Like a recurring decimal crime it is one of the issues we have been unable to arrest. We scoffed at David Thompson’s 1999 political campaign slogan ‘crime and violence’, before that an Attorney General Maurice King assured a suspicious public there were no gangs in Barbados. Then there was the famous ‘me hands tied’ song made famous by lyrical master RPB referring to Commissioner of Police Orville Durant at the time. What has replaced PAREDOS? How can we forget the tinkering by the Police Services Commission by politicians? What about the moribund police Service Authority?
It has been reported Commissioner of Police (COP) Tyrone Griffith will be retiring very soon. The blogmaster shared the concerns of those who suggest a more visible COP was required in the last decade and maybe partly responsible for the predicament we find ourselves. The country is being punished with escalating violent crime with 100 murders recorded in the period 2018 to present.
Has the time come for an expat Commissioner of Police to be recruited? We have the experiences of Trinidad and Jamaica to reference. Canadians Dwayne Gibbs and Jack Ewatski were contracted in 2010 by the Trinidad government and after a brief stint were forced to tender resignations in 2012. There was Englishman Mark Shields who also served briefly in the role of deputy Commissioner of police in the Jamaica constabulary. He is remembered for his role in the mysterious death of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Wolmer.
Do we have a Gary Griffith personality type available in the Bajan recruitment pool? Barbados is a small island and makes the job of finding a Gary Griffith personality very difficult given the incestuous nature of relationships. The other question is whether a Gary Griffith type personality would be given sufficient room to operate in Barbados.
We are at the crossroads.
Political leaders from both sides have made political decisions that are coming back to haunt ordinary Barbadians. It is never too late to do the right thing. However, based on the blogmaster’s walk about underground we may have crossed the point of no return. The politicians are hapless how to pull crime back because like the coronavirus it has hopped from the underworld OUR world.
Enforcement is one element on meting out justice. For chrissakes let us TRY to get this appointment right with Tyrone Griffith’s replacement. There is credit at least in making the decision based on merit and not cronyism.
Impressive.
https://www.ttps.gov.tt/Media/Media-Releases/2021-Media-Releases
One call from the office of the ??, instructing any professional appointee from outside the region, to go easy on or drop investigating an individual or group would be grounds for that person to tender their resignation. Now a locally appointed, we do things differently. We need the money and will not be losing a high profile appointment and all the cocktail parties that come with it just for a little thing like Justice.
@ David
You wrote: “The country is being punished with escalating violent crime with 100 murders recorded in the period 2018 to present”
If possible give the amount of murders in 2018; 2019 and 2020.
@William
The numbers are there on the BU sidebar.
So Real
I made a point that crime is the reality that grows into a multi-million dollar function and and industry that isn’t going anywhere.
Shrill political campaign slogans games by Government and Opposition is playing to the crowd.
Heavy Handed Policing is also a negatory wrong and a breach of human rights, and so is shallow news reporting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj-8vbai-RI
I vote for Commissioner Rat Brown. ( if he still alive and want to rejoin the police of course) lol
@John A
We definitely need a person to be the face of law enforcement. Motorcyclists taking over the roads. Politicians being charged outside of country for crimes inside of our country. Blantant regards by crime doers from across the echelon of society. The fear of operating with a personable mindset (we culture) because of the fear of criminal element: the tourist.
Time to win back our tiny island.
When a recommendation was made recently to ‘contract-out’ the function/position of the CoP in cases where NO suitable candidates can be found locally, the Blogmaster ‘threw shade’ aka cold water on it.
The same way Bajans used to go overseas to take up senior positions in the law enforcement agencies of other Commonwealth countries why can’t reciprocal arrangements apply to fill the top posts in the small island of Big political incest and cronyism?
Same thing applies to the CJ.
@Miller
You have been around BU long enough and sensible enough to understand the blogmaster will assume different roles to provoke discussion.
@ David
The first thing to do “to win back the island” is honest reporting. Its not trying to cloud an article which attempts to minimise the fact that murders has increased 55.1 percent when the period 2017-2018 is reviewed against the period 2019 -2020. It is also not wise to abuse statistics for pure political reasons. There were 95 murders during the period 2019 -2020. I can attempt to abuse statistics by stating the murders have increased 133% since 2018. in other words there were 28 murders in 2018 but 95 murders 2019-2020. Now, that will be abusing statistics because I would have used 2 years against one.
When you state there were 100 murders between 2018 and 2020 while neglecting to inform the Blog that out of the 113 murders committed in that period 95 were between 2019 and 2020 that is trying to deny the obvious.
in the interest of full disclosure , this is what my research shows:
2017 : 30 murders
2018 : 28 ,,
2019: 48 ,,
2020: 37
If my figures are wrong and what I have written or calculated is inaccurate let me apologise now. I my be wrong.
