Tag Archives: Crime in T&T

Wage war to win peace

By Raffique Shah
July 17, 2011

Raffique Shah“‘Tis strange—but true; for truth is always strange;
Stranger than fiction; if it could be told,
How much would novels gain by the exchange!
How differently the world would men behold!”
(Lord Byron, Don Juan, 1823)

IN Frederick Forsyth’s 2010 novel, Cobra, the central character, Paul Devereaux, a former CIA agent, is tasked by his President (mucho resemblance to Barack Obama) to put an end to the cocaine menace that is strangling America. Devereaux demands, and is given, $2 billion plus a carte blanche instrument of authority to launch his war on the Colombian Cartel and its global tentacles. He hires as his operations officer a former foe, Calvin Dexter, and within one year they put together a powerful machine of personnel and equipment that attacks Don Diego and his overlords with extreme prejudice, as such exercises are described.
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Stealing the soul of the nation

By Raffique Shah
Jun 05, 2011

Raffique ShahBRIBERY and corruption are a global phenomena that permeate almost every country in the world. The only variant is the level or intensity of such malpractices, and the amounts of money involved, as they vary from country to country. Forget Transparency International’s Corruption Index, which addresses the perception of corruption, not the reality. Think real. Think Trinidad and Tobago, where from the ordinary citizen seeking to get a driver’s permit or a job, to a big contractor making a legitimate bid for a contract with a government agency.
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Strangers in our land

Newsday Editorial
May 1 2011 – newsday.co.tt

ChineseThe recent kidnapping for ransom of a citizen of China who owned and operated a restaurant at St Helena has brought to the fore, once again, the question of illegal immigrants living and working in Trinidad and Tobago.

Speaking in Senate recently, Independent Senator Rolph Balgobin raised this issue.
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Chinese Kidnapping – Slain Restaurant Owner

Kidnapped Chinese restaurant owner Xue Hua Shan
Kidnapped Chinese restaurant owner Xue Hua Shan

Cops step up search for kidnapped woman
Police probing the kidnapping of Chinese restaurant owner Xue Hua Shan said her relatives told them that the woman’s mother, in China, received a text message saying her daughter was released. The text message, police said, was sent in a Chinese dialect to Shan’s mother who lives in China. Investigators said they had not contacted Shan’s mother and did not know if the message was true or a hoax. But detectives said yesterday that they were still looking for Shan and had no concrete evidence she had been released by her kidnappers. The lawmen said they have stepped up their search for Shan after also receiving a message from someone who called the Piarco Police Station around 6.30 am yesterday, claiming she had been dropped off near a bridge in St Helena.
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Ish, Steve get bail

By Alexander Bruzual
April 1 2011 – newsday.co.tt

Ishwar Galbaransingh and Steve FergusonBUSINESSMEN Ishwar Galbaransingh and Steve Ferguson, who have spent the past nine months in jail, were yesterday granted bail by a High Court Judge.

Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh, presiding over Court 20 at the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain, granted bail to the men. However, the judge increased the original bail figure of $1 million per accused, to $2 million.
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PNM’s Retrograde Death Penalty Politics

By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
March 05, 2011

HangingMonday, 28 February 2011 will not only live in infamy but it will also be recorded as one of the darkest days in the history of public policy decision-making process in T&T. This historic, albeit unforgettable, day witnessed the opposition PNM voting against the constitutional amendment to resume hanging as the most effective penalty/punishment/deterrent for murder.
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Kamla Weeps for Daniel

By Cecily Asson and Stacy Moore
February 22 2011 – newsday.co.tt

ViolenceAn emotional Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday described the killer of eight-year-old Daniel Guerra as a “monster” and called for swift justice.

She also announced that the tragic death of Daniel had strengthened her resolve “that we need to use more drastic measures in the fight against the criminals.”
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The law-abiding will strike back some day

By Raffique Shah
February 19, 2011

Raffique ShahI AM so blasted vex as I write this column (Friday morning), I am seething with anger. The newspapers featured a story complete with photographs showing a group of thugs attacking some farmers and other residents of a farming community in Lopinot. The violent, brazen attack occurred in full view of journalists who had gone to cover the story. In fact, the thugs threatened and attacked media workers who escaped blows only because one of their colleagues knew one of the attackers.
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DEADLY JUSTICE

By Newsday Staff
February 12, 2011 – newsday.co.tt

PunisherVillagers of Old Clarke Road in Penal reacted with full force when they heard the screams of a woman and children who were being brutally attacked at their home on Thursday afternoon.

The villagers’ action led to one man eventually dying of chop wounds and his partner in crime seriously injured and in critical condition under police guard at the San Fernando Hospital.
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Cops ‘Protest Action’ – No Love Lost

No Love Lost

By Suzanne Mills
February 11, 2011 – newsday.co.tt

PoliceIf Social Welfare Association head, Sergeant Anand Ramesar is representative of police intellectual force in TT, I’ve heard enough. Let´s throw in the towel at once, surrender immediately to the bandits, but Jah spare us the cruel and unusual punishment of Sergeant Ramesar’s ad-libs: “We will down tools, no retirees for desk work, “no bikes for cops” and his newest, “Take back the $1,000!”
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