Category: crime
I am listening to the current calls from all sections of society that a resumption of hangings is part of the answer to crime.
I believe that examples should be made but not by a few deaths. It is time to review our laws and let the punishments fit the crime.
It must begin with detection and with enforcement. People break laws and are getting away. Why should criminals have fear? How do we make criminals pay?
If you rob someone, that means you take something tangible from them. Imprisonment takes their freedom but reinforces the need not to get caught not that its WRONG!
The old adage "who does not hear must feel" can be applied here. If you wish to rob a man, then be prepared to WORK as punishment. Not hard labour but REAL labour.
Make farming compounds and let inmates get up each day and work until end of sentence. No time off for good behaviour. Simply work for the time alloted by sentence.
If you wish to rape, then be prepared to be sentenced to PUBLIC hard labour, capital punishment and psychological sessions. They must suffer humiliation and scarring of victims.
Want to steal, as white collar criminals are wont to do? Work for a public service, at a standard wage, reporting to police each day, until you have repaid EVERYTHING you stole.
If you choose to litter, then clean the street that you chose to litter on. Punishment should be more than an IDLE or THEORETICAL THREAT but a real concequence for wrong behaviours.
This will also reinforce and reimpower a Police service that suffers from the incompetencies of a beleaguered system, where criminals are out and walking a day after they are caught.
I know that it may seem harsh to some but punishment MUST not just fit the crime, it must be WORSE! Having a death penalty is only a beginning, it is not the complete answer. {Read more}
So I am looking at Newspapers today and seeing pictures of Neeshad Ali's wife in her own grief. The pictures bring to me feelings of pity for her loss and disgust at the photographer and newspaper that published it...
Inside the newspaper is a photo, apparently taken in happier times,posted on facebook, of the couple. The entire article highlights the deceased's facebook comments and those of his brother. FACEBOOK?
Now, I believe in freedom of the press and investigative journalism but this is NOT news, this merely is intruding on a private moment of grief. Like so many perpetrated in past "to sell the story"...
I am reminded of the news pieces that Kalyzan Beharry (RIP) death had generated, some of which had alluded to her results and had named a band she listened too. How do those rumours relate? {Read more}
While most of you might have seen it on the news yesterday, the bandit shot dead happened not too far from where I'm staying and where I grew up. The gunshots around 3 a.m. off of Moody Stewart Street and later in the area of South Street were noticed by every household in the area, two men were seen getting out of an SUV on Moody Stewart Street during the incident - these ended up being the police (witnesses wisely stayed away from the windows afterward).
The next morning, one neighbor told me that Dave had been robbed - Dave Seon, a man who used to pitch marbles with an Uncle. The owner of Seon's Beer Garden on Royal Road, a place that I have been known to haunt every now and then. Dave, who used to deliver newspapers to my father back in the 1980s. Dave. Dave?
Dave.
So I headed up to the Beer Garden and spoke with Dave and Penelope even as the neighborhood seemed to rally to support the bar. And they're all well. The police were applauded - something new in the area that I grew up in. And the bandit shot dead? A quote from patrons:
"Good. One less."
In a time when capital punishment has been debated so vigorously, on the street the people are so tired of crime that it doesn't seem like an armchair discussion.
And for what it's worth, TTPS should take a bow for their rapid response on this - and emulate it more often.
Via a post to my Facebook page 2 hours ago (I was afk):
...The official vehicle of the Prime Ministerial candidate of the People’s Partnership and Opposition Leader, Kamla Persad Bissessar was hijacked in the vicinity of the Tunapuna Hindu School at approximately 2:30 p.m. this afternoon.. The vehicle, described as a midnight blue Prado bearing the licence plate PCJ 3 in which Mrs Persad Bissessar's niece, Lisa Harry, was travelling along with her driver was intercepted by an armed gang driving a silver Almera with the licence plate PCH 8663. The gang robbed Miss Harry and the driver before throwing them out of the vehicle...
Well, now that doesn't look good on the present regime. I wonder if it has anything to do with the large police presence in La Romaine I just saw, blocking the road. Probably not. Even so, it seems a bit odd to rob the official UNC vehicle.
On the flip side, a Prado is a big 'rob me' indicator, so this could be just a standard robbery instead of the political issue we'll hear oh-so-much about tomorrow.
The Indo-Trinbago Equality Council's (ITEC's) Devant Maharaj, via his Letter to the Editor, called upon the Chief Justice and Law Association to investigate Justice Herbert Volney's concern about the risk of racial bias in jury trials. I have two concerns with this letter.
Secondly, when making public statements, we need to take due care such statements have a sound basis, even those that appear to be cliches. This is why I wish to highlight ITEC's use of the following statement in its letter: "Given the disproportionate number of Indo-Trinidadians who are the victims of crime, the idea that racial considerations can influence and inform the deliberation of criminal juries is one which can spread panic and fear and lead to a loss of confidence in the criminal justice system."
Can ITEC please publish the reference(s) to the research it used to determine that a "disproportionate number of Indo-Trinidadians ... are the victims of crime ..."?
