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Page 6 ISSUE 147 Friday 11th MARCH, 2016 TOWN TALKING POTHOLES TURNING INTO SINKHOLES ACROSS THE COUNTRY People are talking how the country is at a standstill since the PNM government took office six months ago. Motorists are complaining about the deteriorating conditions of the nation’s roads with large potholes which are now turning into sinkholes. Talk is that the poor conditions of the roads are leading to many accidents where drivers have to swerve to get away from the holes. People are calling on Works and Transport “Rastaman” Minister Fitzgerald Hinds to take a drive along the Churchill Roosevelt Highway from Arima to Curepe and he Poor service at Arima FCB bank! People are talking about the poor FCB bank service in Arima. On a near aily basis, customers are unble to make deposits because here are no envelopes in the ispenser, no account balance lips and at times no money at he ATMs. FCB has two ATM machines at xtra Foods and customers have een experiencing the same probem of an money and account balnce slips. People are saying this has been n ongoing problem for customers t FCB at Arima. Last month end (Sunday, March 8) frustrated customers were seen will see the large potholes in the middle of the road and at the side, which motorists have to pull away from to avoid an accident. In Arima, the roads also have a number of sink holes in the Borough. In the past, the Arima Borough Corporation used to patch the holes but that is now a thing of the past. Burgesses are saying the road repair crew has abandoned the job. In Curepe the road that leads from the CR Highway to the University of the West Indies (UWI) on the Western side is also in a poor condition. People are asking where is Minister Hinds? lining up at one of the three ATM machines to make withdrawals but money ran out and they had to turn away. Works and Transport Minister FITZGERALD HIND CUSTOMERS BEING ROBBED OUTSIDE REPUBLIC BANK TRINCITY People are saying how bandits are holding up customers outside Reublic Bank Trincity and robing them. Last week a businessman was obbed of $75,000 while on his ay to make a deposit around .30 pm. He is one of the several businessmen who have been robbed, Arima branch of First Citizens Bank over the past months in the car park while on their way to make deposits or withdraw cash. Although there are security guards on the compound they are unarmed and their duties appear to be just car park attendants. People are calling on the bank to provide armed security guards in the car park. People are saying that ATM machines should be checked on weekends to ensure there are money and account balance slips. Republic Bank PRESIDENT CARMONA MUST STOP TALKING ABOUT INTEGRITY! Talk in town is how President Anthony Carmona has taken the people of T&T for a bunch of fools. Many are asking how Carmona can seriously talk about the integrity of politicians and the Board of Inland Revenue (BIR) when he addressed the Commonwealth Caribbean Association of Integrity Commissions and Anti-Corruption Bodies last week when many have accused him of not displaying the required integrity since he continues to illegally receive a monthly housing allowance of $28,000. Many in town are also asking how come Justice Zainool Hosein, Chairman of T&T’s Integrity Commission, can also participate in such a meeting and talk about “confidential- President ANTHONY CARMONA ity” when prior to the September 7 General Election he allegedly tried to assist the PP government by accusing Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley of not submitting his 2004 integrity forms? SCRAP POST-CABINET NEWS CONFERENCE Some journalists are saying the Government should scrap the post- Cabinet news conference because they are unable to ask ministers questions. Communications Minister Maxie Cuffie who has been hosting the new conference is struggling to give answers to questions and being very dismissive to other important ones. Some people are saying that it appears that Cuffie is the “messenger” for the Cabinet and is told just what to answer. One journalist said when Cuffie is asked questions he brushes them aside and just defends the government. People are saying that since Cuffie came from the media in senior positions they expect he Communications Minister MAXIE CUFFIE would have done a better job as Communication Minister, but it appears he has a speech impediment and is unable to properly communicate with journalists. PROBE HOW PRISONER SHERON WAS GIVEN VIP TREATMENT People in Town are asking the President of the Police Service Social and Welfare Association Anand Ramesar why he is not calling for an investigation into the VIP treatment given to millionaire businessman Sheron Sukdheo while he was in custody at the Chaguanas Police Station recently. Sheron was arrested for allegedly beating his wife Rachael and was supposed to spend the night in custody before being taken to court the next day. However, there were reports that Sheron was taken home to have a bath and while he was in the CID office, he passed through a window and went home to sleep. He returned around 3 am later that night to get ready for court. Three officers from the CID haave since been transferred. ANAND RAMESAR When the incident occurred with Inspector Roger Alexander and Crime Watch host Ian Alleyne outside Sheron’s Chaguanas home the association president was calling for an investigation into alleged police abuse of power. Now people in Town said he should make the same call for the three transferred officers to be investigated.
