RADAR DOWN AGAIN

Richard Charan South Bureau

Source: Trinidad Express

Wednesday, January 30th 2008

-Photo: TREVOR HACKETT

The radar installation on the San Fernando Hill that forms part of the State's $100 million 360-degree coastal surveillance system went dead again four days ago and has become a roost for corbeaux.

All day yesterday, the birds, which feed on carrion, flew around or nestled on the facility. But the Ministry of National Security has refused to comment on what some believe to be a malfunction of the system that Government considers critical in the fight against drug and gun smugglers.

Another waste of money by the PNM. What's new?
Look like the corbeaux making better use of this glorified bird nest.

Plot to destabilise COP

Dookeran:

Stories by Ria Taitt Political Editor

Source: Trinidad Express

Wednesday, January 30th 2008

Congress of the People leader Winston Dookeran yesterday suggested that criticisms coming from within his own party were attempts by "the other side" to "try to destabilise us as we move to contest the local government elections". (So what he trying to say is that Gary Griffith, Gillian Lucky and Gerald Yetming are on the other side now? Duckanrun look like he losin it now.)

In a statement, Dookeran said: "We know that our success (COrPse eh win ah blasted seat and he bawling sucess? What brand ah weed you smokin hoss?) has shocked many on the other side. Those elements will no doubt try to destabilise us as we move on to contest the local government elections." (Look who talking about destabilising. Isn't this the same jack@$$ who destabilise the opposition and hand the PNM another 5 years in office?)

He also welcomed the "challenge" to the leadership from former candidate and prominent member Gary Griffith who wrote Dookeran recently criticising his leadership style. (This man welcoming a challenge for leadership but leadership of what? Ah dead corpse? Griffith have no shame, he fighting to lead ah dead party.)

On Griffith's assertions that he had set up several parallel groups which were taking instructions from him without any input from the executive, Dookeran said he did not think that "the objective of full participation by a wide cross section of the party membership" should be interpreted as setting up "parallel groups". (Ah boy Duckanrun, take ah little taste of your own medicine now.)

Where all the new politics gone by the way? The way I see it, Dookeran trying to play the blame game and blame UNC-A for the shit he in now and he trying to make comparisons to other parties and say his is the best. Looks like Duckanrun up to the same old poli-tricks he was bashing.

PNM Dirty Laundry in Senate Uproar

Opposition Senator causes stir in Senate
Sunday 27th January, 2008
Source: Trinidad Guardian

By Yvonne Baboolal

Author and popular letter writer, Mohammed Faisal Rahman, now an Opposition Senator, caused a stir in the Senate last Tuesday when he made his contribution to the Supplementary Appropriation Bill, prompting at least one Government Senator to say no to a request to extend his speaking time.

Rahman made several statements that kept Government Senators wide awake way past the 4.30 pm tea break, one of which was that it was a common practice for former PNM ministers to often ride free on the national airline, BWIA.

“I used to be in the travel business and airline personnel told me BWIA used to be packed with government ministers, not from this regime, from the past, from first class right down.

“BWIA too often had to carry non-revenue seats. Mr President can I ask for your help Sir?” Rahman asked, forced to break his contribution because of the chorus of protests that rose from the Government benches. (Now we see why BWIA was always running at a loss under the PNM.)

When the noises from the other side abated, the bearded Rahman reminded the Government that the reasons it gave for wanting to shut down the national airline was that it was saddled with inefficiencies and cost overruns.

Next, he moved on to attack Government’s 2020 Vision and its emphasis on the construction of mega buildings in the city, in particular.

“Vision 2020 seems to be an altered skyline. I see the buildings all stacked up there and it looks like a little piece of New York.

“But the Government should be building schools, houses, hospitals and police stations to bring social benefits to the people. (Well done Mr. Rahaman. Apparently the 299,813 PNMites don't have much of a brain, so they are unable to realise that they can't eat sky-scrapers and that they are being treated like 3rd class citizens.)

“Government is supposed to be providing security, food, clothing and shelter...I am giving you some discomfort, am I?” he paused again to ask a Government Senator who had fired a salvo at him.

Continuing, Rahman then blamed Prime Minister Patrick Manning for the high cost of goods in the country.

“Manning didn’t float the dollar. He submerged it like a submarine and handed control of the currency of the nation to the banking sector.

