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

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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

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

  1. David Avatar
    David

    @Khaleel

    Speaking to Integrity Legislation must be given weigh tif we want to fairly assess this government’s performance. It is disingenuous some may say to focus on economic performance as a single measurement of performance. We are suppose to be an intelligent people therefore it is expected educated Barbadians should bring a holistic perspective to bear.

  2. David Avatar
    David

    @Greene

    From a technical view can you say why the Barbados Police Force needs a DCOP to sit in the role of HR manager? Is the positional figure conforming with other jurisdictions?

  3. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ June 6, 2020 6:36 PM
    “I have spoken to integrity legislation numerous times”
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    You are a little blasted ‘big-time’ liar!

    You have always evaded the queries concerning the contents or tried to justify the reason for the non-opening of the red handbag.

    Prove us wrong!
    Show us your contributions to BU in support of the operationalising of the legislation which has been in the pipeline going back to the first term of the previous legislation.

  4. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Miller June 6, 2020 7:13 PM

    ‘previous administration’ and not “legislation”.

  5. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    @David

    Understanding that government is about juggling several balls simultaneously and equally acknowledging that economic perfomance cannot be the sole determinant of success and understanding that there is no perfection in life, I submit that important first steps have been and are being made with respect to integrity legislation. Is it is as far as we would like? Perhaps not. But it is undoubtedly reaching the desired stage. In all things, festina lente!

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    @Miller

    I have no need to produce quotations plain as ever for anyone to go back and see. You can take on that task if I wish. To help you, on one of the blogposts with respect to the DCP position I spoke I believe thrice (more than that I believe) to the need for integrity legislation. I’ll leave the menial work of finding the precise wording to you as I’m a firm believer in giving wastrels some hard work occasionally to do. It might cause a rectification of their tendencies. I note with interest that I am both little and big time. Another instance of confoundment?

  6. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    @Khaleel Kothdiwala June 6, 2020 7:25 PM

    It should read: “you can take on that task if you wish”

  7. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Khaleel Kothdiwala June 6, 2020 7:25 PM
    “In all things, festina lente!”
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    So why were you and your red ass-licking breed so hasty with the previous administration? Why all the rubbing shoulders and marching like the grand duchess of the bushy hall and hill

    Doesn’t the invitation of the former adminstration’s big boy(s) to sit in the chair of one of the current architects responsible for the Covid-recovery plan represent a clear indication the previous administration was on the right path towards the salvation of a ‘broke’ Barbados in spite of the printing money and the NSRL which the current administration will soon be ‘re-introducing’ under another name?

    As the ole-time Bajans would say: ‘Tekking time ain’t laziness’ aka “In all things, festina lente!”

  8. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    @Millsy June 6, 2020 7:49 PM

    That you don’t know the distinction between festina lente and being incompetently slow is predictable. That you would think festina lente would be applicable to Greene’s political party is also predictable. That you deliberately misconstrue (I hope it’s deliberate and not actually due to benightment) Sinckler’s ex officio position on a broad-based advisory council is also entirely predictable. Millsy, you need to get new talking points. Perhaps getting new ones might give you the opportunity to use some that at least have a fraction of an iota of truth. It would be a much needed departure from what presently obtains.

  9. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Khaleel Kothdiwala June 6, 2020 8:03 PM

    So how would you ‘construe’ the continuing love affair between the two “MMs”?

    Is it one of “festina lente” as a result of his past association with the incompetently slow DLP?

    Or is it a marriage of ‘currency’ convenience?

    For if the business tycoon man ‘MAM’ was so faithfully corrupt under the previous dispensation as to attract the censure of the red MAM he has to be twice as corrupt and a well-seasoned mover and shaker of bribery under the current lot since a corrupt ‘festina lente’ leopard cannot change its spot to turn into a competent cheetah or a law-abiding hyena.

  10. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    These are dark times. Our government is doing many things right. And what is the opposition doing? They’re calling for a witch hunt against the Attorney General just because he’s doing good work. They spread fake news one after the other. So sad.

    I think it is finally time to optimise freedom of expression and freedom of the press so that lies about our government are no longer spread. We should also immediately send the outspoken senator as ambassador to New York. The incumbent has obviously got no desire to work anymore.

