David,

Just that one hotelier was moaning about the cost of security for his property. The point was that we spend more on security than marketing our property. We expect to provide security for our guests but of the 10 recent incidents only ONE has taken place on our premises. We cannot reasonably secure the entire length of Long Beach, Inch Marlow and Silver Sands.

Straight from the heart, it’s clear, when you think with your heart, you’re not thinking at all. Since you’re “heart” is more concerned with emotion and not intellectual thinking.

Adrian, I sympathize with your situation I really do, I am wondering, have you ever had the opportunity to sit down with the Police Officer directly responsible for your area? Forgive me for not knowing where Peach and Quiet is exactly, but that sounds like it would be the Officer from Oistins.

Air your concerns and what you want, increased presence, visits to your area and make a note of what you request and what is promised, give it a bit, if nothing changes, go higher.

@Adrian

I cannot help but be partisan on this one; it was your voice that loud on the virtues of the DLP and now on matters as serious as your concerns, very little leadership. They do not know how to call a spade a spade, and they do not know the damage done to a country when there is no single vision (the mantle of leadership) being expressed. This administration has failed you Adrian; it has failed the tourism sector. It has failed the economy of Barbados; it has sorely disappointed its supporters and well-wishers including me because I am for barbados first and foremost. In essence, it is not the COP but the failure of government to lead that has failed all Barbados. I am very sorry to hear about the threats that come your way and the beating that you and others in your sector are getting. Not your fault, but it is our collective responsibility to change things; I hope that never again the political rhetoric of change for change sake will eventuate into the margin of victory evidenced in the last elections. That too is part of the problem, too many square pegs in round holes. Gone for the day, budget time, so work to be done first.

Why would the COP chastise Crime Stoppers publicly? Could he not have taken his concerns about Crime Stoppers offline? Aren’t the both of them on the same team?

@Adrian Loveridge. Your best protection for your Hotel is trained dogs and Security guards.

Middle class and upper class bajans have guns and dogs.

The Police do not have the power to stop this crime wave.

They are afraid to take drastic action because they will be ridiculed.

fend fuh yuh self.

when owners of business or private property start killing these thieves, crooks and would be murderers then the criminals will listen and the police will follow suit

Sorry to disappoint you George C Brathwaite but I did not read wht you wrote.

I was responding directly to Adrian based on my experience living in Barbados.

My Father had two guns and one or two dogs.So did a lot of other Bajans.

I don’t have the time to deal will politics and philosophy right now.
I have to get back to making money so that I can afford the guns and dogs if I come back to Barbados to retire.
uh gone!

Many in this society ,including bloggers ,are dead set on creating mass hysteria in this country.
@ Strait- from- the- heart. You should consider taking a course in Anatomy. You are confusing your ticker with your bum.

@Chuckles

Not sure if you should be so quick to dismiss concerns directed at the police. If seems a little foreboding on Budget day the national conversation should be about the level of crime and violence.

You know you have a problem when burglar bars are mandatory on every home built in Barbados

You know you have a problem when Drug Runners evade the Coast Guard and Police and off load their cargo with impunity at almost every nook and cranny in the Island.

You know you have a problem when these same Drug Runners consider it part of operations to exchange gun fire with Police if they are spotted.

You know you have a problem when the inmates set fire to the Prison and no one is held accountable.

You know you have a problem when the Minister in Charge of the Prisons is not called to testify as to the circumstances which led to the fire.

You know that you have a problem when a shooting victim is transported to Hospital and the gunmen turn up at the Hospital to finish the job.

You know you have a problem when there is a rash of “drive by” shootings.

You know you have a problem when you hear constant complaints from citizens about the lack of timely response by Police to calls for assistance.

You know that you have a problem when Policemen on patrol are shot at and wounded when they challenge suspicious characters.

I don’t think we have a problem, we have a crisis.

In my opinion what we are experiencing is not an upsurge in crime, rather crime being made more public especially with the increase of mediums such as the BBM, Social Networks, Blogs etc. Perhaps these things have been happening under our noses for quite sometime and we never noticed.

