“When police are militarised, they are more likely to be attacked (Carriere, 2016). The militarisation of police does not reduce crime. Elite teams neither reduce crime nor enhance public safety and become used routinely in low-income communities. “There is no evidence that this practice enhances officer safety nor lowers crime …
Read More »TTPS charge 22-year-old St Augustine man with sedition over Facebook post
Twenty-two-year-old Santa Margarita, St Augustine resident Jonathan Anthony Mohammed is the first Trinidad and Tobago citizen to be charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act, after the DPP gave instructions to the Terrorism Interdiction Unit (TIU) on Friday 9 November. The Anti-Terrorism Act was initially passed in 2005 while it received its …
Read More »Dear Editor: Is Griffith’s crime-fighting medicine good for us in the long term?
“I celebrate the success of the intelligence that would have led to this find [of weapons and drugs]… But there is something else that I feel a deep concern about. “I look with discomfort at that brotherhood of testosterone and violence that our Commissioner seems a little too happy to …
Read More »“Media freedom under attack in this country”: MATT condemns TTPS “obstruction” of TV6 journalists
“MATT also notes the apparent attempt made by a member of the public to use their perceived influence to prevent the story—which the crew was in the process of completing—from being aired as a part of the station’s newscast on that day. “[…] MATT has provided details of the incident …
Read More »Dear Editor: Self-motivation and high IQ—not prayers or parents—are key to academic excellence
“[…] It is clear that the successful children did not need to be told to study hard but did so without cajoling and certainly without boofing. “So, contrary to claims that anyone can be a top SEA or CSEC or CAPE student—which is logically impossible anyway—the attributes of a minimum …
Read More »Dear Editor: Do tougher measures work? TTPS should not be judge, jury and executioner
“The heart of criminal law is the degree of protection afforded to the accused… The Police cannot be judge, jury and executioner. “[…] It is seductive in its logical simplicity but the idea that criminals are persuaded by ill treatment, stiff sentences or police killings is a middle-class delusion. It …
Read More »Dear Editor: “A sublime yet subtle poet […] who defied conformation”; Ode to Shadow
“He was a sublime yet subtle poet who danced to his own drum, who wove bass lines—allegedly from Hell, but so transportive as to refute that assertion—that underpinned, pulsed through and propelled each call that he made to his beloved people.” The following Letter to the Editor on the passing …
Read More »Tribute to Professor Ken Philmore: the steelpan pioneer T&T never fully embraced
“Professor Ken Philmore should have been one of our immortal monarchs and champions… Without assistance, without adulation, without even our cursory attention, Professor went about spreading the gospel of our sound and our instrument. “He would continue to push the international profile of pan further appearing with giants: Tito Puente, …
Read More »No school on Friday 12 Oct; gov’t approves time off for teachers convention
The Ministry of Education confirmed that all schools—at primary, secondary and ECCE level—will be closed on Friday 12 October 2018. This is to facilitate the 2018 National Convention of Teachers, which will be held from 9am to 3pm on that day. Harrilal Seecharan, chief education officer of the Ministry of …
Read More »Young: Sankat will be treated like normal deportee; returns to Trinidad after US$909 fine
“I wish to state that all arms of our law enforcement that deal with returning deportees have been notified and are prepared to receive Mr Sankat, in the usual course of a returning national who has been deported…” Minister of National Security, Stuart Young, issued the following press statement on …
Read More »Dear Editor: “We hold up a mirror to society…”; MFO responds to Baldeosingh on ‘gay rights’
“Mr [Kevin] Baldeosingh’s confusion may be caused by his desire to correlate the findings with the cited comment by Inglehart. Our position is not that our country’s values have changed but that these values are changing. A world of difference.” In the following Letter to the Editor, MFO (Market Facts …
Read More »Police hold “Snake”; Beetham resident charged for assaulting Hinds during “Operation Strike Back”
Beetham Gardens resident Richard “Snake” Marcelle, who shot to prominence last month after kicking flood water on to Laventille West MP Fitzgerald Hinds, was charged today for “assault by beating and use of obscene language” against the Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General. The Police Communications Department confirmed …
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