  11. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    evil corrupt governments do this because once elected AFTER THEIR VOTE BEGGING,, lying to and deceiving the people on political platforms…. they believe they were give poder absolute. This piece of shit government needs to be exposed EVERY DAY for the next 3 years…and according to some, they will be.

    “After insisting that it was a legal appointment, Government appears to have finally conceded that the appointment of a second Deputy Commissioner of Police is not currently provided for in law. The administration has started the process of amending the legislation to change that.

    And Opposition Senator Caswell Franklyn, the man who led the charge in questioning the illegality of the appointment, continues to blast the Government’s “shoddy” decision-making.

    On Friday – more than a month after former assistant Police Commissioner Oral Williams was appointed Deputy Commissioner, Parliament published a Bill to provide for two Deputy Police Commissioners by amending the Police Act, Cap 167.

    A copy of the Police (Amendment) Bill, 2020, which was obtained by Barbados TODAY confirmed that section six of the Police Act will replace the words “a Deputy Commissioner” with the words “two Deputy Commissioners”

  12. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    David

    “A good place to have started if we could rewind- was for the PM to let the AG deal with the matter, this would have improved the optics and disentangled the police force from being politicized. Sensitivity should be exercised by politicians when dealing with some matters.”

    Politicisation you say, where and how? You mean by the Senator and Verla? Or the media? The media like BU could have allowed the AG to deal with the matter. The media also needs to do a bit more research before it publishes stories. Even the headline of the recent Barbados Today story is misleading. No one can deny the post was transparently and lawfully established. After the amendment, then what?

  13. David Avatar
    David

    @enuff

    And the prime minister could have keep her mouth shut or deflected the question to the AG who was present.

  14. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    David
    She could have, that’s true. I would have. Then the media and some on BU would have reported it as she dodged or threw the AG under the bus. Isn’t it only few days ago the AG was about to be fired? In the meantime the AG continued with legislative changes to speed up the judicial system as two more amendments were passed in the lower house. I look forward to the debate on the 2 commissioners amendment.

  15. David Avatar
    David

    @enuff

    There will always be unreasonable people who will never be satisfied it is true. In this case the prime minister is practised in the art of public speaking she could have easily synced her response with that if the AG to avoid the current situation.

  16. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    to answer your question whether a second DCOP is necessary, the short answer is no. those responsibilities could have been given to an ACOP answerable to the Deputy. as it stands the Bim police service is too top heavy anyway.

    conversely anything can be justified if you have the time and energy to spin

  17. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @Greene

    HR responsibilities are civilian duties at half the salary. A well-trained police officer should be helping out in policy issues, not sitting behind a desk ticking boxes.

  18. David Avatar
    David

    The public was told the request for the second DCOP came from within the ranks of the Barbados Police Force.

    Enough said.

  19. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    @Hal
    that is even better than my suggestion

  20. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    @David

    didnt you ask me a question?

    if you are responding to me, what are you trying to say?

  21. David Avatar
    David

    To connect the dots. Why would a top heavy police force to use you words request the additional DCOP post?

  22. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Greene

    One of the pleasures of getting old is that you remember the old days. When I first started working, the boss or works manager used hire new staff; then a position called personnel staff were invented, basically one man and a dog; then, since the 1990s, this ever expanding, non-productive, mainly female HR discipline descended upon us; at the FT, when key productive staff were being made redundant, our HR staff was ever expanding.

  23. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Enuff June 7, 2020 9:38 AM

    Mr. Enuff, are willing to concede that the Primus inter pares (Pip) made an error in contradicting the AG?

    The same way you ‘agreed’ that the AG admitted to his error and is about to correct it in the interest of the promised ‘transparency and ‘good governance’, would you agree the Pip should keep silent as a show of contriteness when the matter of amendment comes up in Parliament?

    “Those who never retract their opinions love themselves more than they love truth.” ~Joseph Joubert

  24. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    @David,

    make your point please

  25. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    Then the media and some on BU would have reported it as she dodged or threw the AG under the bus
    ++++++++++++++++++
    The question didn’t require an either-or answer, the PM could have said the AG is the Chief legal officer of the country and we are going to follow his advice.no dodging or throwing anyone under the bus. Instead she showed her intransigence by declaring that the appointment is above board and the Gov’t was correct, thereby fanning the embers of a dying fire.

