Category Archives: Police

Caribbean, Crime in T&T, Drug Trade, General T&T, Jamaica, Law, Police, Security

Marijuana in the chicken: Drug bust at Point Lisas

9 Comments

September 17, 2011
guardian.co.tt

MarijuanaAfter hours of continuous searching at the Port of Point Lisas, police seized yet another 40-foot container of high grade Arizona marijuana on Thursday evening. Customs and Excise officers said the haul had a street value of $7.4 million. But in a news release late yesterday the Police Service Public Affairs Unit quoted the street value as $30 million. The release said the value had been confirmed by an “expert in the field of narcotics.” But Customs communications manager, Alicia Charles, said yesterday Customs and Excise worked out the figure by calculating a kilo of marijuana to be approximately $8,000. She said the officers found 38 bags of marijuana weighing more than 921 kilos.
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Africa, Court, Crime in T&T, Culture, General T&T, India, Law, People's Partnership, Police, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch, Security, Violence

Fulfilling Prophecy

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 14, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeWilliam Hardin Burnley was the biggest slave holder in Trinidad and Tobago. In 1813 Sir Ralph Woodford arrived in the island as the governor. One of his first tasks was to secure sufficient laborers for the island, Trinidad being notorious for not having sufficient laborers to till its soil. One year after he arrived he asked each member of his Board of Council to come up with suggestions to induce laborers to settle in the country.
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Court, Crime in T&T, General T&T, Law, Media, People's Partnership, Police, Politics, Security, Violence

21 MEN FREED

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By Alexander Bruzual
September 13, 2011 – newsday.co.tt

State of EmergencyIt was an exuberant moment in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Eighth Court yesterday morning when charges against 21 men accused of being gang members were dismissed by Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar.

The courtroom erupted in loud cheering, clapping, and words of thanks to both God and the Chief Magistrate after it was announced that the 21 men were free to go.
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Complaints, Court, Crime in T&T, General T&T, Law, People's Partnership, Police, Politics, Racism Watch, Security, Violence

Of Vulgar Politicians and Ethnic Bashing

20 Comments

By Cecil Paul
September 04, 2011

State of Emergency“We must recognize that it is people looking like me, who are being murdered, mothers like my mother…weeping more than any other race”…”When we see the accused being led away, being led to court, it is people who look like me”…”When one looked at the prison population in 2011, 51% are Afro Trinidadians”. (Minister of National Security John Sandy)
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Court, Crime in T&T, General T&T, Law, Police, Politics, Racism Watch, Security, Violence

Fallouts from the Emergency

3 Comments

By Raffique Shah
September 04, 2011

Raffique ShahNOT surprisingly, the Government has extended the State of Emergency (SoE), citing its “successes” thus far, and all but promising citizens a crime-free country by the time it is lifted. Although no one in Government made this commitment literally, daily, ministers and top officers of the national security agencies dazzle us with statistics that look impressive.
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Court, Crime in T&T, General T&T, People's Partnership, PNM, Police, Politics, Racism Watch, Security, Violence

Keep race out of criminal behaviour

24 Comments

By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
September 02, 2011

State of EmergencyIt is ridiculous for some public officials to opine/conclude that “the only reason (Trinbagonians) were charged under the Anti-Gang legislation was because they are black.”

Such public insanity was further compounded when the leadership of the Emancipation Support Committee (ESC) also publicly contended that the People’s Partnership (PP) government’s anti-crime policy was “treading on slippery slopes” in regard to the targeting of African communities in T&T.
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Court, Crime in T&T, Drug Trade, General T&T, India, Law, People's Partnership, Police, Politics, Racism Watch, Security, Violence

Matters of Race in the State of Emergency

43 Comments

By Christian Hume
September 01, 2011

State of EmergencyIt was most disconcerting to witness Minister of National Security John Sandy and Attorney General Anand Ramlogan trying to convince the nation that the gang leaders from East Port-of-Spain and the East-West Corridor are the “big fish” that the entire nation are waiting to see rounded up and tossed into jail. When the country’s top politicians decide to play blind, pretending not to see the reality that honest eyes among the population see all the time, then we know that times are stark and dark.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, India, Law, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, PNM, Police, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch, Security, Violence

Rejecting the State of Emergency

43 Comments

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 30, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIs either I stupidly or Anand and dem know many things I don’t know. But I didn’t know that one had to declare a state of emergency to capture some gang leaders and charge them with possession of marijuana or cocaine. I didn’t know that the only way to solve the crime problem was to declare a state of emergency and arrest about five hundred young people (call them gang members) from Black areas in order to solve the crime problem. If so, the PNM was more than stupid to hold its hands until the PP discovered that it takes a state of emergency to capture all these black people so easily.
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Court, General T&T, Law, People's Partnership, Police, Politics, Security, Tobago, Violence

Teen apologises on Facebook for Kamla threat

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State of EmergencyMinor Violator
“I could not sleep last night. I just want to say I am sorry to the Prime Minister (Kamla Persad-Bissessar) for insulting her like that. I am sorry for the language, I am sorry for all the racist stuff I said. I do not really care about racist things because I am not racist, I do not really look at it like that but I am just real sorry.”
The above apology was made and posted on Facebook by a teenager, who is the subject of a police investigation in relation to a previous video she had created.
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Crime in T&T, Law, Police, PSC, Security

PSC Must Explain

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Newsday Editorial
August 26, 2011 – newsday.co.tt

Police Commissioner Dwayne GibbsON SUNDAY, President George Maxwell Richards signed a proclamation declaring this country to be under a state of emergency.

It should be common knowledge that when this country is under a state of emergency, it is placed in a very sensitive position: civil rights are significantly curtailed, curfews are often put in place, the Police Service, the Defence Force and the Ministry of National Security assume extraordinary powers of stop, search, arrest and detention.
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