Reminds me of the story of the frog that was put in a pot of cold water and the burner lit under it, by the time it realised the water was hot its goose was already cooked.

2. Are we blaming the COP for this level of crime. How can we, when we all have a part to play. Simple, how many of us know of people dealing drugs and make that life look glamorous? How many of us know of under handed wheeling and dealing and turn a blind eye,a deaf ear and a dumb tongue. How many of us when ply our children with electronics and what ever their hearts desire, listen to them cuss and carry on, live like brigands and then laugh because “you know the young people now-a-days”. How many of us encourage our family, friends and associates in a criminal way of life by our very silence? Crime is like a gremlin, its looks small and cute, feed it at the wrong time and the wrong thing and it wrecks havoc.

Alas I too have stood silently by, so I take the part of my blame for allowing my country to turn into a human cess-pool.

@David
Crossing swords is an every-day occurrence It exists in the Church(Rev. Morris vs Bishop Holder), at the QEH, at schools, among political parties, FIFA vs Jack Warner, WICB vs WIPA, Morris Lee and Ms Forde, Freundel vs Sinckler, Mia vs Owen etc etc. Dottin vs his deputy ain’t got anything to do with the level of crime in Barbados.

@ Hamilton Hill

Take it easy, Adrian can speak for himself; no prodding please. I was sympathetic and understanding; in fact I am concerned that Adrian’s problems are not restricted to that sector or to his family. These are increasingly sad times. While admitting that, I cannot take back the statements I made that may likely suggest Adrian’s gross disappointments which again most of Barbados are seemingly sharing. As a country, we can do much better and while all of us are quick to quip that we do not like politics or that we are non-partisan, these things are not reflected in our discourses or practices. That my friend Mr. Hill is the real deal; would you ask Adrian, the government, the society, and the COP and his force to deal with that!

Oh here it is again, these guys got charged for multiple burglaries and will plead guilty to all and receive the same sentence on each to run concurrent.

Hey it ain’t my house they broke into so why should I care right?

http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/police-make-headway-in-solving-crimes/

@Bushman

[quote]What EXACTLY does he think his job entails?
Why does he not establish checkpoints? Charge persons who are found to have made/used such illegal plates?[/quote]

How are you going to charge the person who made the fictitious number plate? You think the criminal is going to tell you who made it? When people can go to all these little side shops and get them made easily that is the problem.

It needs to be legislated that anyone requesting plates be made at these places has to show ID or whatever. So when making inquiries at license plate makers for the number, the guy will say yeah John Doe had this plate made.

If I say to plate-maker-man make me plate X0000, the police cannot charge him for making it, because there is no law to do so. They can only charge the driver of the vehicle which bore the plates at the time.

So it is not the commissioner’s job to enact laws, that is a matter for parliament, so the commissioner has been asking for years for the making of number plates by these individuals to be regulated, so they can track who made what.

makes sense?

chronic complainer Adrian Loveridge dont even have a security guard at his hotel that there is the height of irresponsiblity and does not show serious interest in his guests safety and security.

ins,

absolutely untrue. Why is lying easier to some people?

My question to the COP is why isn’t Adrian Loveridge’s complaints answered? Even after the level of criminal activities on his property, why is he still asking Police for continual presence?

Technician,

This is honestly the first time I am hearing that you were involved in anyway.
As you may know, a senior official at Cable and Wireless in London who had read the blog contacted me and stated they would help to track the IP address from where the repeated threats were sent on the condition that I made a police report and that the trace was in co-operation with the RBDF.
This I did and as far as I am aware the IP address was traced and identified. This was later confirmed by a sitting member of Parliament.

I appreciated the help you gave us and its certainly not in my character
to accuse anybody of anything until the facts have been established.

HOW THE HELL DO YOU KNOW THAT? HAVE YOU BEEN CASING THESE PREMISES? YOU ARE A NO GOOD PIECE OF MANURE!

=========================
How old are you again?

The COP is just another member of the legal Jack Ass community that Barbadians really believe form part of the intelligentsia … What a crock.