  26. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    The only one who has to resign in this whole matter is the outspoken senator. By criticizing the BOSS program, he is obstructing any reasonable reform of the civil service. He doesn’t give a damn about the many unemployed, because he only has his eye on the civil servants.

  27. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    Then the media and some on BU would have reported it as she dodged or threw the AG under the bus
    +++++++++++

    The question didn’t require an either-or answer, the PM could have said the AG is the Chief legal officer of the country and we are going to follow his advice.no dodging or throwing anyone under the bus. Instead she showed her intransigence by declaring that the appointment is above board and the Gov’t was correct, thereby fanning the embers of a dying fire.

  28. David Avatar
    David

    @Greene

    How many times must the point be made? The request for a DCOP originated from the COP. He has not denied it. It was accepted on the surface by the principals in government who are responsible. The police force is highly politicised how decisions are taken, how the previous PSA operated with the appointment of Guyson Mayers to name one example.

    BTW the blogmaster is not trivialising the importance of recruiting competent HR practitioners. The days of the personnel department has been superseded. The ability to develop training programs aligned to strategic goals, managing employee and labour relations, not to forget negotiating and managing health and pension plans etc.

  29. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    Mucho moderation?

  30. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    @Hal,

    there is a story that goes this way-

    a small town in the US used to have its connecting bridge vandalised every night.

    so the town’s people voted to hire a watchman. the watchman needed to be paid so they hired a clerk. the clerk said she was a kind of secretary and could not deal with money so they hired an accountant.

    the accountant said he dealt with the reconciling of the budget to pay the clerk and the watchman so they hired an admin assistant for the Bridge Protection Dept as it was now called

    a recession hit and the town’s funding was cut so they had to let go a staff member from the Bridge Protection Dept, which got together and had a vote. they voted to fire the watchman

  31. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    @David,

    you could have made your point without asking me if i thought the Bim Police needed another DCOP. that is quite apart from whether the COP asked for another or not. so i really dont get why you asked and why the two are connected?

  32. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    Any person who wishes to exercise their good Barbadian education which has given them the ability both to read as well as practise critical listening can tell you that both the Attorney General and the Prime Minister said precisely the same thing – the law will be amended. What train has been set in motion subsequently? A bill to amend the Act. So if anyone could point out to me conclusively the dissonance existing in the Administration I would be most grateful.

    Enuff makes a fantastic point. Whether she spoke or she remained silent, she would have been heckled by the same quarters. Government moves to accede to the wishes of the COP to have another DCP and is decried as acting too quickly. Government moves with deliberative pace to enact and operationalise integrity legislation and is decried for being “too slow”. Government employs very useful consultants to complement the civil service and is decried for employing “hangers on”. Government follows the advice of the civil service in this instance (technically the police force is not strictly civil service), i.e. the COP who knows his force, and knows he needs another DCP, and is decried still. Wuhloss, George Jones like he was singing bout Barbados when he sang “Sometimes You Just Can’t Win”. As I am always at pains to say, kindly make up your minds!

  33. David Avatar
    David

    @Greene

    That is ok, they are a few on the blog who understand.

  34. David Avatar
    David

    @Khaleel

    You are not correct. All of us are not painted in colours yellow or red. It would not have registered as an issue with the blogmaster for example.

  35. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    @David

    You were not referenced in my comment at 10:54. As you would say, it was a “who the cap fit” comment.

  36. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Khaleel Kothdiwala June 7, 2020 10:54 AM
    “ the COP who knows his force, and knows he needs another DCP, and is decried still.”
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Now that the second DCoP is in place and the force is now equipped with the necessary managerial expertise, can you justify the keeping on of any consultant for police matters?

    Remember that any penny saved is indeed a cent earned in these fiscally confining times of both BERT and Covid!

    How about engaging the services of Dr. Delisle Worrell?

    We are sure he wouldn’t mind doing his duty out of a commitment to that altruistically guiding principle of “Noblesse Oblige”.

  37. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    @Miller
    “can you justify the keeping on of any consultant for police matters?”

    When I get the job as PRO of the RBPF I will let you know! It’s not my place to justify it. But it would seem to me from the information I have, Mr Dottin has not been contracted to deal with HR matters, so the connection Miller is…….?

