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Attorney General Dale Marshall Delivers Police (Amendment) Bill, 2020

  We take note that the Police Act only speaks to a single Deputy Commissioner of Police, and it is, therefore, to be regretted that the required amendment did not take place in advance of this confirmation. Dale Marshall, Attorney General To the credit of Senator Caswell Franklyn of the People’s Party for Democracy and…

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We take note that the Police Act only speaks to a single Deputy Commissioner of Police, and it is, therefore, to be regretted that the required amendment did not take place in advance of this confirmation.

Dale Marshall, Attorney General

To the credit of Senator Caswell Franklyn of the People’s Party for Democracy and Development  an amendment to the Police Act, Cap.167 to provide for two Deputy Commissioners has been circulated to stakeholders. The public is reminded that it was the indefatigable Senator Caswell Franklyn who flagged the issue of the appointment of a second Deputy Commissioner not supported in law.

Will the public ever be told the real story behind this 7-day imbroglio?

Police Act (Amendment) Cap. 167

149 responses to “Attorney General Dale Marshall Delivers Police (Amendment) Bill, 2020”

  1. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    bottom line- take care of your own shiite

  2. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Enuff June 7, 2020 2:34 PM

    And what is he consulting on? Legal matters?

    Are you going to pin the two DCoP cock-up on poor Dottin a family member?

    But the kernel of the verbose argument still remains:

    What can the consultant tell the AG that the CoP cannot?

    Isn’t this a duplication of advice on the same function? And can such costly advice be afforded at this time of both Bert and Covid?

    Now that is what you call VERBOSITY!

    Btw, isn’t it verbosely both ignorant and stupid to ever compare the London Metropolitan Police Force with the Bajan Bobby outfit?

    How large is the population of London compared to Lilliputian Bim scarcely bigger than that of the borough Brent in which Hal resides?

    Only in the figment of the imagination belonging to a pygmy living on a 2×3 island would such a comparison make sense?

    Why not punch in your own weight division and compare yourself with St. Lucia?

  3. BAJE Avatar
    BAJE

    How large is the population of London compared to Lilliputian Bim scarcely bigger than that of the borough Brent in which Hal resides?

    Only in the figment of the imagination belonging to a pygmy living on a 2×3 island would such a comparison make sense?

    Why not punch in your own weight division and compare yourself with St. Lucia?

    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    HMMM

    BAJAN IDIOTS LIKE TO COMPARE THEMSELVES WITH DEVELOPED COUNTRIES WITH MANY MANY MILLIONS OF POPULATION WHEN SHOULD BE COMPARING TO ALL THE SMALL ISLANDS IDENTICAL TO THEM.

    LIKE I SAID THEY ARE NEVER IN TOUCH WITH REALITY.

  4. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Baje

    I do not live in the borough of Brent and have not done for about 50 years.

  5. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    @Enuff

    They flit from one issue to another. Criticising schizophrenia I call it. They seem thoroughly incapable of maintaining one point for an extended period. In the space of just a day Miller posited a number of criticisms, all of which took issue with something contradicting the previous. Therein lies the challenge when one is unable to keep up with one’s own contrived verbosity. I maintain my point, they need to find one vein criticism and settle on it. Should government follow the COP’s request and appoint another DCP? They disagree with that. Or should they contract useful consultants to complement the Service? They disagree with that. In sum, one should not follow civil servants’ advice nor should one appoint consultants. Do you see why I echo George, “Sometimes You Just Can’t Win”?

  6. BAJE Avatar
    BAJE

    @ Miller

    WHY DO YOU CONTINUE TO WASTE YOUR TIME ON A PISSY LITTLE BOY?

    YOU HAVE TRIED FOR WEEKS TO EDUCATE THE LITTLE FOOL WHO IS NOW TRYING TO FIND HIS WAY IN THE 2×3 ISLAND AND HAVE SWALLOWED THE RED KOOLAID.

    THE LITTLE POODLE IS TOO FOOLISH AND BRAINWASHED TO BE TAUGHT NEW TRICKS.

