By Raffique Shah
November 30, 2013
In the wake of the gruesome discovery of six-year-old Keyana Cumberbatch’s decomposing corpse last week, there are deafening cries for swift justice for the beast who murdered the child.
One can understand why the average citizen would be outraged over this crime, and similar savagery against other children, older people and women.
Continue reading Prisoners of Birth 2
By Alexander Bruzual
November 29, 2013 – newsday.co.tt
THREE days of prayerful vigil ended in tears and anguish for a mother of three yesterday afternoon after she made the horrific discovery of the body of her eldest daughter which was stuffed at the bottom of a shipping barrel in the bedroom of their Maloney apartment home.
Screams of anguish and enraged shouts filled the air around Building Four when news spread that Keyana Cumberbatch’s body had been found.
Police sources last night said Keyana may have been killed last Monday — the day she went missing — and had been stuffed in the barrel for the past three days.
Continue reading KEYANA IS DEAD
By Alexander Bruzual
November 21, 2013 – newsday.co.tt
THE search for a two-year-old baby boy ended in tragedy yesterday afternoon after his body was found inside a cesspit located at the back of the child’s father’s Maracas/St Joseph home.
At about 1.15 pm yesterday police officers from the St Joseph CID and the Maracas Police Station, led by Sergeant Rene Katwaroo, made their way to the home of Allan Thomas, located along Santa Rita Trace, Lluengo Village, Maracas/St Joseph. The officers were responding to a report made by Thomas on Tuesday night, in which he alleged that his son, Jacob Munroe, two, had been kidnapped.
Continue reading BABY DEAD IN CESSPIT
By Raffique Shah
August 24, 2013
Not since late Commissioner of Police Jules Bernard publicly declared, “I’m a toothless bulldog!” have I heard so many outlandish statements coming from the mouths of senior officers of the Police Service.
“Criticism hurts,” screams Acting CoP Stephen Williams. Yet, Williams and his most senior officers say and do the most ludicrous things, inviting not just criticism, but oftentimes, bellyfuls of laughter.
Continue reading Comic cops
By Raffique Shah
May 26, 2013
I CANNOT quite figure out why so many people are shocked by Keith Rowley’s “revelations” in Parliament last Monday, or alarmed that the string of e-mails he read into Hansard; at first blush, appears to be as bogus as Clifton De Coteau’s black mop. Parliament has long degenerated into a theatre of the absurd, a forum for dishonourable members to slander and scandalise each other, an arena in which targeted citizens are crucified before hordes of reality-television viewers, a fate far worse than that which Jesus Christ is said to have suffered however many centuries ago.
Continue reading A matter of trust
Plot to cover up section 34
By Gail Alexander
May 21, 2013 – guardian.co.tt
Opposition leader Dr Keith Rowley wants the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Integrity Commission to probe e-mails purportedly bearing the names of frontline government officials who allegedly wanted to tap the DPP’s phone after the Section 34 furore. Rowley also claimed the e-mails revealed moves to shift the DPP to the judiciary and further discussed intended intimidation of a T&T Guardian reporter who broke the Section 34 story last September.
Continue reading Rowley: Plot to cover up section 34
By Dr Sheila Rampersad
April 11, 2013 – www.guardian.co.tt
What might have been an open-and-shut case against a police officer, who ploughed into six residents of Sea Lots along the Beetham Highway, Port-of-Spain, on February 24, has turned into a lengthy and muddled investigation. Three people died and three others were injured in the crash, which occurred along the westbound lane of the highway.
The T&T Guardian was reliably informed that a breathalyser test, which measures blood alcohol level, was administered at 2.47 pm on the day of the fatal collision, almost six hours after the incident. It was administered at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital by WPC Marcia Lopez, a trained breath analysis technician assigned to Besson Street Police Station.
Continue reading Driver in accident may walk as Sea Lots probe botched
By Susan Mohammed – March 26, 2013
www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Only-3-per–cent-of-cops–corrupt-200151191.html
Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams said yesterday that no more than three per cent of the officers in the Police Service were crooked.
Speaking following a tour of the San Fernando Police Station where officers had protested poor working conditions, Williams responded to the Selwyn Ryan report which indicated that as much as 50 per cent of the Police Service was corrupt.
On Monday, Williams told reporters the figure used by Ryan was “crazy”.
Continue reading Only 3 per cent of cops corrupt
By Raffique Shah
March 23, 2013
THE purpose of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2013 is to add soldier-power to Government’s crime-fighting initiatives, although if you read the one-clause legislation you would think otherwise. The bill simply speaks of extending to soldiers engaged in assisting the police in maintaining law and order “the same powers, authorities, privileges and immunities as are given by law to members of the Police Service”.
Continue reading Don’t demonise soldiers
By Andre Bagoo
March 04, 2013 – newsday.co.tt
THE WOMAN known as Juliana Pena, who has been described as former Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s spiritual adviser, was granted access to the construction site of the Prime Minister’s Residence and Diplomatic Centre, La Fantasie, St Ann’s in order to pray on it before it opened its doors in 2007.
Continue reading Manning Went to Guanapo Church