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Slap On The Wrist For Drug Trafficker: There Is More In The Mortar

Submitted by Caswell Franklyn It was reported in the Nation of January 27, 2012 that in the process of handing down sentence on Keith Allen, the LIAT pilot who was caught with drugs, the magistrate said that she had taken into consideration his early guilty plea, his age, that he cooperated with police and appeared…

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Submitted by Caswell Franklyn
Keith Allen, drug trafficker Photo credit: Nation Newspaper

It was reported in the Nation of January 27, 2012 that in the process of handing down sentence on Keith Allen, the LIAT pilot who was caught with drugs, the magistrate said that she had taken into consideration his early guilty plea, his age, that he cooperated with police and appeared genuinely remorseful, and that his character witnesses – two clergymen – had testified that his actions were out of character. The magistrate is reported as going on to say, “Fortunately for the accused, the mitigating factors outweigh the aggravating factors”.

I have never heard such a lame excuse for slapping a major criminal on the wrist. Make no mistake about it a fine of $250,000 might seem large to the average man, but he is not an average man: he is a drug trafficker with access to large sums of money. $ ¼ million is chump change for a drug trafficker. Didn’t the magistrate get it? This man is a drug trafficker of the worst kind.

What are these mitigating factors? He was in a position of trust. He was a pilot, and they usually walk through Customs without being searched which gave him the golden opportunity to be a drug smuggler. He brought in a significant quantity of drugs that he would have sold to make profits from destroying young minds. Those destroyed young people end up being a burden on the state and are frequently before the courts for committing crime to feed their drug habit. He was contributing to the destruction of this society and the magistrate called it mitigating.

Nothing that the magistrate is reported to have said can convince me that this drug pusher should not have been sentenced to a long term of imprisonment. She appears to be out of touch. In this country, the courts frequently lock up the end used, but when there is an opportunity to send a message to the suppliers, the court lets down the country by making excuses for not imposing a custodial sentence. I don’t know what, but something must be done to let judicial officers know that the public is not happy when something like this happens. It is about time that someone looks into the mortar and see what is there besides the pestle.

83 responses to “Slap On The Wrist For Drug Trafficker: There Is More In The Mortar”

  1. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Caswell Franklyn | January 29, 2012 at 1:59 PM |
    “Marijuana damages the brain.”

    What about alcohol and tobacco ? Play your full deck and let us hear your position on the other “legal” harmful substances, Caswell!

  2. ROK Avatar
    ROK

    Caswell, if the law is seriously flawed then where is the justice? It actually amounts to an injustice to have the law. You tell me that I reduce this to a bunch of nonsense, but it was not me who reduced it. It is a bunch of nonsense in itself. Find another example if you want to deal with the administration of justice. Talk about Bjerkham.

    As to the harm this substance is causing, if you were around 100 years ago, you would not be repeating such tripe because you would know what marijuana is. The very clothing that you would have been wearing, the bed you slept in and the sails of the boats you travelled in were made of this so-called “harmful substance”. You have swallowed the lies and deceit lock, stock and barrel and come to tell me foolishness? Wake up!

    If all that you say is true we should ban sugar cane from growing and nobody should be using sugar because it has in alcohol. The logic evades me. Steupseee! Tired of this nonsense.

  3. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    @Caswell
    If you want to smoke that crap that is your business but stop extolling its virtues to impressionable young minds.

    Caswell it’s simple …they are HOOKED and would like to see the price of drugs come down by being legalized.

    Lord thank you that I am not a parro…Nor let not these promote evil to young unblemished minds.
    Amen

  4. ROK Avatar
    ROK

    @Caswell, “If you want to smoke that crap that is your business but stop extolling its virtues to impressionable young minds.”

    The medical evidence does not support your idea that people who smoke it are smoking crap. The evidence which says that it cures/relieves cancer, surely can’t be crap. The knowledge that we have of the virtues of this plant in making clothing, making the sails of boats. The strongest fabrics you can want. Its use in the preparation of medicines, etc. Is all that crap?