  7. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    The AG made clear what Dottin focuses on in his capacity as a consultant. Leh we go the UK again, because that’s where Westminster is born and bred. The UK Cabinet is attended by 26 Secretaries/Ministers. There are however about another 100 Parl Secs and Ministers. Preparing for Brexit costs the government £97m in consultancy fees 2019, out of a total of £1.3 billion overall. Added to those private consultants, the current PM has 45 Special Advisers and there are 66 more spread across the other portfolios. Cost to the Treasury–£9.5M. The BU intelligentsia can continue to pretend that they don’t understand the rationale behind hiring consultants. Maybe the Dems should have used the option wisely.

  8. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Khaleel Kothdiwala June 7, 2020 4:35 PM

    Are you questioning the wisdom of a former GG to remove from office the same consultant whom you think is now the bee’s knees of policing matters?

    How can such a retired person be so redeemed as to be a ‘current’ asset to the public service unless he or she turns out to be a politically-controlled Lazarus?

    Is this same office of GG which you hold in such high esteem when it comes to deciding who should be the LoO where there is no one politically legitimate to be in the HoA to hold such high office of Opposition?

    Now is the Koochie Kiddie one who does not know his consulting elbow from his confused bottom?

    Don’t you think it’s time you be sent on permanent administrative leave for your incompetence clearly demonstrated on this legal matter?

    Should we ‘appoint’ Caswell as GG to get the job done within the four wall of the Constitution?

  9. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    And as expected 3-Degrees jumps out on his oft used population size platform because he cannot discern the salient point of an argument. Given that principle seems to be beyond his capacity, lets water down the debate to population size. The UK population is about 235 times that of Bdos. There is the Parliament at Westminster but also devolved parliaments/assemblies in Wales, London, Scotland and Northern Ireland. All have elected assemblies accounting for an additional 304 elected officials. Add the 10 combined authorities Greater Manchester, Liverpool etc with elected mayors in 9. But wait there is more–339 Councils all with elected councillors forming cabinets. Let us zero in on London where there are 73 MPs; an elected Mayor, with 10 appointed Deputy Mayors and a Chief of Staff, and an elected assembly of 25 members. Then there are 33 local authorities with 1,851 elected councillors; and 2 development corporations.

  10. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Alyuh are not going to be allowed to blame UK for anything, no matter how good it comes packaged.

  11. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    @Miller June 7, 2020 5:17 PM

    You are very interested in asking questions. Nothing wrong with that. However I have questions outstanding for you since April. However, to save you such a tedious task just answer one from today. Does Government employ too many consultants when they have civil servants there or should government listen to civil servants’ advice such as when the COP requests another DCP? Now that is germane to this blogpost and no amount of distraction, digression or criticising schizophrenia will detract from that. Answer that question my dear chap!

  12. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Enuff June 7, 2020 7:34 PM

    And from your convoluted circuitous verbosity what point are you trying to make, man?

    That Barbados needs more bureaucracy and consultants to siphon off the hard-earned and fast-reducing taxpayers’ money?

    Didn’t the same population ratio of 235:1 exist under the previous administration which was roundly criticized (and quite rightly so) for having such a large Cabinet along with the long list of consultants?

    What about the constituency councils aka political pork barrels which came in for serious tongue-lashes from the then BLP Opposition?

    Didn’t the slogan ‘many hands make light work’ applicable then?

    What has changed other than the country has lost a significant slice of its GDP compared to 10 years ago and is therefore unable to carry the financial burden from such an expanding public service along with its maxi-size cortège of consultants and paid political pimps?

    BTW, the UK is not under any IMF special measures and can print its own fiat money.
    Can Little Barbados be likened to Great Britain in that respect of 235 Mickey mouse Bajan dollars to I GBP ratio?

  13. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Khaleel Kothdiwala June 7, 2020 8:17 PM

    When the same CoP is able to get the large number of vacancies at the bottom of the ladder filled then you will find your answer.

    The roots of a tree are there to support its trunk and top.

  14. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    “Many hands makes light work” is true when those hands are productive and adding real value. I wonder if the achievements of this Administration don’t speak to the worth of the consultants employed.

  15. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    ‘But we cussing White Oak.’

    Here trying to recall what White Hoax did. Refresh the memory

  16. David Avatar
    David

    @Khaleel

    It is not accurate to generalize if you want to fairly evaluate productivity. Some ministers et al have been been putting in the work it must be said, what about then others? It is mid term, perhaps the PM has commissioned a motion and time study.