{Read more}
I don't know exactly what it is about Trinbagonians and the concept of etiquette, but I've been dealt some interesting experiences from the deck of life recently - both happening while ordering food this week. Both happened in Gulf City's food court.
Scenario 1
A few days ago, I was about to order a gyro - I'd stood in line patiently, I'm at the regular cashier who pretty much knows my order by heart. A woman sticks some wares past me, peddling belts and other things at the cashier. The cashier looks at the wares as I look on, waiting to place my order. After carefully looking over the wares, the cashier decides she doesn't want anything being peddled and says.
I look at the woman hustling business at the cost of my hunger and ask, "Is it OK with you if I order now?"
"Yes, you can go ahead now."
'Boldfaced' immediately came to mind. Brazen. No sense of propriety. I shrugged her off, I'd made my point. The cashier made a funny face. I consciously decided not to ask her the same, made my order and left.
Scenario 2
Today, I dropped by Dominos and was in the process of ordering when a trio of young males - I disdain calling them men - were giving the cashier a hard time. One was standing behind me, trying to be cool by interrupting my order with double entendres where the first part were tastelessly silent.
I turned on him and braced him in front of his two friends, telling him that I was hungry and that if he didn't mind, I'd like to place my order without being interrupted. Basically, I was telling him in a humorous way to STFU - but he didn't get that. Instead, he decided to raise his voice to draw attention in an attempt to embarass me into silence.
Wrong person. {Read more}
I apologize in advance for what is a very long post, but I found it necessary in writing it and could not find a reasonable way to break it into smaller pieces. Hopefully it isn't too burdensome to read.
When I read that Trinidad and Tobago ranked low in global innovation, I wasn't too surprised. And since, in some circles, I am considered an innovator because of one thing I was involved in some years ago... I have to write something about it. Innovation is closer to my heart than just about anything - or anyone.
When you speak of innovation (as I have been asked to here and there), it's easy to get caught up in abstract concepts framed by our own experiences. So let us start with the etymology of the word innovate - which was derived from the Latin innovatus, whose root is innovare. Literally translated, it means 'into new'.
Renew. Change. That's what 'innovate' means. But when most people speak of innovation, they immediately start thinking of silicon-based life enhancements. That's wrong.
Innovation is greater than technology. Innovation is a mindset. Innovation is what keeps innovators up at night. It makes us disgruntled. It makes us unhappy. It can make us euphoric. It can make us extremely happy. As Nikola Tesla put it: {Read more}
I'd heard some rumblings beforehand about Criminals Soon To Be Posted On Facebook but didn't write of it because I don't like to write about rumors. But there it is, voiced by Acting Police Commissioner James Philbert on Tuesday. I'd tried to change a few minds on it but didn't get a chance to talk to anyone who was actually making decisions - so I'll outline why I think it is good and bad.
First, the good:
- Facebook is the most visited site from Trinidad and Tobago, so posting such information there is better than nothing on the Internet.
Now the bad:
- As the Guardian article I linked to indicates, Facebook is a 'privately-owned, social-networking Web site'. It's also what we social media pros call a walled garden. And because it is a walled garden, its efficacy for disseminating information is decreased by the walls of the garden.
So, what did I suggest? I suggested a Flickr Professional account (at $25 US per year) that would allow, with proper tagging, such criminals to have their photos up and also be found through mainstream search engines. Coupled with a rather simple implementation of a content management system, such as used here at KnowTnT.com, this could be a powerful tool for fighting crime. No, I wasn't looking for business. They could do it themselves, I'd just like to see it done right.
That said, it is good to see that social media is being seen as a tool for fighting crime in Trinidad and Tobago. I just wish that they chose a more effective path. And they can still do it. The option is always there.
I'd like to take this opportunity to do two things. First to say goodbye to my friend Peter. Peter died sometime in the first week of November 2009 - at his home in the comfortable surrounds of Bacolet Point Tobago.
Peter was not in retirement, nor was he ailing. He was killed by a group of men whom he had come to know as potential buyers of his family property in Tobago - he had taken them in as tenants/buyers in waiting. The details are not relevant to this piece except that Peter had the opportunity to call the police during the Hunt ( he must have been running hiding in cupboards)
The calls were dismissed by the normal (This is so trini) 'we have no transport at this time' response. Peter actually called his neighbors in ensuing minutes. They also called police. Same response.
Peter was found in a shallow grave next day - in his yard. The men were held in the house. Maybe they may escape, since if anything, our lawyers in trini are good and capable. One of those 'men' was under fifteen. Street knowledge places him as blooded killer. He will escape the cells I think.
The leader of the group is nondescript, short, chubby and harmless looking creature who boasts a variety of health problems, even sickle cell. He will escape too jail too. Again the rumor has it they as a group can account for over fourscore and ten murders. (they were known by police y'see!)
I had made a note to myself to not let this disappear in the veil of time - Peter is non-national, no friends here who will miss him except by the seaside bar wher ehe had the odd beer, and at the animal shelter where he worked as volunteer and steward.
{Read more}
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