UWI criminologist: Give police bigger budget, more manpower
6 Hrs Ago
In this file photo, Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith, centre, joins a police foot patrol on Independence Square, Port of Spain. - Photo by Sureash Cholai
Recognising the evolving role of the police in society, criminologist and mediator Dr Wendell Wallace says there are several shortfalls in the current structure of the police service and recommends a larger budget and increased manpower to overcome these challenges.
In his opening remarks at an online symposium on the role of the police, hosted by the Caribbean Centre for Human Rights (CCHR) on Wednesday, Wallace said the role of law enforcement has changed over the years from traditional policing to a more community-based approach.
DEAD: Andrew Morris -
Police Complaints Authority (PCA) director David West said on Tuesday he is satisfied with the direction the investigation into the deaths of two suspects while in police custody is heading.
Andrew Morris and Joel Balcon were held for questioning for the kidnapping of Andrea Bharatt after she was last seen entering a car disguised as a taxi on January 29. Bharatt’s body was later found on February 4 at the Heights of Aripo.
Morris died on February 1 and Balcon died eight days after. Their autopsy revealed they died of blunt force trauma.
PCA announced, on February 9, that it had launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of the men.
Criminal justice injustice
WAYNE KUBLALSINGH
ON DECEMBER 2, Nazma Muller, Adrian Gookool, Elizabeth Solomon and Denise Pitcher, the executive director of the Caribbean Centre for Human Rights, and myself met with the Director of Public Prosecution, Roger Gaspard, at his Richmond Street office.
Gaspard was bold, forthcoming and enlightening. He agreed to review a list of cases of inmates that we had compiled. Although “the bandwidth of problems in the criminal justice system was too broad” (Gaspard) to cover in a two-hour meeting, the following issues were discussed:
Plea Bargaining Act: One of the purposes of this act was to cure delays. But litigants and their attorneys are not tripping over themselves to get to the DPP’s office to plea-bargain.
MP Charles: Review migrant policy, lock down borders
Rodney Charles -
NAPARIMA MP Rodney Charles has the solution to TT s Venezuelan illegal migrant crisis: effectively and completely lock down the country s borders.
Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, he said: “Once our borders are locked down, people will not leave Venezuela, they would not risk it because they know they are going to be stopped. A UNC government would have handled this thing scientifically. It would have been data driven. It would be fact based and tied in to our absorptive capacity.”
He called on Government to seek regional and global support for a well thought out migrant/refugee policy – one that is humane, consensually developed, recognises international treaty obligations, TT’s absorptive capacity and national security concerns.
BLAME MADURO
Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro.
THE United States Embassy, in a post on its Facebook page on Sunday, was clear in who was to be blamed for the Venezuelan migrant crisis – that’s country’s leader Nicolas Maduro.
“The absence of a democratic system in Maduro’s Venezuela, ongoing systematic human rights violations, acute food shortages, precarious health systems, an electricity crisis, generalised violence and economic collapse are some of the key causes that have forced more than five million Venezuelans to flee their country since 2015,” the embassy stated in its post.
However, political activist David Abdulah hit the current US embargo, telling Newsday, “Let (US) Ambassador (Joseph) Mondello tell his government to give back all the money they seized from Venezuela and end US sanctions, and then he can talk about the international economy of Venezuela.”