  17. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    @David

    Agreed. I am convinced that members of the Administration have proved their worth in trying times. I think as we near mid-term government ought to begin a public review of its performance to ensure that all citizens are brought fully up to speed with the astonishing accomplishments of the administration in all of it’s facets.
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    @Theo June 7, 2020 9:14 PM
    “Here trying to recall what White Hoax did. Refresh the memory”

    I think mine needs refreshing also. Perhaps something govt can include in mid term performance review. I’m not sure but maybe
    Save the dollar from devaluation
    Allow government to procure buses
    To procure garbage trucks
    To enact a fantastic disaster clause in it
    To save the public sector from any more serious cuts pre-COVID
    To give govt extra fiscal space which allowed them to face COVID frontally.
    I don’t know. I might be getting early on set dementia and those few thoughts might just be figments of my imagination!

  18. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    As with White Oak, the opposition is up in arms over a few measly dollars for consultancy contracts. If we assume that a top consultant in NYC or London earns up to 2,000 BBD per HOUR, 200,000 BBD per YEAR is nothing more than a small appreciation award, a kind of honorarium, but not real pay. Whoever works for so little money must be a true patriot.

  19. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    For those that duncey or pretending to be, let me reiterate. In the cradle of the Westminster system, there are: 26 Cabinet members, circa 100 other ministers, under and parliamentary secretaries, 4 devolved assemblies (London, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland), 10 combined authorities and 339 local councils. Yet the PM has 45 Special Advisers aka consultants, there are a 66 Special Advisers assigned across the various ministries and last year £1.3B was spent on private consultants. Unlike the previous government, the current BLP administration has not hidden the number of consultants or their identity. So we can criticise Dottin, Mascoll, Persaud, Greenidge, Lane, Arindell, Sealy, Carter etc. Anybody can name 3 consultants under the Dems? What did the consultant on yachting that frequented Holetown achieved? What about the $300,000 consultancy?🤣🤣

  20. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Enuff June 8, 2020 9:10 AM

    All you are confirming- whether “duncey” or bright with your extremely partisan folly- is that the electorate of Bim simply exchanged one set of crooks feeding from the taxpayers’ money trough for another set of red vampires now sucking their financial blood.

    Or you guys are doing is proving that the senior personnel in the Bajan overpopulated public service are institutionally incompetent and a waste of taxpayers’ money invested in their ‘higher’ education and training over the years.

    Why can’t you get in through your hard ‘duncy’ head, that, when it comes to governance comparing Barbados to the UK is like comparing a Bajan pit toilet at the back of a rum shop to a WC in a British pub?

    Do you really think what transpired under Donville, a minister of the Crown, or the glaringly massive squandermania (to be euphemistically kind to the AG’s recent report) which took place at the BWA would or could be swept under the political and mass media carpets in the UK?

    Do you understand why the EU and OECD have the entitlement to cut your incompetent ‘regulatory’ backside with your own whips?

  21. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Those who pay BRIBES are equally as unethical as those who receive BRIBES.

  22. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    One of the great things about Google and other search engines is that it democratises knowledge. The dark side, however, is that people can Google and cut and paste and pretend they have acquired great knowledge.
    It is like two school boys (there are always boys). One is popular, a member of the school cadets, great sportsman, but lazy and inattentive in the classroom.
    The other is very attentive, does his homework and when not sure of his answers will ask for help. The two have to take an important exam. The attentive student is on top of the exam and very confident with his answers. The other, totally out of his depth, sneaks looks at his colleague’s paper and copies the answers.
    The difference is that the attentive student knows the route to his answers, step by step, he is confident he understands the subject. The popular student, gets all the answers right, but has not a clue why they are right.
    Both got pass marks (the examiner is not very thorough) and the qualification. They both go out in the big wide world and innocent members of the public believe they are equally qualified.
    Googling on BU gives the impression of great knowledge. But anyone familiar with the subject can always tell who is Googling and shouting and who quietly knows what s/he is stalking about. Sometimes you read such crap by the Googlers that it makes you sick.
    It reminds me of an old English guy, a Labour law specialist, who told a class of us that the best way to tell if a journalist was writing with authority was to concentrate on an issue you knew about and deconstruct the report.
    I thought it was a good idea and concentrated on what we used to call the race relations industry. It is amazing when you have knowledge about a subject what crap you often read.