“The sovereignty of a nation hinges on its control of its currency and when you give it to the banks they determine what goods cost. Over the years the banks continued to devaluate the dollar and profit by this. “The dollar has been steadily losing its purchasing power. One dollar is now worth 16 cents,” Rahman informed the Senate.

He said all of this was linked to crime. “Necessity can make a priest, maulana or pundit a criminal. But how can you be concerned for the poor when you are living in a $48 million palace?” he asked rhetorically. (Well all Manning care about is being a King and the PNMites, as I said earlier, fail to realise that they can't live on sky-scrapers and palaces won't do them any good either.)

At this, a Government Senator shot up, Standing Orders in hand, and pointed Senate President Danny Montano to a rule that spoke about the relevancy of a speaker’s contribution.

Montano agreed that Rahman had certainly sailed way off course and asked him to try and bring his contribution nearer to the subject at hand.

Rahman, noting he was not telling the Government these things because he was on “the other side” but because he was a citizen of the country, then digressed to disclose that he had once been a supporter of the PNM for years. “I was a PNM boy,” he said.

He also took the opportunity to chastise Manning for once referring to himself as the father of the nation, declaring, “There has been and will always be only one father of the nation, Dr Eric Williams.”

When his speaking time ended shortly after and a request to extend it by 15 minutes was put to the vote, one Government Senator (Couldn't handle the heat eh?) said a loud no.

Grateful that it was only one person, Rahman said, “I thank the majority on the other side for allowing me to speak, at their expense.”

Well it seems to me that Mr. Rahaman is really a fine choice by the UNC-A. Bravo on your stellar contribution to the Upper House.

Human Rats Strike Again!

'Human rats' blamed again

Cocaine missing from station

Richard Charan South Bureau

Source: Trinidad Express

Saturday, January 26th 2008



SPANKING NEW: Senior Supt of the Central Division Rattan Singh, right, and Police Commissioner Trevor Paul tour the Brasso/ Flanagin Police Post yesterday after it was opened. -Photo: DAVE PERSAD

Police suspect that 33 kilogrammes of cocaine stored in the property room of the Princes Town Police Station, might have been taken by the same "human rats" who stole a similar amount of the drug from the station three years ago.

An inventory has been requested of all evidence in the property room, a place where items lost, seized or stolen are kept pending use in a trial, return to owners, or destruction by the State.

The investigation has been requested by Superintendent Chadrabhan Maharaj, who is based at the station, and who, it was learned, received information that the cocaine had been taken and sold.

The Express was told that hesitation by junior officers to conduct the inventory has led to a complaint being recorded in the police station's log book.

Maharaj could not be contacted yesterday.

His telephone number at the station is out of service.

Commissioner of Police Trevor Paul declined to take questions at yesterday's official opening of the Brasso Police Post in Central Trinidad.

Maharaj is the police officer who two months ago turned down a promotion to the rank of Acting Senior Superintendent Southern Division, because he said there were too many corrupted police officers involved in the guns and drug trade.

Report of narcotics being stolen from the Princes Town Station first surfaced during the 2005 trial of a couple charged with trafficking in more than 73 kilogrammes of cocaine.

During the trial, a police sergeant said the year before he went to check on the cocaine in the property room and found that half was gone.

The couple were freed, and presiding judge Herbert Volney blasted the police, saying that "human rats" had eaten the cocaine. A investigation into the disappearance by Assistant Commissioner of Police Glenroy Woodley, is still to be completed.

The new investigation involves cocaine that was found by a farmer buried in a canefield in Tableland in August 2000, and taken to the Princes Town Station to be kept while the drug dealers were hunted.

No one was ever held.

The cocaine was part of a multi-million dollar shipment apparently lost at sea and which began floating ashore on Trinidad's south and east coasts. There was a race back then between police and thieves trying to get to the cocaine first.

Imagine the police stations not even safe. The police can't even guard evidence in a police station, where the police are for most of the time, so how they expect to protect the citizens who are not even in same building as them? How does the TTPS expect the citizenry to have any faith in them? And to think that this has happened before in the same station, one would have thought that measures would be put in place to prevent a re-occurrence, but then this is the Trinidad & Tobago Police Service we speak of, in other words, a bunch of bungling idiots who can be categorised as having only 3 CXC passes. Lord put ah hand!

