In 2016, our country was the western world’s highest per capita supplier of recruits for the ISIS campaign in the Middle East. We are among the world’s most violent nations, with an average annual murder rate of 32.9 per 100,000 inhabitants(from 2009–2018). Refugees and trafficking complicate our lives. These trends …
Read More »Demming: Today he used his power to try to get his son into national team, what will it be tomorrow?
1959: Then Minister of Home Affairs Patrick Solomon removed his stepson from the Woodbrook Police Station. 2002: Late Prime Minister Patrick Manning phoned the Marabella Police Station where his driver was being held. 2018: former Minister of Public Utilities Robert Le Hunte has an altercation with a police officer for …
Read More »The Truth about Griffith (Epilogue): Why CoP didn’t qualify for anonymity
The designation ‘anonymous source’ has become a talking point this week, in light of Wired868’s two-part series ‘The truth about Griffith’. So I think it might be useful to explain how someone becomes an unnamed source for Wired868. The three main questions asked in each and every case are: Is …
Read More »The truth about Griffith (Pt 2): How CoP disrupted Soca Warriors, and weaponised TTPS platform
Sometime during the course of Terry Fenwick’s tenure of Trinidad and Tobago Men’s National Senior Team head coach, the players began an informal game in which they would try to guess when the English coach planned to slip Gary Griffith III into the national squad. Usually, it was whenever silence …
Read More »The truth about Griffith (Pt 1): How Fenwick stage-managed Griffith III’s career, while seeking TTPS benefits
A journalist learns quickly the importance of confidentiality and protecting one’s source. So it is an exceptional circumstance that leads me to now reveal one such informant, in a bid to defend my reputation against a curious onslaught by Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith. In a last-ditch effort to avoid …
Read More »TTPS arrests 26 alleged partiers in Valsayn for breach of public health regulations
Twenty-six alleged partiers in Real Spring, Valsayn where among 36 persons arrested by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) over the last 24 hours for breach of the public health regulations, as lawmen attempt to enforce measures meant to curb the spread of Covid-19. There have been 925 arrests …
Read More »Griffith: TTPS will ‘exercise discretion’ to essential workers and emergency situations, despite ‘adjusted curfew hours’
Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith has asked his lawmen to ‘exercise discretion’ as the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) attempts to manage ‘adjusted curfew hours’ on the Indian Arrival Day and Corpus Christi holidays, which fall on Monday 31 May and Thursday 3 June respectively. Only essential workers are …
Read More »Daly Bread: SOE regs set good precedent, but why didn’t gov’t address private property?
The principal features of the Emergency Regulations, published on Sunday in an additional effort to combat the overwhelming spread of Covid-19 infections, are daytime restrictions on the movement of persons and the imposition of a 9pm to 5am curfew. I took comfort from the fact that the regulations did …
Read More »MSJ: AG gave too much power to police commissioner; amend SoE regulations!
“[…] The police are to ensure that laws are adhered to. The police cannot make laws. If we go in that direction we are creating a police state. “This SoE was explicitly proclaimed by the president to deal with a health crisis… The restrictions—including the hours of curfew—should therefore be …
Read More »NJAC: ‘Special Branch incited the violence [to] give gov’t an excuse’—remembering 21 April 1970
“[…] With the declaration of the SOE on Tuesday 21 April 1970, [Makandal] Daaga and other members of the NJAC leadership, were detained on Nelson Island and at the Royal Jail. “In the ensuing months, a reign of terror was released on the population. A dusk to dawn curfew was …
Read More »Dear Editor: Why can’t the commissioner of police handle criticism?
‘[…] not only is the Threatener highly dangerous, he certainly lacks the maturity of thought to be able to handle critique and criticism …’ The following Letter to the Editor was submitted to Wired868 by Mohan Ramcharan from Birmingham, England: I’m going to start off this letter in an unexpected …
Read More »Daly Bread: Falling into Daunte’s inferno: police violence in the US and T&T
Daunte (pronounced Dante) Wright, aged 20, is the latest black man to be killed by a white police officer in the United States. The matter that first drew the attention of the police to him was minor. A questionable explanation has been given for the shooting of Daunte. The police …
Read More »