  23. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    I took the information straight from the UK government website NOT Wikipedia. Isn’t research part of acquiring “great knowledge”? When Hal Austin comes on BU and quotes others’ writings to support his arguments is that not an act of attempting to demonstrate his acquired “great knowledge”? I have simply laid out FACTS and asked questions:
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/20/special-adviser-numbers-rise-under-boris-johnson

  24. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    “Do you understand why the EU and OECD have the entitlement to cut your incompetent ‘regulatory’ backside with your own whips?”

    These are acting as though they have done something so original, stealing from your own people and making them pay for you to maintain a slave society using their money and oppressing them with racism and apartheid….is not original, yall are common class thieves and nothing more, now everyone everywhere will know it too, including the Continent of Africa..

    ….ah bet ya the cousins in the palace don’t even want to hear anything about you frowzy sell out negros and will distance themselves in case alyuh call their names in ya corruption and thefts from the people, those shite titles won’t mean a thing, they don’t even mean anything now………yall will become pariahs soon and shunned….just as ya deserve..

  25. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    “Do you really think what transpired under Donville, a minister of the Crown, or the glaringly massive squandermania (to be euphemistically kind to the AG’s recent report) which took place at the BWA would or could be swept under the political and mass media carpets in the UK?”

    You’re in dreamland. Ladies and gentlemen I present Grayling, Jenrick, free schools and academies. Garden Bridge, water cannons and zipline. #readmore&talkless

  26. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    @Enuff June 8, 2020 6:57 PM

    Because only in sh*thole countries like Barbados as President Trump would say (and these clearly conflicted anti-colonialist and anti-Barbados characters) do you find such things. Of course the pure EU can pass judgement on this country in contravention of basic principles of natural justice. Because nowhere in those splendid metropolises would one find the scourge of corruption. Jennifer Arcuri and Johnson would never have gotten away in a “real real” country like Britain. Wait……..!

  27. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Enuff June 8, 2020 6:57 PM

    Ya could talk wha ya like, “Enuff,” the UK doesn’t rice at Buybadus.

    Barbados depends on the UK travel market not the other way around with the dead sugar exports.

    Barbados is so subserviently tied to the British that it dare not ditch the Monarchy out of fear of local repercussions and verbal riots by your own local black elite including those educated at the UWI.

    You no longer have a ‘friend of a nanny’ in the EU so you must play by the European rules, get it uppity boy?

    Now behave yourself boy and show the white man how much you have matured to be capable of dealing with your own criminals before begging for reparations for the crimes against humanity by white ones of yore!

    Do you really feel the white man will be so foolish as to give you guys any compensation or reparations in monetary form?

    For all of it to end up in the kickback hands of the corrupt elite of black politicians (as witnessed by your own home-grown breed of white-collar criminals) and in the commercial accounts of Chinese and Indian business people?

  28. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    And once again Milluh flits from daisy to stinking missy. Dem wings soon fall off.🤣🤣

  29. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @Enuff June 8, 2020 9:42 PM

    The “Milluh” is behaving just like your administration; ‘flitting and flirting’ from one location of prostitution to another.

    Now that the Covid-19 has put a big spoke in the tourism forex-earning wheel can we expect your administration to shift focus and try to sell the broke’ country as the whorehouse of international business including attracting all kinds of pimps and johns to the Bajan medicinal Mary Jane who is still the local Scarlet of crime?

    BTW, the Brits business people have a knowingly infamous history of engaging in international immoral and criminal activity like slavery and piracy.

    Why not propose that Barbados does (again) what she did in the past?

    Why not ditch the cloak of Christian hypocrisy in order to save your sorry broke Bajan backsides and become the international business whorehouse and crime den of the Caribbean for the British going back to the days of Rachel Pringle in order to put daily bread on the table and pay the debts mounting every month?

  30. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Stupse!

  31. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    @Enuff

    These folks are without the intellectual stamina to be able to stay on any one issue for more than a few seconds. Observe Millsy. Every comment introduces new, extraneous and irrelevant material in an attempt to obfuscate. Investigative journalist WARU brings breaking news that’s weeks old and then runs away once exposed. The government, with its several faults, does sterling work and is humble enough to be able to acknowledge error and rectify. That is why this Administration continuing on the present track have quite a number of years in office ahead of them and nothing the DtM circus can do about it. One must pity them.

