“In some countries when similar acts take place, such persons are put before a firing squad, hung or tried and sentenced to death. “Yet amazingly, some were given the opportunity to become members of parliament and then later permitted to communicate to the country through daily newspapers—which gave them the …
Read More »LATT: Police are ‘enforcing law which does not exist’—secret and public exchanges on roadblocks
“[…] All of these are instances of police officers enforcing a law which does not exist. There is no law which says you cannot be on the road after 8pm, no law which says you can only go to the grocery if absolutely necessary, no law which empowers the police …
Read More »MSJ: Police roadblocks are more nuisance than useful; Griffith: We’re saving lives
“[…] As has been repeatedly stated by the Prime Minister, ‘Stay at Home’ is an appeal to the good sense of citizens to do the right thing. However, it is not a legal requirement. The TTPS therefore cannot stop anyone from being in their car or force anyone to turn …
Read More »TTPS closes Jimmy Aboud for public health breach, Griffith explains why no arrests made
Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith confirmed closure of ‘a certain clothing store on Queen Street, Port-of-Spain’ today due to breach of public health ordinance regulations. Griffith, in the TTPS release, did not specify the name of the business place. However, he referenced a Trinidad Newsday story that referred to the …
Read More »Dear editor: I don’t for one second believe they listened to ‘WE’! Give us truth on security contracts
“This is the same government who, when in opposition, criticised the then UNC-led People’s Partnership Government in 2014 for introducing a similar initiative called Community Comfort Patrol—saying that untrained, unknown people were driving through neighbourhoods in strange vehicles pretending to be police. “[…] The initiative has now been cancelled but …
Read More »‘If you did not hear, then you would feel’, Griffith busts ‘Covid-19 party’ in Cascade
The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service arrested 16 persons this morning under the Public Health (2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-Cov) Regulations, in what was described as a ‘Covid-19 quarantine party’ at the Alicia’s Guest House in Cascade. The arrests were made at around 12.30am. Half of the persons held were Venezuelan—seven …
Read More »A state-sponsored ‘neighbourhood watch’; Griffith explains gov’t decision to use security guards
Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith described the Ministry of National Security’s latest initiative, which will put security guards from four firms into residential neighbourhoods, as a state-sponsored ‘community watch’. This afternoon, a National Security release declared that the government has hired four private security firms to ‘provide mobile security patrol …
Read More »Daly Bread: Siq transit gloria; is govt’s limited Covid-19 testing a ‘calculated risk’?
My headline today is not a typographical error. As suggested below, it is still uncertain whether the government’s policy of Siq, that is separate, isolate and quarantine is a sound enough response to our Covid-19 crisis. We just don’t know yet. Sic transit gloria mundi is the full classic incantation …
Read More »CMO: T&T may have local spread, behave like person next to you has Covid-19
Ministry of Health CMO Dr Roshan Parasram warned today that Trinidad and Tobago might now be experiencing low levels of ‘local spread’ of the novel coronavirus Covid-19 and urged persons to treat everyone in their immediate vicinity as though they were infected. As of this morning, the twin island republic …
Read More »Daly bread: A more fearful future; soaring crime, falling oil prices and coronavirus
We washed and put away our sailor costumes last weekend. That induced a stronger nostalgia than usual for the carefree days of Carnival generally and, in particular, for Carnival Tuesday as All Stars sailors. The nostalgia was a brief antidote to the keen awareness that murders—albeit unrelated to Carnival—remained an …
Read More »Dear Editor: Erosion of bail rights for gun possession could be first step on slippery slope
“People never seem to think that a breach of the rights of even one individual, means that that breach can apply to all. It is why the judiciary so staunchly defends the rights of even the most depraved of society…” The following Letter to the Editor on proposed amendments to …
Read More »Hilarant! Haiti is sorry for T&T as local crime mess creates Caribbean tragicomedy
Full circle. Just about 30 years ago, David Rudder was singing “Haiti, I’m sorry.” Nowadays, however, my Haitian friend is sorry for us. And all he needed to sum up the situation of those of us who, trying to escape from the UNC, voted for the PNM was four words. …
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