ISSUE 147 Friday 11th MARCH, 2016 EDITORIAL By Publisher JACK WARNER We have to find a common sense approach in dealing with reprisals to policy decisions targeted at those behind the prison walls. The emotional rhetoric defining the killing of young Fitzalbert Victor Jnr as a war is just sensational and instills an aura of fear in the minds of his brothers and sisters in the prisons service. What is worse is that after having defined the killing as part of a war, the Commissioner of Prisons proceeds to advise his subordinates “not to be fearful.” But the stark truth is that if this is really a war, then the men who signed up “to treat and to hold” those who run afoul of the law are powerless to maintain a stance of professionalism in times such as these. This conversation is nothing new. What seems to be the only constant is the inability of the authorities to devise a plan that makes our prison officers feel safe even when they are off the job. Previous governments have tabled many ideas. One such is the allocation of HDC homes to law enforcement officers. The policy of 10 percent is spread over all the agencies including Fire officers and at the rate at which houses are being built, one cannot offer any hope to the officers under threat that such a plan will ever come to fruition in my lifetime or theirs. What is worse is that the HDC homes to be allocated are still among the general public and so access to these officers regardless of where they are assigned is just as easy as when they live in at-risk communities. Another idea is providing firearms for off-duty prison officers. It’s time to deal with reprisals to policy decisions WAR BEHIND PRISON WALLS Such an idea sounds good but the effect inhibits when one considers the criminal mind. In societies, which pursue such a path the realities present offer a more ominous end than leaving these officers unarmed. How can we forget that a former Commissioner of Prisons, Michael Hercules, was murdered by two young men ( he ended up killing one) and he was armed? Or how can we forget the Prisons Officer who was shot with his own firearm on the Quinem beach? Such cases of Prison Officers being shot with their own firearms are too numerous to mention. And, moreover, did the late Prison officer Victor not have a firearm under his pillow we are told? So the first point of note is that officers are known to have been killed while in possession of their firearms, which are then stolen by their assailants. The threat here, therefore, is the possibility of legal firearms being in the hands of criminals. Another threat is that cowards would then pursue softer targets such as members of prison officers’ families which will put a larger demographic at risk and exacerbate the problem at hand. The third idea has to do with the threat by the Prison Officers Association to take the Government to court over its inability to protect and assure the safety of officers while on or off duty. It will be interesting to hear the debates on both sides and to read the court’s judgment on this matter because any employee within the public service can make such a claim. But that is another matter! My own position is that there needs to be a thorough review of the penal system. In the first place, we have A new fearsome reality reached this point because rogue officers have been allowed to compromise the safety of the Prison Service and the good officers have kept silent for too long so the chickens have now come home to roost. The perception is that the killing may be materially linked to the policy decision to install telephone jammers at the nation’s prisons. The question is how did these phones get there in the first place? Civilians did not carry them in and if the prisoners sneaked them past the various checkpoints then somebody turned a blind eye or offered a favour, which has contributed to the problems we are facing today. So the first approach must be the commitment to tighter security measures and an assurance by officers to speak up and act against errant officers within the service. The second is improving the human rights conditions which exist within the prison walls. The living conditions there are deplorable and the Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon needs to do more than being alarmed when officers are murdered and come up with a way for prisoners to be treated as human beings even when incarcerated. If you treat someone like an animal they will act as an animal towards you and when one feels that one has lost all reason to live and has nothing to lose, anything is possible. Prisoners must never be treated in a way that pushes them to that point because the actions that we will witness would be unthinkable. Thirdly, the judicial system cannot continue to treat with prisoners in the tardy manner that has become the norm. A young man sentenced National Security Minister EDMUND DILLON to six years in prison appealed the judgment because he maintained his innocence. Unable to secure bail because of his financial and social standing he remained seven years in jail for an opportunity to plead his innocence. The sad end to his story is that he died behind the prison walls waiting for justice. Can you imagine the angst this has evoked in the minds of close relatives? Can you imagine the feelings of reciprocity or conjure up the images of whom might be the possible target for attack for the feelings harboured? Why in God’s name I ask for the umpteenth time can’t we complete an initiative which, as a former Golden Grove Prison...scene of trouble Former CoP MICHAEL HERCULES Minister of National Security, I had started to address? And that is having a court at the Golden Grove Prisons!!!! I know why this matter has been consistently stalled but, in the end, we shall pay a high price for our recalcitrance. Also, why don’t we have night courts in an effort to expedite the judicial process? Why not? We have to approach this prison officer’s tragedy with a level of common sense that seeks to produce a sustainable end rather than emotive rhetoric that dies 10 days after the burial of the prison officer. This calls for a multisectoral approach to initiate action if this debacle has to be brought under control Page 7 Murdered Prison Officer FITZALBERT VICTOR before being extirpated. Most prisoners are citizens of our country with inalienable human rights by virtue of their birthright. Those in Remand Yard are innocent until proven guilty and if we are to effect the change in the lives of the men and women accused of breaking the law then we must treat them as human and very humane when we detain them behind our prison walls and this advice is not an indictment of any prison officer nor even the prison service. It is an indictment against our system of justice. So the answer is not easy but we must make a determined effort to work together to get this right. Let’s do it now.
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