  32. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    (Quote):
    The government, with its several faults, does sterling work and is humble enough to be able to acknowledge error and rectify. (Unquote).
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    So when is the little red boffin trying to be the Bajan political Icarus going to do likewise and show some measure obeisance to the more ‘learned’ Senator?

    You have turned out to be, if only on this ‘matter of jurisprudence’, nothing more than a pup seal being used like a rubber plaything in a school of orcas.

    It’s okay to be passionate and indeed exuberant for a cause; but when that passion turns into ‘hubristic arrogance’ and flies in the face of truth and wisdom then you can expect to face your eventual waterloo of shame and disgrace.

    “The worst kind of arrogance is arrogance from ignorance.” ~ Jim Rohn

  33. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Khaleel
    Miller soon end up in an institution. Millsy next week I got a 40-storey and a 25-storey. Watch muh!🤣🤣🤣

  34. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Enuff June 9, 2020 9:07 PM

    The miller is already in an institution. The institution of your head encasing the brain of a pathological liar.

    Is that 25-stor(e)y another figment of iteration in your Hyatt imagination?

    When are you going to ‘force’ Malmoney get on with the job of erecting the Hyatt tower?

    The country is in dire need of some serious economic stimulus. Why rely on the BOSS only?

    Or are both MAMs going to wait for a fairy godfather to come along with his red bag of FDI even if he has to stay at the Blue Horizon?

  35. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    Miller @ 8:59PM

    You really are too tiring.

  36. Wayne Marshall Avatar
    Wayne Marshall

    The same people that back date Dottin promotion a few years ago and put he in front Bertie Hinds and cause all kinds of problems in police force. Look out. Next Commissioner Williams and a man name Ian Branch not far behind. Research and see who was A G then. Think them easy. Boyce is a quiet fella so he aint gine do like Bertie. Think Mia and them eazy. Smh

  37. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Millsy
    “The miller is already in an institution. The institution of your head encasing the brain of a pathological liar.”

    Because you’re narrow-minded and can’t handle me. So the easiest thing to do is call me a liar. LMBAO.🤣🤣

  38. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Enuff June 10, 2020 4:22 PM

    Mr. Enuff, the partially blind one with the single lens red eye, Senator Franklyn had already put you in your myopic place to sit with your walking stick.

    Why should the miller play the role of leading the stubbornly blind to the toilet to piss on himself?
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    From: Caswell Franklyn May 9, 2020 5:28 PM

    To: Enuff:

    “Your comment at 1:45 pm is quite misleading. I don’t know if is intentional or you simply don’t understand. Whichever is the case, I would like to assist you, if you don’t mind.
    You keep saying that the second post of Deputy Commissioner was created last year. That is impossible, even though someone mistakenly attempted to do so. Let me explain: The Minister of the Public Service can create permanent posts in the Public Service, in accordance section 13 of the Public Service Act. He can also create temporary posts for a maximum of six years, in accordance with section 14
    Under normal operating procedures, posts are created as temporary in the first instance, and thereafter, the Ministry can and do transform those temporary posts into permanent posts. This, in my opinion is what they attempted to do last year when Oral Williams was appointed to act in the so called temporary post of Deputy Commissioner. I am firmly of the view that the Prime Minister, who is also Minister of the Public Service, was advised to follow this standard operating procedure to appoint another deputy commissioner of police.
    Unfortunately, the person offering that advice seemed not to have known that the post of Deputy Commissioner of Police is one of a handful of post that by law cannot follow that standard operating procedure. That is why I have consistently said that the Prime Minister was misled by person(s) in the Public Service who is charged with the responsibility of advising the Minister.
    I do not expect the PM to know everything that is why she has career public officers to advise her. This is a civil service error but under our system of governance, the Minister must take responsibility and thereafter seek to have the offender punished, but that won’t happen because civil servants are now politicians too.”

    Now STFU!!!

  39. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    @ Miller June 9, 2020 9:49 PM

    Miller,

    I have heard rumours that the Arabs want to build a 300-metre high skyscraper on the island. Trump is also said to be planning a hotel. The Chinese are credited with building an artificial island. And the year after next, a multi-multi-billionaire will leave the government 20 billion USD, so that we are free of all debts.