GANGING UP

340 per cent increase: 1,700 members in 86 gangs in T&T
Ria Taitt Political Editor
Source: Trinidad Express
Saturday, January 26th 2008


Criminal gangs in Trinidad and Tobago are multiplying and fast, both in terms of the numbers of gangs and the numbers of persons joining gangs. The activity is leaving one with inescapable conclusion that the society is now under greater threat.

Speaking in the House of Representatives yesterday, National Security Minister Martin Joseph stated that there were now 86 gangs, comprising up to 1,720 members across the country.

He said the average size of each gang varied between 15 to 20 members, which meant that the total membership was between 1,300 to 1,720 persons.

The situation has deteriorated considerably over the past 18 months. The last time Joseph gave a head count, he told the House of Representatives on June 6, 2005, that there were some "500 hardcore members" in the "66 known gangs".

Yesterday's figures therefore represent an over 340 per cent increase in the membership of gangs and a 30 per cent increase in the numbers of gangs.

Joseph said the reason for the proliferation was because "splinter groups were being formed within gangs as a result of some displacement activity".

Asked by Tabaquite MP Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj whether any of these criminal gangs were brought to justice in the courts, Joseph said his understanding was that a number of them were, but he did not have the specific information.

The minister has repeatedly stated that the record murder toll for last year was the result of gang-related activity, since most of the homicides in Trinidad and Tobago are gang-linked. He also stated that most of the gang-related activity is directly linked to the problem of the illegal drug trade and the prevalence of firearms. (Maybe if the multi-million dollar radar, that the PNM bought with tax payer's money was working, we wouldn't have this problem.)

Yesterday, Joseph said among the initiatives taken since 2006 to arrest gang members were the establishment of the Homicide Prevention Working Group and the Inter Agency Task Force (IATF), which created a presence in Carenage, Diego Martin, Beetham Gardens and Cocorite. This was in addition to the established centres of operation in Quarry Street, Charford Court, Harpe Place and Beverly Hills, he said. (See Page 6) (We need a police presence in the areas of the country where crime against the hard working citizens is prevalent, not where criminals are shooting criminals, who gives a f**k!)

He said because efforts to disrupt the activities of gangs also had to include initiatives to disrupt the drug trade, Government had also restructured the Homicide Bureau of Investigation, established the Repeat Offenders Programme, purchased vehicles, established police posts in the Morvant/Laventille area to deal with rising gang activity; the establishment of the Crime and Problem Analysis Branch; E-999 patrols, roadblocks and other police and joint army and police patrols.

In response to another question, Joseph revealed that the Firearms Interdiction Unit had seized a total of 111 firearms and 2,813 rounds of ammunition between 2003 and 2005, when it was disbanded. The areas from which the arms and ammunition were retrieved included Chatham, Port of Spain, Arima, Tableland, Claxton Bay, San Fernando, Chaguanas, Princes Town, Laventille, Cunupia, Longdenville, Cedros, Sea Lots, Valencia, Morvant, Curepe, Valsayn North, Trincity, Rousillac, Toco, Maracas Bay and Tobago.

He said the FIU was disbanded in July 2005, and since then the Police Service has seized 110 firearms in the last six months of 2005, 266 in 2006 and 220 in 2007.

Fartin Joseph has all this information and yet he can't make any progress in the fight against gang violence. That just goes to show you how completely inept the PNM is. Now as you all may kn0w, I don't have a problem with gang violence. So what if gang members kill one another, it's not like they were productive members of society anyway. In fact these gang member who are still alive are destructive members of society in my book. I say cordon off the area and let them kill one another.

Pregnant mom hit by school boys, foetus in danger

Nikita Braxton South Bureau

Source: Trinidad Express

Wednesday, January 23rd 2008

A 22-year-old woman was last night in fear of losing her unborn child after being attacked by several schoolboys.

Carlene O'Brien said her four-month-old foetus was bruised by the blow. She was transferred to the Mt Hope Medical Sciences Complex in need of three pints of blood. In the attack she was hit on her waist with a stone.

Another woman was also attacked and a car's windows were smashed.

O'Brien of Piarco was taken to the Chaguanas Health Facility after she began bleeding following the incident.

She was with Irma Rodriguez, 42, who went to pick up her daughter from the Chaguanas Senior Comprehensive School.

Rodriguez's daughter was being bullied by a male classmate. On Monday she went to meet her daughter at the school to clear up the situation with the principal. She said her daughter, a Form Five pupil, made several reports to her form teacher who said she would forward the matter to the Dean of the school. Rodriguez said this was not done.

