7 thoughts on “11 charged with Seetahal’s murder”

1. Finally, it is good news to see someone who fought for justice in this great nation all her life and in the process lost her life for this noble cause is starting to receive justice for those criminally responsible for her death.

   If the criminals are not brought to justice then the nation will go down the slippery slope to become a pariah nation. Great work officers… stay the course.

2. Seetahal’s brother questions timing of arrests
   Speaking with the Sunday Express by telephone yesterday evening, Seetahal said crime has been on the rise in recent days. He referred to the murder of four members of a Chatham family shortly after one of them reported information of a crime to the police. He noted that this and other matters have contributed to the erosion of public confidence in the police service, and suggested that a press briefing held yesterday at Police Administration Building in Port of Spain to announce the charges for 11 men, was more about restoring the police image than about justice for his sister.

   1. For most of the five plus years this administration has been in office, the specter of crime was and continues to be the most ill-addressed issue that they are yet to grasp. The reason for that is because CRIME HAS BEEN ILL-DEFINED. If there is to be a serious symposium on crime, it has to be examined in all aspects of it’s phenomenal rise and sustenance. The government in addressing crime has focussed on ONE AND ONLY ONE aspect of crime and has made that know in many and varied ways. Let us start with the recent prison break and shooting of aa policeman and prison escapee. The Prime Minister, in her address to the nation told us a few things that ran contrary to the crime itself.
      In order of her priority she told us (1) there will be no state of emergency; (2) the crime is only pertained to the Port Of Spain area; (3) no need to worry as long as she is prime minister; (4) go about your chores and not to worry about it. Any sane and thinking individual judging those four aspects of the Prime Minister’s take on the situation, will conclude that there is absolutely no assurance that she herself has a grasp on what is really taking place or how to deal with the event. Let us deal with statement #1: Why is it necessary for her to tell us at the top of her conversation that there will be no state of emergency? It means that the Prime Minister is talking about herself,not the actual crime. How does a state of emergency feature into the conversation? Nobody asked about a state of emergency nor has the police expressed the need for one. It really means that from the view of the Prime Minister, politics is what is most important to her and not the incident of crime. The policeman got killed in performing his duties as a law enforcement officer. The moment of concern and condolences belong to him, the police service and his family. This should have been the number one concern o0f the PM. She never addressed what is being done to protect the prison officers or the police on duty from such previous incidents. She took the incident as an affront to her post as PM instead. Statement #2: In saying that the crime pertains to the only the Port Of Spain area, she is sending a message to those whom she considers as her constituents that they need not worry. The area in which is occurred is the usual suspect – the Port of Spain environ. She failed to consider that Trinidad is a small country and the freed criminal don’t really care what part of the country he goes. As long as he remains free, he is armed and dangerous and might be a danger to anyone he comes in contact with. Within the space of 24 hours he can traverse between Port Of Spain, Debe, Sangre Grande and Cumoto. Who knows what is in the mind of the criminal.
      Statement #3: The crime was committed whilst she was prime minister, so why should the criminal care who is prime minister in his quest for freedom? That is a simplistic and self-serving statement. It serves absolutely no useful purpose and should not have even been considered in a serious statement. Crime will continue while she is prime minister and the serious issues surrounding crime are not addressed properly. Statement #4: While understandable that the population must continue with their daily chores and business, the Prime minister failed to state what the Police or law enforcement is doing to assure the population that this incident could and would be contained in a way to circle the perpetrators and bring them to Justice. Such assurances must come withe the comfort that specific deeds by the authorities are taking to protect the rest of the country from irreparable harm, not just empty words. One of the areas left totally untouched by scrutiny is the area of so-called white collar crime. It is the view of many that malicious crimes are fueled by the work of many in authority and have positions that encourage crimes of the person. Each and every day we are being inundated with GUNS, AMMUNITION, high powered rifles and military like assault weaponry. These are in the hands of ordinary and many may want to ascribe as poor individuals. Why aren’t the crime fighters asking the questions (1) who are the suppliers? (2) How did these weapons get into the country? (3) What parts of our infrastructure is responsible for containing the flow of these weapons? (4) what policies do we have in place to apprehend and stop this flow? (5) what do we need to stop the flow? (6) How can we identify the enablers? (7) What areas of the population are the guns flowing through? (8) Why are these areas targeted? (9) What can be done to eradicate some of these neighborhoods from the scourge of crime? These and many other questions can be asked and pursued to apprehend the enablers and the criminals in our midst. This brings the questions back to the administration, what are you doing about crime?. Where is the sociologist?, where is the plan for reducing crime?,
      other than jails, what are the plans to intervene into the lives of the would-be criminals? How can we introduce programs to redirect our youths to a life of academics and not the lure of crime? When these questions are are answered and the administration informs us (non-politically) about the ideas to fight crime from a social, non-judgmental, economic and community perspective, then we can get the assurance that they are serious but until then it is safe to say that the words expressed by the Prime Minister is only politics as usual.