    I think these rumors are as substantiated as Hyatt and Four Seasons.

  40. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    You are as usual trying hard to prove a point. Now I am liar in relation to the establishment of the post of DCOP. I don’t make up stories.

    Barbados Advocate 13/05/2020
    Loop News Barbados 12/05/2020

    “On May 9, 2019, the second post of Deputy Commissioner of Police was created, and on that date, Williams was appointed to act in the position. On March 15, 2020, the Protective Services Commission confirmed Williams in the post.”

    Sunday Sun 17/05/2020 Page 18

    June 9,2019
    “Attorney General Dale Marshall clarified the situation. The newspaper reported that Mr Oral Williams is now appointed Deputy Commissioner. The only body that can do that is the Police Service Commission. The Commissioner of Police is able to put people into acting posts, so that is what has happened. Marshall also informed that the new Protective Services Commission at some point in time would then have to decide whether to confirm those appointments. Franklyn said that with the Police Service Commission being dissolved, no posts could be created or established within the police force without it coming to Parliament. He confirmed that the Commissioner of Police could assign
    persons to temporary positions or the minister could create temporary posts for a minimum of three years.

    Keep trying to prove me to be a pathological liar.

  41. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Robert Lucas,

    Wendy’s called the murderous police for a man asleep in a car. Knowing what they know they chose this route.

    And no, they are not appeasing anyone. They have finally been FORCED to do what they should always have been doing.

    It is rumoured that charges will be filed shortly.

    SMH

  42. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Uh-oh! Wrong blog.

  43. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Has Dale Marshall any idea of of how the law is supposed to work in a democracy? Does he fully appreciate what is wrong with judge-only courts?
    The so-called Diplock Courts were introduced in Northern Ireland in the early 1970s to deal with so-called jury tampering and perverse acquittals by religious terrorists.
    Nothing was said about unfair convictions or state executions, still a big problem in the UK. There is no evidence that judge-only courts convicted any more accused than jury trials.
    They have since been introduced in England and Wales for so-called complex fraud trials and in the post-CoVid world, their advocates are pushing for their general use.
    But, like most things, it is bogus. Judges are not accountants or financial experts and even financial experts often miss complex frauds; judges listen to the evidence and make a decision based on the balance of probabilities or beyond reasonable doubt.
    Without introducing complexity and confusing the discussion, this is precisely the issue raised by Plato in one of his Dialogues when he has Socrates interrogating a young upstart. Persuasion is not the same thing as truth and trials are based on persuasion.
    In any case, juries are drawn from a wide cross section of society, from accountants to financial experts to ordinary men and women, who bring a range of different experiences to a trial.
    Some of us may remember since the 1950s black people in the UK have been complaining about being fitted up by police and prosecution witnesses lying under oath. They were never believed.
    It took trials such as the Mangrove Nine, the 1980s riots and frequent clashes to bring home the idea that our police were not the embodiment of integrity.
    Trial by jury is the foundation of our democracy and Dale Marshall, as the guardian of this part of our democracy, is proving himself not to be very good at the job.
    So far he has not said why the idea of judge-only trials are so pertinent now, including the myth of CoVid; nor has he said if the judges will undergo further training, if the perverse idea was to be implemented. CoVid is an excuse, not a reason.
    What it does say is that this government, encouraged by senior law officials, are terrified of ordinary people and do not want them sitting in judgement on the behaviour of the state. That is the real test.
    This government has shown, over and over again, that it has failed the people. It will all end in tears.

  44. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    What is the latest on this barmy idea?

  45. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Recently, the well-connected daughter-in-law of a controversial Irish billionaire died unexpectedly on the Sandy Lane estate.
    The normal procedure in such circumstances for the police is to launch an investigation and call in the medical authorities, including pathologists, and have a formal autopsy and maybe even an inquest.
    Then there will be a press briefing and the standard questions will be asked: was it suspected murder or suicide? Are you looking for anyone? etc.
    The standard answers will come back: at this stage in the investigation we are not ruling out anything. These questions are dog whistles, a hint to reporters to go out and have a field day.
    Reporters can then go out and write foul-play was expected; it was a suspected suicide; gangland feud, etc. However, according to a report in the Irish Times (a cut and paste link appeared on BU), a police spokesman told the Irish paper that there was no suspicion; in other words, our brilliant police spokesman more or less declared it to be an opened and closed case even before it was properly investigated.
    Are these officers trained? Where is the commissioner? Where is the attorney general? Where are the Barbados media?
    Is this incompetence or just brilliant investigating?