    Also I extract below a previous comment of mine from a few minutes ago for you to ruminate on:

    “Government employs very useful consultants to complement the civil service and is decried for employing “hangers on”. Government follows the advice of the civil service, …, and is decried still. Wuhloss, George Jones like he was singing bout Barbados when he sang “Sometimes You Just Can’t Win”. As I am always at pains to say, kindly make up your minds!”

  38. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    @Khaleel Kothdiwala June 7, 2020 11:21 AM

    You ought to add too that they are decried for having too many advisors and consultants, while the same individuals campaign for them to add more!

  39. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Khaleel Kothdiwala June 7, 2020 11:21 AM

    If you are not the PRO what information do you have access to confirm what matters (other than HR) Mr. Dottin is contracted to consult on?

    Matters contained in the AG’s reports or the red bag paraded on the platform?

    What expertise can the ex CoP offer that the current CoP is incapable of giving?

  40. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Greene
    Have you assessed the structure and functioning of the RBPF to support your position? Why in an organisation such as a police force, personnel management ought not to be on the same level as operations? Isn’t a Director of HR now standard practice in large organisations? I don’t subscribe to politically-driven, non-evidenced conclusions. Was Arni Walters needed at BWA? Was the $300,000 consultancy to Guyson Mayers necessary? Why don’t you talk about the money collected by the battery of lawyers, including the kingly one, that the A-G talking about? After all aren’t you an aspirant?

  41. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    @Miller June 7, 2020 12:10 PM

    Why must it be a zero-sum game? Has anyone said that Dottin is offering services which cannot be rendered by Griffith or which he is incapable of rendering? Absolutely not. His is a complementary role. The offering up of expertise need not be adversarial my dear chap.

    Anyhow, kindly decide on which criticism you wish to level first. These DtM folks seem to have multipersonality criticism disorder.

  42. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    As usual, Green and others are so hypocritical. Wasn’t it Adrian Wrathbate and other DLP ministers who gave contracts to DLP lawyers for millions of BBDs instead of having the work done fFOR FREE in AG Chambers? Even a monkey could have drawn up the contracts within an hour. Instead, the work was awarded to highly mediocre lawyers. And wasn’t it the former Attorney General who assisted Donville Inniss in New York? His friend, a criminal alien convicted by a federal court of the most serious crimes in the USA?

    For those who are constantly upset about the BLP and Mia Mottley, it’s worth remembering what was going on until May 2018: Shit was flowing around the streets on the south coast for years. And what did the DLP ministers and DLP supporters do? Instead of solving the problem, they got excited by the smell, because it reminded them of their childhood on the pig farm.They’re all from native slums and behave so. Mia Mottley and her fabulous ministers solved the problem within a month.

    These are the facts.

  43. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Khaleel Kothdiwala June 7, 2020 12:32 PM

    What “complementary” what?

    Why not make it ‘complimentary’ as part of your constant call for “forced” Noblesse Oblige.

    Why this duplication of expertise? Is it pro bono? For heavens sake, the man is already pensioned!

    Is the current administration serious about BERT or Covid?

    You are asking public sector workers to cut and contrive in order to survive even through BOSS.

    Yet you are engaging in the payment for services which are already available in-house.

    Are these ‘consultants and duplicates’ going to be paid in bonds too?

    PS: Why not hire the services of retired school principals to complement the existing cohort since education in Bim seems to be under tremendous pressure and the schools not as well ‘managed’ as their ought to?

  44. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Tron June 7, 2020 12:53 PM

    You are pretending that you don’t know that Donville was and still is a very close friend of MAM along with the movers and shakers in the red camp.

  45. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    @ Miller June 7, 2020 1:08 PM

    That is precisely why I hope that the US judiciary will make an example of him. He is a criminal alien who must be punished severely under the Trump doctrine. Imprisonment and/or penal labour. The US judiciary must destroy him so that he serves as a deterrent example to local politicians from the opposition and police officers who cling to their “complaint” like needy servants to their master.

    If the weak Holder with his Barbadian ancestry and lax attitude towards foreigner crime had been AG, Donville would never have been charged in the USA. Although I don’t hold a high opinion of Trump: At least he cracks down on foreign criminal elements. Donville and his kind are supposed to commit their criminal acts in the slums of Barbados. There is enough crime in the USA, they do not need immigrant criminals.

