By Joel Julien
January 07, 2014 – trinidadexpress.com
SIX out of every ten people murdered last year were involved in “serious criminal activities”, National Security Minister Gary Griffith has said.
Griffith said because the majority of murders committed in this country for 2013 was criminals killing criminals it was hard for the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service to protect them.
Continue reading Gary: Criminals killing criminals
By Raffique Shah
December 29, 2013
Politically, 2013 will be remembered as the year of unprecedented multiple elections. It was the year that marked the beginning of the demise of the People’s Partnership; the year in which Jack Warner’s meteor burned brightly before it died an unnatural death; and the year that saw the People’s National Movement (PNM), for yet another time, rise, Phoenix-like, from the ashes of defeat, to position itself for a return to power.
Continue reading Year of the Fall
By Alexander Bruzual
December 03, 2013 – newsday.co.tt
THE SLAUGHTER of the innocent continues.
For the third time in less than three weeks evidence has surfaced that a child has been beaten to death. The latest innocent baby to lose his life is three-year-old Jabari Hernandez of Carmichael Village, Coryal, East Trinidad.
Young Jabari died on Saturday afternoon after he was reportedly seen vomiting at his home. At the time, it was believed the child may have died from injuries sustained in a fall he reportedly suffered at home a week prior to his death.
Continue reading BABY BEATEN TO DEATH
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 Jada Loutoo
September 17, 2013 – newsday.co.tt
AS some regional nations and parts of North and Latin America move towards decriminalising the consumption and possession of marijuana, Chief Justice Ivor Archie has began the ball rolling for similar considerations, in some capacity, for Trinidad and Tobago.
Continue reading Treat Ganja Use Differently
By Raffique Shah
September 08, 2013
Rather than re-shuffle her Cabinet for a third time in three years, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar should have considered resigning and calling fresh general elections.
By an annual tinkering with her appointees and their portfolios, the PM has all but admitted she is incapable of leading the country, which, really, is nothing to be ashamed of. The great Eric Williams often complained this country was ungovernable. It still is.
Continue reading Governing the ungovernable
By Raffique Shah
August 31, 2013
I choose to reflect on the nation’s Independence anniversary through the prism of a glass half-full rather than half-empty. We endure so many negatives in this country—our daily dosage of murder, lawlessness from top to bottom, pillage of the national purse—that if we did not know how to laugh in the face of adversity, we would implode from cerebral constipation.
Continue reading Give thanks, Trini
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