declaring war on the criminal element, one always suspected that he would not have to …
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