Today forty odd people marched from one embassy to another in a demonstration that not all Barbadians fall for the crap that the US/EU/NATO perpetrates on the rest of the world. An honorable event, and to facilitate this event the COP thought it necessary to employ the services of ten armed police, two cruisers and an out rider to ensure that these people, none of whom have a criminal record, all of whom are most certainly self employed, kept the peace. They were instructed that they were not to use drums or amplified devices. Now tell me, one thing Barbados is NOT good at is selecting COPs

http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?referral=other&refresh=Zj403N1by7H1&PBID=87ad6005-1972-4d63-92b0-8927eda53c7a&skip=

What a stupid response from the UK High Comm. When you are dealing with a totally corrupt system, it is really silly to expect a proper response …! International Criminal Court, protecting civilians my ass!

Under Scrutiny: Tapper-phobia II

8/15/2011

By Stephen Alleyne

In the October 4, 2010 issue of this newspaper, I wrote an article entitled Tapper-phobia in which I said that certain government officials had been refraining from discussing anything of importance on their telephones for fear that their conversations might be intercepted by unauthorised persons. For several weeks now I had been contemplating revisiting the subject, but had been exercising restraint. However, I now have the evidence that this phone-tapping business is far more pervasive than anyone can imagine and needs to be brought to the fore.

I have it on good authority that at least a year before his death, Prime Minister David Thompson was very careful not to discuss matters of a sensitive nature on his telephone and would ask persons to either send him a text or meet him in person whenever such matters were to be discussed, because he believed his telephones were tapped. Now I have it on even better authority that the telephones of some members of the Police Service Commissioner (PSC), a number of senior police officers (including the Deputy Commissioner of Police and at least two senior superintendents) and other senior civil servants have been tapped by certain members of the Royal Barbados Police Force (the Force) who were hand- picked for the purpose. I have however been informed by my sources that while there is no evidence of the direct tapping of the phones of members of Cabinet, the evidence suggests that their conversations are sometimes monitored indirectly by the tapping of the phones of persons with whom they must communicate in the civil service. Thus if the object is to monitor the important conversations of Minister X, rather than tapping the phone of Minister X, the phone of a senior civil servant in his ministry or his driver is targeted and his conversations with those parties recorded.

The laying bare of this practice of phone tapping is believed by quarters in the Force to be perpetuating the so-called rift between Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin and his deputy Bertie Hinds, creating extreme tension and uneasiness at the administrative level of the organisation and contributing to the low morale and indiscipline in the lower ranks.

This is not the first time that allegations of phone tapping have been levelled at the Force since it came under the command of Commissioner Dottin and I would want to draw to the Commissioner’s attention that if these allegations prove to be true, he ultimately will be held responsible. The Commissioner should note the embarrassment the News of the World scandal in the United Kingdom has caused the top brass of Scotland Yard, leading to their subsequent resignation. If therefore there are in fact police officers assigned specifically to tap the phones of civil servants and other important persons in the country without the knowledge of the Commissioner, the Commissioner has a duty to order an investigation and stamp it out.

Barbados is not a police state and no one is safe if the police have carte blanche to tap the phones of citizens; therefore, the Governor General, parliamentarians and the judiciary will have to be concerned if this is in fact happening. Why would the police be interested in what politicians or members of the PSC appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister after consultation with the Leader of the Opposition, all of whom are of impeccable character, are saying? What use will they put any information gathered that is not of a criminal nature? These are questions for the government to seriously think about.

The Force is too important an institution for the PSC and government in particular to ignore any allegations of widespread phone tapping. Phone tapping, after all, is illegal in Barbados. Therefore I want to call on the PSC, the body empowered to exercise discipline over persons holding office in the Force to, as a matter of urgency, probe these very serious allegations. As a start, the PSC should ask questions about the sudden and unexplained transfer of two police officers who had been working undercover for their entire police career.

(Stephen Alleyne is an attorney-at-law and former member of the Royal Barbados Police Force. e-mail: swalleyne@hotmail.com)