    Moreover, it is one thing if politicians have known each other for many years as a result of joint parliamentary work, and it is another thing whether they support criminal acts. It was not Mia Mottley who accompanied Donville Inniss to New York. It was the former DLP Attorney General who openly sided with injustice and serious crime.

  46. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    @Miller June 7, 2020 1:02 PM

    Make up your mind about which vein of criticism you wish to pursue, and then I can engage you. Until then, it makes little sense engaging with a criticising schizophrenic.

  47. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Khaleel Kothdiwala June 7, 2020 1:36 PM

    What would you call a person who ardently believes in the doctrine of “forced noblesse oblige”?
    A Jekyll and Hyde personality type who still can’t figure out which side he is on in the duopoly class for political toddlers?

    Now why don’t you make up your mind? You are forcing people to work for the national good. But yet you want to pay for services already provided by these same workers who being called upon to make sacrifices.

    Isn’t that what is at stake here?

    Why can’t the ‘consulting’ CoP be a subject of your paradox of ‘forced noblesse oblige’?

    You have been embarrassingly shamed by the volte-face now being taken as a legal position by the AG.

    Please don’t allow your young political self to be used and then refused like that again.

    Festina lente! N’est-ce pas ?

  48. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    talking about shiite. the way how both parties handled the shiite on the South Coast is symbolic of how they have dealt with Bim;s problems. the DLP knew the shiite was there but were advised that a new plant was needed to take care of the shiite once and for all. they warned the area residents to stop pouring substance down the drains that cause the shiite to come to the surface. the people said no, yes it is our shiite but we elected you to deal with it and if you dont we will mess up your election chances. the DLP said this is your shiite and you will have to endure it until we can pay for the plant that will solve the shiite problem. in the meantime we will try some short term solutions to alleviate the problem but you will have to smell shiite from time to time. so they left the shiite where it was created for those who created it to deal with until they could fix the problem once and for all. people in the area protested-take this shiite from around us. who wants to deal with their own shiite anyway?, they screamed.

    the BLP possessed of the same knowledge as the DLP in how to fix the shiite issue said we know how to deal with this shiite. give us the chance to show how we can deal with shiite issues better than the DLP. so the people said yeah we going to give you the opportunity to solve our shiite and so they did overwhelmingly. first the BLP rewarded one of the people who created the shiite then brought it to the public’s attention. the BLP then spread the cost to take care of the shiite among the public who had nothing to do the shiite in the first place. to deal with the shiite itself at first they placed it in a big pile nearby but away from the public’s eyes. when the public found out and cried out they pumped the shiite into an area that had nothing to do with shiite.

    the shiite problem is still there but people love the BLP because at least they dont wake up to their own shiite, they dont see the shiite they did and their shiite is somewhere else for somebody / something to deal with until a final solution can be found but same shiite different party

  49. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    KK
    Don’t bother with the verbosed one. They need to read more and pollute less. Is Dottin not a consultant to AG rather than the RBPF?

    “HR responsibilities are civilian duties at half the salary. A well-trained police officer should be helping out in policy issues, not sitting behind a desk ticking boxes.”

    Because human resources is just ticking boxes? Because policy can be formulated void of the human resources aspect? Because health & safety, performance management, upskilling, employee support, job satisfaction, developing an organisational culture, mentoring etc are not important? WDRH I duz read on BU? In the UK where Mr.Austin resides, the gentleman (a civilian) responsible for HR matters and overall operations, earns a salary around £200,000 equal to or very close to the Deputy Commissioner. In fact the gentleman describes his role as Deputy to the Commissioner. Under him is a Director HR, obviously civilian, with a salary far north of £100,000. The DCOP in Bim earns $114,570, an Assistant Commissioner $102,991. Effective personnel management is critical to the overall functioning of the police force. Yet we are willing to squabble about the elevation of the RBPF’s HR and administration matters to the upper echelons of the management structure of the organisation over $11,580 or $114,570. The $3.9M in lawyer fees paid at SSA between 2008-2018 alone would have paid a DCOP for 34 years. Thirty-four!! What do we have to show for the SSA for those 10yrs, an unfinished carpeted building? But we cussing White Oak. GTFOH!

  50. David Avatar
    David

    @greene

    Having relieved yourself of all that should we wait to vote back it the DLP to give them a second chance to right the wrong.

    Now you may understand why some of us are so apathetic to the duopoly.

The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.

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