    All you can think about is the smoking? When you think of sugar cane you think of drinking alcohol? You know Caswell, you are as guilty as perpetrating discrimination as much as you complain that it is happening to you. What crap are you talking about except the very crap coming from your pen. Do some research and stop the crap they feeding you that you so easily imbibing. If you want people to open their eyes, I would suggest you open yours first. Come with facts. I am not responding to your inebriated state caused by the impact of that propaganda on your brilliant mind any more.

    Furthermore I am not seeing you talk about the cigarette and alcohol ads that extol the non-virtues of these drugs on our impressionable minds.

  5. ROK Avatar
    ROK

    onion bags, this is not about drugs. This is about the economy. You from the old school, so am I, but I will not be blinded by lies, deceit, inaccuracies and propaganda. I would like to be able to hand down the clothes I wear to my children so that when they come back in fashion, they outfitted. I would like a piece of plastic that ten times stronger than steel. I would like to get back in those old dungarees and see my Defence Force outfitted in proper uniforms. More than all, I would like to see the plastic that polluting this earth stopped. Take a look at what this greed has done and will continue to do:

    http://youtu.be/tnUjTHB1lvM

  6. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    Miller

    Both alcohol and tobacco are harmful substances, and might even do more harm than marijuana mainly because they are more readily available. I even agree that the only reason those two are legal and marijuana is not is a direct result result of who produces them.

    I think the trade in all three is morally reprehensible since people make money from destroying others. We have two that are legal but idiots want to add the third. Their campaign should be about ways of restricting the use of the legal ones. Two wrongs do not make it right, neither does three.

  7. ROK Avatar
    ROK

    Let’s talk crap, Caswell.

    http://youtu.be/ISaGrlpK2zE

  8. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    Just Say No to drugs QED

  9. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    David

    This is an aside but since the blog is about crime and punishment I thought that I’d slip this one in although the crimes are somewhat different from what is under discussion.

    Late last week I read that Uhuru Kenyatta ( Kenyan Finance Minister) was among three Kenyan politicians who were ordered to stand trial by the ICC (international Criminal Court) for incidents arising out of the 2008 post election riots. However it was the next sentence in the article that caused me to spill my beverage as it reported that he was the richest man in Kenya. Anyone familiar with recent African history would know the name Kenyatta as his father was Jomo Kenyatta who was suspected as being leader of the Mau Mau rebellion that drove the British out of the country. Kenyatta senior later became leader of the country as Prime Minister and then President..

    So how does the son of an Independence fighter/cum President become the richest man in the country? It turns out that Kenyatta (senior) seized or “bought” most the farms left by the departing British with state money for his benefit and passed it on to his survivors. The son was able to build on the assets left by his father to cement his status and build his fortune to become the country’s richest man.

    BTW “Uhuru” is the Swahili word for freedom so his father ensured that he would certainly be free.

  10. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    TECHNICIAN

    Where do you find these pics of the food handlers on the internet ..?

  11. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    Sir Jonny my ass …! As someone who sat on the jury in a Cheltleham trial I was not afraid of him or the tripe that was presented as mitigating factors in a murder trial …. Funny enough I was never asked to perform that responsibility again … hmmm!

  12. St George's Dragon Avatar
    St George’s Dragon

    @ Blogger 2012
    I was trying to make the point that if you have money you can hire a good lawyer and s/he will prove your innocence and you go free. Someone without those resources will end up in Dodds. I don’t think that is fair, but the system is there and those who can pay money will be represented better and are more likely to win.
    Look at O J Simpson as an example of someone who had (allegedly) committed a crime but was found not guilty because they had good representation.
    My point with the ZR drivers is that when one of them is in court for a traffic offence, he will be fined $100; the affluent Bajan following will get a $500 fine.
    Reverse classism.

  13. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    Sargeant

    You would cling onto any anti-Black Euro-centric garbage that you come across as gospel … Which planet are you really from? Why not post a comment condemning the Prescod-Bush’s and Kennedies for a change you hypocrite …!

  14. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    skinnin’ cuffins

    The pilot you talkin’ ’bout is ROK ol’ school buddy … Wait somet’ng wrong wid a conclusion that just form in my head …

  15. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    BAFBP

    Why don’t you grow up you big jackass, isn’t it time that line of thinking ceased to exist? If white people engage in corruption is it ok for black people to do the same? I thought you had a bit of common sense but it seemed I misjudged you.