  46. David Avatar
    David

    Based on what the blogmaster has been hearing – Why was the body not returned to Ireland?

    Is there any truth to the word going around that drugs were involved?

    Was there a another similar death on the compound?

  47. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    https://sqe-justice.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/23104938/JUSTICE-Tackling-Racial-Injustice-Children-and-the-Youth-Justice-System.pdf

  48. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Discuss:

    A University of the West Indies law lecturer Monday called for Government to put the brakes on the Barbados National Digital ID set to roll out soon and rethink the bill governing it, claiming it is an intrusive government’s “assault on liberty”.
    Dr Ronnie Yearwood argued that the national identity register proposed under the Barbados Identity Management Bill “looks like an assault on liberty, and an unnecessary instruction by the government in the collection and use of personal data.”
    Last Tuesday, Attorney General Dale Marshall in tabling the bill in the House of Assembly said: “A computer chip containing an individual’s fingerprint, driver’s licence and other personal data are to be included in the pending Barbados Digital ID and National ID Card.
    Marshall gave an assurance that the data on the chip would be protected and would only be shared with whom the holder allows to access the information.
    But Yearwood, also an attorney-at-law, said he found the bill “troubling” on several grounds.
    He first took issue with the AG’s disclosure that the card could have one’s fingerprint if so desired.
    Marshall had told the House: “The last administration wanted to make fingerprint mandatory. The last administration wanted to introduce a new ID card but one of the hallmarks of what they were doing is that you had to give your fingerprint at all times.
    “And in opposition, we took the position no .. this is not a police state and we cannot agree as a responsible political party representing Barbadians that we needed to give this kind of data. And now that we are in Government and have the opportunity to put these things in place, our position is that you can give your fingerprint if you wish but you cannot be compelled to do so.”
    Dr Yearwood challenged Section 12 of the bill which states that “where a person is unable to produce his identification card, the person authorised to require such identification shall, unless another form of identification is authorised by law, defer consideration of the person or refuse access until such time as the relevant identification card is produced”.
    He said: ”This is not something to be taken lightly because in effect it says that an individual is not presumed to be who they are until they can prove so with the ID. It looks like a shift of power from the individual to the government, and not only a shift but a control of data, surrounding proof of who an individual says they are. This feels very much like the surveillance, police-type state that the AG had problems with when in Opposition, his words not ours.”
    Dr Yearwood went on to question suggestions from the AG that the new ID would significantly reduce opportunities for fraud, citing recent local reports of a list that carried personal information such as the names, addresses and COVID-19 statuses of close to 150 people making the rounds on social media sites WhatsApp and Instagram. He also pointed to the recent beach of Jamaica’s JamCOVID app and website which exposed quarantine orders on more than half a million travellers to the island.
    He said: “Governments in the Caribbean, most recently as reported in Jamaica where the immigration website was breached, have not showered themselves in glory when it comes to data security. We have no reason to believe that Barbados, like other Caribbean countries, is not the same. Take our own issue where it appeared that there was a breach of data regarding COVID patients. Should we be comfortable with massive data collection and centralization by the Government?”
    Dr Yearwood added that it was puzzling that the bill was passed before a promised public education campaign for Barbadians.
    He said: “Could a case not be made to modernise the current laminated ID, without the need for this bill? I do not think that the Government has convincingly made the case for this bill. This is especially when the National register looks like profiling and we should demand a ‘pause’ on this bill or a rethink if it was passed into law.”
    The current Barbados ID card, which has been around since 1979, is a laminated paper containing the basic information of a registration number, the holder’s name, sex, date of birth, nationality, height, date of issue and a signature…..(Quote)

  49. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Is it true that the emergency legislation has taken power from parliament and given it to the prime minister? If so, since the attorney general’s sole responsibility is to the rule of law, why did he tolerate this development? Did he think it was a resignation issue? If not, why not?

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