While waiting for a policeman outside the school to accompany her to see the principal, she said, her daughter pointed out the boy who also plays basketball at the school, to her. When he saw them he came up. Rodriguez said she told the boy that they would be handling the situation with school officials and the police.

She said the boy replied "leh we handle this scene now" and allegedly slapped Rodriguez.

She said her nephew who was in the back seat of the car came out and he was covered by about a dozen pupils who began kicking and cuffing him.

"I even took off my shoe and tried to hit them off my nephew, but one of the boys took it and pelt it," she said.

She said she got back into the car and tried getting away which was when a bottle was pelted.

She told her nephew and daughter to hide in the backseat and O'Brien to turn her back so that they would not get hit in the face when the children began pelting stones. One of the stones shattered the back glass in the car and another hit O'Brien in the waist.

Chaguanas CID did not comment on the complaints. The car Rodriquez was driving was parked on the station's compound.

School officials could not be reached.

It seems we are now raising animals instead of children in these schools we have here. Well Hazel did a terrible job in the past 5 years as Minister of Education and I think she should be held responsible for the madness that is now taking place in schools. No respect at all for elders, none whatsoever. I think The Grim Reaper said it best here in the following quote:

A snapshot in time
Well here we have it folks: The future of Trinidad and Tobago playing out right before your very eyes. These people have no respect for themselves, their fellow citizens or for defenceless, unborn lives. The entire country is adrift and leaderless. It is dog eat dog out there, survival of the fittest. The rule of law is meaningless and toothless. The unending nightmare of crime, bloodletting and violence continues to rape and pillage the land. No one is immune. No one is safe. Hide and cower down behind your burglar bars, prisoners in your own homes. This is your future because you failed to act to save yourselves when there was still time to do so. Reap your whirlwind now, people of Trinidad and Tobago. The Grim Reaper.

Bandits attack media at Chutney finals

By CECILY ASSON Monday, January 21 2008
Source: T&T Newsday

NEWSPAPER photographers who covered the Chutney Soca Monarch Finals at Skinner Park, San Fernando, were attacked by a group of bandits outside the venue early yesterday morning.

Newsday photographer Anil Rampersad suffered an injury to his back, while Express photographer Dave Persad was allegedly slapped in the face and hit with a bottle on the head. Photographers Trevor Hackett (Express) and Rishi Ragoonath (Guardian) escaped unhurt.

Five suspects have been detained in connection with the incident which took place as the photographers were headed back to their respective vehicles parked on the “B” ground, Skinner Park, the designated parking area for the media workers on the night.

Rampersad said they were denied parking inside the venue and were shuttled into Skinner Park. However, after the event a shuttle service was unavailable.

The photographers were attacked at about 3.45 am as they were walking along the Rienzi/Kirton Highway, Cross Crossing, near Skinner Park. A gang of about eight men rained bottles on them when they reacted to their alleged attempts to rob them. Rampersad was struck in the back with a bottle as he tried to run for cover.

Plain clothes police officers on their way out of Skinner Park were alerted to the incident.

Five suspects were held and taken to San Fernando CID where up to late yesterday evening they were still detained.

The injured photographers were forced to seek medical attention at the Princes Town District Health Facility after waiting several hours at the San Fernando General Hospital without being attended to. Rampersad yesterday blamed organisers of the annual chutney event for the unfortunate incident. He explained: “If only the media were shown some more respect with parking arrangements this would not have happened.”

Investigations are continuing.

Pictures, pictures of our Health Ministry *cough* .... well look at that picture. Let's hear the names of these members of the media now who were attacked. Anil Rampersad and Dave Persad (Trevor Hackett and Rishi Ragoonath were not assaulted). Where they were attacked? At the Chutney Soca Monarch Finals at Skinner Park. Who attacked them? See above picture. Now it looks to me like those fellows doing the attacking are a bunch of fellows of African Descent and the 2 media men who were attacked, from the names given, seem to be of East Indian Descent. First thing people might bawl is that Trini Views is another racist, but the fact still remains that this attack here can be classified as a racial attack by Afro-Trinis on Indo-Trinis. What could these reporters have possibly done to these men to warrant such a violent attack? They say it was attempted robbery, but what would you expect to get from some cameramen covering an event? Film? Cameras? Come on, call a spade a spade.