  16. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    For a man that is suppose to have more common sense than me, this is the best that you can do…? Stupse …

  17. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    First it was Johan Bjerkhamn , now this ex LIAT pilot, both given slaps on the wrists by Magistrates. Isn’t it about time that serious offences such as these be sent eventually to the Higher Court to be tried by Judge and Jury.? Smart lawyers are taking advantage of this loophole, when it suits them. For other mortals they prolong the court hearings , and eventually end up in the High Court ,as their fees would have been paid “coolie man style,” and not up front .

  18. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    The average Barbadian is fast losing confidence in the administration of justice. The decision is just another one of those that people can cite to give reasons for that lack of confidence.

    Dodds prison is full of young men who were incapable of articulating their case. They are not represented by lawyers because they don’t have the necessary funds to pay and their offences did not qualify them for legal aid. Some are overawed and because they cannot deliver of themselves, they end up in jail or the Psychiatric Hospital. At the Psychiatric Hospital if you are not mad when you went in sure as hell you are likely to be when you come out. On the other hand, if your family has money or position you can sail through the legal system relatively unscathed. I now believe beyond doubt that prison is only for the poor who do not have influential friends.

    No one can convince me that a man who was in a position of trust, where he could freely access the Airport, who then breached that trust by importing illegal drugs, should be allowed to walk away with just a fine.

    If truth be told, I was waiting for a long time to write this post since I predicted the outcome of the case, just not the dollar value of the fine.

  19. Blogger2012 Avatar
    Blogger2012

    @Rotten old onion

    to far east is west.

  20. balance Avatar
    balance

    mr rook- would you be happy to learn that your beautiful little girl was smoking marijuana or hemp?

  21. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    LOL

    Now THIS is the Caswell that Bushie will appoint to the position of executive chairman of the national supervisory committee of Barbados.

    The “AX Caswell” is an unfortunate example of the fact that we are all only human….

    …on balance Caswell still have the pick lined up….

  22. ac Avatar
    ac

    And this is the same point of view Caswell had on the AX problemthat is people having friends in high places to protect their misdeeds.lest we forget BUSHIE.

  23. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    Wait ac…. You don’t work…? LOL …or you breezing instead of teaching your assigned class too…

    Friends in high places..?
    ..you mean like the kind of people who get to meet with the prime minister, and receives praise and encouragement – as a reward for shutting down a whole education system, wasting a whole month of work time, setting back the educational opportunities for hundreds of school children and upsetting hundreds of parents…?

  24. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    “A miserable old bajan man who has become disillusioned with life as we know it in the 21st century” … HA HA HA and this would be a most apt description of BIMBRO … HA HA HA

  25. BONNY PEPPA Avatar
    BONNY PEPPA

    Muwah to all …!

  26. islandgal246 Avatar
    islandgal246

    Baffy ….will you stop impersonating Bonny!…You old dawg!

  27. BONNY PEPPA Avatar
    BONNY PEPPA

    How you know dat it was me ..?

  28. Christopher Halsall Avatar
    Christopher Halsall

    islandgal246 et al…

    There is important work to be done.

    Must you giggle?

  29. islandgal246 Avatar
    islandgal246

    Chris where is your ole aunt Bonny? I miss her real bad 🙁 my heart is very heavy.
    BRING BACK
    BRING BACK
    OH BRING BACK MY BONNY TO ME!

  30. Christopher Halsall Avatar
    Christopher Halsall

    @ig246: “where is your ole aunt Bonny?

    I’m truly sorry to tell you, but she died.

    Don’t your remember?

  31. ac Avatar
    ac

    bring back COLOMBO! he can solve the mystery of o the MYSTERIOUS Disapperance OF BONNY PEPPA!

    @ CH
    is that so ! when did she died?

  32. MAX Avatar
    MAX

    POOR AND WEAK ASS JUSTICE SYSTEM…….

  33. MAX Avatar
    MAX

    Lawyers stealing clients money…. This still going on and nothing has been done to stop it.

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