      1. “The crime was committed whilst she was prime minister, so why should the criminal care who is prime minister in his quest for freedom?”

         Kian the Prime Minister is not there to solve crime. There are three branches of government, the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial. Crime should not be tied to Executive but unfortunately it is, the Executive set the tone.
         Here is how the PNM dealt with criminals:
         PNM and crime.
         PNM RECORD WITH CRIMINALS
         1. In the run-up to the elections of 2002, Jamaat al Muslimeen leader Imam Yasin Abu Bakr revealed that Government had started the paper work to hand over five acres of State lands adjoining the Mucurapo headquarters of the organisation to them. Manning pulled back under public pressure.
         2. Meeting with known gang leader Mark Guerra at Crown Plaza
         3. Meeting with known gang leader Kerwin “Fresh” Phillip at Ambassador Hotel
         4. Meeting with known gang leader Meryn “Cudjoe” Allamby at Crown Plaza
         5. Meeting with former murder accused David “Buffy” Millard at Ambassador Hotel
         6. Secretly Meeting with known gang leaders at the Rose Foundation in St James
         7. Making former murder accused David “Buffy” Millard coordinator of a $250 million NHA refurbishing project
         8. Appointed Mark Guerra as national adviser to the URP
         9. Patrick Manning car being sold to well know drug lord Dole Chadee
         10. Meeting with Abu Bakr on more than one occasion at Balisier House
         11. PNM Holds the record for highest murder rate under any administration 550 in 2008.
         So far the PNM led by Rowley has voted against 5 bills that would have helped in the fight against crime:
         1. Constitution (Amendment) (Capital Offences) Bill, 2011
         2. The DNA Bill, 2011
         3. The Electronic Monitoring Bill, 2011
         4. The Defense Bill, 2013
         5. The Bail (Amendment) Bill, 2013
         Do you think the PNM want crime down?

         This government has not met given contracts or negotiated with the criminal elements. The result crime has gone down considerably. I don’t want a government making deals with criminals. They have provide police vehicles, GPS, various legislation to combat crime. They are in other words starving crime.

         1. Mamoo, please forgive me but what we are dealing with is the present as NOW. The last time I checked it was NOT the PNM who is running this present government, it is the UNC. I am definitely not concerned about my safety in the past – I am concerned about my safety now and in the future. So with that in mind you tantrum about the PNM is NULL and VOID as far as the crime we are currently experiencing. I know that you are a paid blogger and your job is top criticize the PNM. Nobody pays me for what I write. Everything comes rom my brain and it expresses what I see, know and experience. I care about the crime situation and this government told us that it was going to eliminate it in 100 days. That is 100 percent accurate as far as the promises they made and I’m holding them to that. Lets deal with that Mamoo.

      2. A state of emergency should be executed if there was a serious threat to the government or the people. A prisoner escaping and killing an officer is not cause for concern. I don’t think he will be running around with a cutlass chopping folks’s heads off(ole trini style. Trinidad operates an antiquated criminal justice system that needs serious overhaul. The system is corrupt with internal prison abuse, nepotism and personal financial personal gain. This type of abuse and greed stems from the Williams and PNM regime. So stop pointing fingers and making false and inflated statements. Trinidad is as corrupt as Nigeria and the rest of the African controlled governments. India is also no different. So let us try to work with what we have here in this great island. We are lucky to be granted some land, the ability to work and raise a family, and the ability to embrace freedom of religion. We have a great island with some awesome citizens but now the world is changing and refugees and immigrants are migrating through out the world. We need to develop better education and health care, more skilled police that work to help the people and not incite fear or lack of care, a place where we take some kind of pride in our community and where we respect moral leadership. Lots of great young kids out there just waiting to be found and we need to start looking…

3. Finally! Very good News. Let them face the heat now sicko’s.

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