Category Archives: Crime in T&T

PM Declares “Limited State of Emergency”

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has Announced a “Limited State of Emergency” in Crime Hotspots from Midnight

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-BissessarThe PM said that this decision was made “after much deliberation with the National Security Council and members of the Cabinet,” and that the current crime spree must end.

The limited state of emergency is part of a plan using the police and army in response to the “spate of murders over the past few days”.
Continue reading PM Declares “Limited State of Emergency”

Police kill 3 in Moruga: ‘Justice not in the road’

‘Justice not in the road’

By Cecily Asson
July 31, 2011 – newsday.co.tt

Moruga ProtestShortly after a candle ritual and a two-mile peace walk in Moruga to mark the end of several days of fiery protests over police killings of three friends on July 22, the funeral for the first victim was held in San Fernando yesterday.
Continue reading Police kill 3 in Moruga: ‘Justice not in the road’

Mom, 2 sons throats slit in La Horquetta

LEFT: Melik, eight, Makasi, four, and Vonetta Haynes-Reyes

Husband finds wife and sons murdered
Residents of La Horquetta were in shock last night following the discovery of a 31-year-old mother and her two children, found dead with their throats slit open. The discovery was made by the woman’s husband and father of the children. There were no arrests up to late last night.
Continue reading Mom, 2 sons throats slit in La Horquetta

Wage war to win peace

By Raffique Shah
July 17, 2011

Raffique Shah“‘Tis strange—but true; for truth is always strange;
Stranger than fiction; if it could be told,
How much would novels gain by the exchange!
How differently the world would men behold!”
(Lord Byron, Don Juan, 1823)

IN Frederick Forsyth’s 2010 novel, Cobra, the central character, Paul Devereaux, a former CIA agent, is tasked by his President (mucho resemblance to Barack Obama) to put an end to the cocaine menace that is strangling America. Devereaux demands, and is given, $2 billion plus a carte blanche instrument of authority to launch his war on the Colombian Cartel and its global tentacles. He hires as his operations officer a former foe, Calvin Dexter, and within one year they put together a powerful machine of personnel and equipment that attacks Don Diego and his overlords with extreme prejudice, as such exercises are described.
Continue reading Wage war to win peace

Spinning Top in Mud

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
June 15, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeTrinidad and Tobago ought to pause a moment; catch its collective breath, and then ask: where are we going as a nation. Anyone who viewed the video about Niyoka Folkes, a student of Barataria North Secondary School or saw the pummeling she received or the photographs of her bruises that appeared on the newspapers, cannot help but wonder at the sad turn of events at our public schools. That even an adult jumped in to add her blows seems to a dispassionate observer that our society might be going mad.
Continue reading Spinning Top in Mud

Pitbulls no more

Newsday Editorial
May 12 2011 – newsday.co.tt

Dangerous DogWe could not concur more with the seizure of the roaming pack of pitbulls that attacked and killed an unsuspecting Denise Rackal early Monday morning. The overwhelming public sentiment might be “blame the owner”—a police corporal whose property, ill prepared to hold one animal — could not be expected to contain eight pitbulls. We understand that sentiment. The dogs should have been secure and a policeman should have exercised better judgment. But these dogs are killers which may not be permitted to remain at large.
Continue reading Pitbulls no more

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar Fires Mary King

Minister Mary KingThe appointment of Minister and Senator Mrs. Mary King was revoked, today, 10th May, 2010 by the President, His Excellency George Maxwell Richards on advice of the Prime Minister. Mrs. King held the portfolio of Senator and Minister of Planning, Economic and Social Restructuring and Gender Affairs from May 28th, 2010.
Continue reading Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar Fires Mary King

Search on for illegal Chinese immigrants

Chinese workers in Trinidad
Chinese workers in Trinidad

guardian.co.tt
May 09, 2011

Immigration officials have begun hunting down illegal Chinese nationals who have come into T&T to “slave” in thriving casinos, Chinese supermarkets, restaurants and private members’ clubs. But while the hunt goes on inland, senior police officers lament that the coastlines of T&T remain open for human trafficking and smuggling of illegal cargo including drugs, guns and ammunition. The underworld trafficking ring is believed to be controlled by a branch of the Chinese Triad, a well-organised criminal gang which exploits poor Chinese immigrants. These Chinese workers, desperate for a shot at riches in T&T, come from poor areas of China, including Ningxia, Guizhou and Quinhai.
Continue reading Search on for illegal Chinese immigrants

Strangers in our land

Newsday Editorial
May 1 2011 – newsday.co.tt

ChineseThe recent kidnapping for ransom of a citizen of China who owned and operated a restaurant at St Helena has brought to the fore, once again, the question of illegal immigrants living and working in Trinidad and Tobago.

Speaking in Senate recently, Independent Senator Rolph Balgobin raised this issue.
Continue reading Strangers in our land