The officers in the La Horquetta Police Station were shuffled like a deck of cards several years ago as a result of my appeal for assistance to the then Canadian-born Deputy Commissioner of Police Jack Ewatski. I only learned about this years after the fact, but it was satisfying and a victory against police corruption that had plagued me for over a decade. It took the appointment of foreigners, Canadians in this instance, to the highest law enforcement offices in Trinidad and Tobago to do what our local Commissioners of Police refused to do — uphold the law.
I wrote about this on a few occasions, since then, and I believe it is important to highlight once more how dark and dismal our fortunes are in Trinidad and Tobago when it comes to the extremely high levels of criminal activity in our country. I certainly don’t need the current Commissioner of Police, Gary Griffith, to tell me that our politicians are involved in actus reus. Due to my experience, I have inadvertently uncovered this fact.
To gain a little more clarity regarding events I am referring to, please see the following link before reading further: https://www.insightnewsnetwork.com/trinidad-and-tobago-police-service-corrupt-at-its-core/
I was literally stalked, shadowed, and had steps taken to fulfill the promise of my untimely demise by my then neighbor and nemesis Carver Felix, because I dared to stand up for my land rights against this member of our criminal underworld — a close associate of the assassinated crime boss Mark Guerra. Just the mention of such bad actors to people in the know, even today, results in a fearful distancing from the target of their ire.
During the height of these events, I approached notable lawyers — Anand Ramlogan and Keith Scotland — for assistance, but they all ran away from me. I wrote three Commissioners of Police — Everald Snaggs, Trevor Paul and Acting Commissioner James Philbert — after I had made countless reports to the La Horquetta Police Station and who refused to help me. Still, I didn’t get any help whatsoever from these men, who were at the time, the highest law enforcement officers in the land. I even went to the office of my member of Parliament, at the time, Anil Roberts, and I also reached out to two successive Ministers for Food Production, Land and Agriculture, Reginald Dumas and Vasant Bharatt, and I got no assistance from them either. When this failed, I wrote the then Attorney General, John Jeremy, and nothing was done. I subsequently, sent a letter to the office of the then Prime Minister, Mrs. Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who forwarded my correspondence to Minister Vasant Bharatt, whom, as I had previously mentioned, did nothing this time around either. The list of government agencies and individuals in government I wrote and sought assistance from was, at least to me, mind blowing.
I wrote Trinidad and Tobago’s local chapter of Transparency International. They never responded. I wrote Pennelope Beckles, a former PNM member of Parliament with the portfolio of Minister for Public Utilities and the Environment, who forwarded my concerns to the CEO of WASA (Water and Sewerage Authority) and nothing came of my complaint. I wrote and visited the Police Complaints Authority on numerous occasions, and they did nothing either. I literally begged the various Commissioners of State Lands for relief, but my pleas fell upon deaf ears. I even tried the municipal and High Courts in Arima and Port of Spain respectively, and even this failed. Again, the steps I undertook to try to get anyone with the authority to help me goes way beyond what is plausible to itemize or mention in this post.
Through this most trying of circumstances, I had unwittingly uncovered, by my decision to stand up for my rights, the depths of the criminal elements’ influence and reach as well as the willingness of high-ranking law enforcement officers, renowned members of the legal fraternity and career politicians to protect the foot soldiers of the dark underworld and criminal activity in this country. Therefore, I am not at all ignorant of the forces aligned against me and the few of us who dare to stand up for our rights. Neither, as the apostle Paul boldly testified, am I lacking in confidence in the ability of the living God to keep that which I have entrusted unto Him — my life.
Years ago I was among the few reporters, working for Newsday, who were present in the courtroom of magistrate Lucina Cardenas-Ragoonanan when several young women from south America appeared before her charged with prostitution. Stories of being lured to Trinidad and Tobago with promises of work emerged. They soon; however, discovered it was only a ruse, because they had their passports seized by their benefactors, and they were forced to work as sex slaves. Eventually, when it came time to pay them, our intrepid crime-fighting police force raided their “prison”. How convenient. When magistrate Cardenas-Ragoonanan asked one of the young women if she had anyone to represent her, she motioned to a young man next to me in the public dock. Magistrate Cardenas-Ragoonan expressed her dim view of the individual who was now the focus of the court. However, he had no fear and scolded her in turn for what he saw as her hypocrisy in light of the “known” involvement of the police in the entire “industry”. Clearly taken aback by his bold response and knowing his rebuke had merit, she abashedly had no rejoinder.
Therefore, do you think citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, that these politicians who are entrusted with managing our country’s affairs as well as with the fight against crime and corruption, who are themselves neck deep in the very criminal morass which suffocates us, can liberate us from what they profit from? Sex and human trafficking are big business in our twin-island republic. Even our young secondary school students are “recruited” to participate. Let me remind you, in such a small country as ours with a population of about 1.3 million people, we led the world in internet searches for pornography as reported by Google statistics. Now, let this sink in. Yet, sadly, this only scratches the surface with regard to the litany of illegalities that are on the criminal carte du jour.
Our politicians are lying when they promise *new* initiatives to reduce crime. They are the architects of the crime we are suffering from. Where is Calder Hart? This foreigner, who suddenly appeared upon our political landscape with absolutely no explanation of who he was, and why he suddenly was sitting on several of our national boards, is currently enjoying life outside of our shores with millions of our “missing” money. Why is Lawrence Duprey still walking free after the infamous collapse of CL Financial and the loss of billions of our tax dollars to bail it out? Also, why were no charges ever brought against the former president of the now defunct Hindu Credit Union Harry Harnarine? He presided over the loss of tens of millions of investors hard-earned money and faced absolutely no legal repercussions. We can add to this list the Andre Monteil fiasco and the “mis-appropriation” of millions of dollars. Also, there is something many of us would like to ask the former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, “Where is our rice?”
I can go on and on highlighting the numerous scandals, allegations of wrong doing and citing countless news headlines of unsolved murders, “missing” and “mis-appropriated” funds and their respective actors. Yet, there is a common theme here. NO ONE EVER FACES ANY CONSEQUENCES, because as the late and form PNM Prime Minister George Chambers boldly stated on the political campaign trail, “All ah we ‘tief.”
Whenever a sentence for a crime is not carried out swiftly, the human mind becomes determined to commit evil. — Ecclesiastes 8:11 (ISV)