@Willaim
Believe what you want. The blogmaster selected the period from 2018 to present for obvious reasons. BU took the initiative in 2018 with the support of Amit to track murders. The blogs are there in the Archive. Some of you just live and live to nitpick.
Gangs in South America own entire cities and people are too scared to do anything against them.
Americans go after Money Laundering and peoples Assets.
@ David June 2, 2021 9:27 AM
And you are having it!
If the head of the local Bill had done a’ proper’ job- given the ‘info’ that was brought to the attention of the financial intelligence squad- Donville would be in Barbados today drinking brandy and hunting punanny while waiting for his case of bribery to be called in the year 2040 in the moribund judiciary.
BTW, can we send an SOS out to the Sage Bush Tea for him to brew some intellectual herb labelled BBE to spice up the blog given what has been transpiring in recent weeks in his much beloved Brass Bowl Barbados.
@Miller
The Bush man has his reasons for ‘absconding’.
John A
I can see that you are not following the current affairs of Barbados; had you; you would not have made the statement you did regarding aka Rat Brown/ Rap Brown, because Rat Brown was arrested last year for illegal possession of ammunition.
@Dompey
John A was being tongue n cheek. Relax!
David June 2, 2021 10:15 AM
What’s the position with the other senior officer who was charged for the illegal handling of ammunition a few years back?
What kind of justice system obtains in little Barbadoes?
@Miller
We have so many people on remand for incredibly long periods. What about your friend Rodney Wilkinson?
@ David
I would oppose any attempt to unleash a foreigner as our COP. Would a foreign COP stop politicians from close friendships with certain elements? Would a foreign COP stop the blame game with the failed crime policies of the BLP and DLP? Would a foreign COP stop the Auditor General report from being a waste of his time and paper? How would a foreign COP make anybody about here more accountable to the people who elect them be there Bees or Dees?
It will be nothing more than a dastardly plot to shift blame. We will then take our eyes of an AG who cannot inspire public confidence in his ability to be the chief crime officer of the country. He is suffering from the same maladies of which he had correctly accused his predecessor.
How would a foreign COP remove the political influence of the Duopoly that is destroying the police force by the Duopoly?
It will be nothing more than a bungled PR stunt that is rapidly infecting the body politic.
@William
The reference to recruiting a foreign COP is to use an extreme point to make a point, what we have been doing up to now is not working.
John A
Even though Rap Brown/ Rat Brown, was a member of the Barbados Rifle Range for many years, and he may have had that amount of ammunition in his possession in the past. However, given the phenomenon of gun violence in Barbados, the assumption was probably made that he was selling the amor. But what surprised me the most about this case, is when I saw Rat Brown being led away from the Court House in Handcuffs.
48 + 37 = 85
You made it Pacha.
Skinner
You know better.
Is the hiring of a foreign COP not highly consistent with everything we’ve done as a socalled independent country and before?
Soon from now, and we are warning all and sundry, is that Bridgetown will be made a “Global City” with all that will mean.
Nobody in Barbados even has that idea in mind or knows what it will mean. But we are serving as a warner.
David
Finally, not a lot of time though. Currently in transit. Thanks
David
The entire selection process for choosing those at the higher-echelon of the RBPF has to change in order for there to be the kind of leadership that it required to lead the Force.
Now instead of selecting those at the top on the basis of their time in service, and those with a law degree or some kind of certification in criminal justice. We need to insist that those at the hierarchical structure of the RBPF, possessed a MBA in Criminal Justice, which well equipped the chosen persons with the knowledge and skills to competently manage the organization and effectively lead the men and women of the RBPF.
No foreign CoP can solve our problems for us.
Roughing up the foot soldiers is not going to cut it either.
We know the problem. There is no quick fix.
A lot of the guys at the hierarchical structure of the Force, were initially chosen for Departments within the Force, based of how many O and A levels they had had at the time they joined the Force.
But that does not go without say that some of these guys further their law enforcement education, and others were selected to go and trained at the FBI headquarters in Virginia, and other with the British Scotland Yard.
Donna
I am all ears ….because most of the difficult cases in Barbados and in the Caribbean are solved with the assistance of the FBI, British British Scotland, Yard and Interpol.
and in Belize
https://news.sky.com/story/jasmine-hartin-daughter-in-law-of-tory-grandee-lord-ashcroft-taken-to-prison-after-policeman-shot-dead-in-belize-12322817
@David, Is the COP scheduled to retire because of age? If so, this should be made clear by the powers that be, otherwise some of us may wrongly surmise that him retiring right after his bodyguard has been killed points to a decision to walk away for personal survival.
On the point of replacement, a replacement would have to be given the appropriate resources and mandate to do other than the current COP has.
But can a COP really do anything else, when it is clear that specific fundamentals, other than law enforcement methods, drive the direction of crime? The clear proliferation of the drugs trade, means that, just as in any other country with such a rife trade, there are too many people who make a living out of it, to expect the matter to be dealt with as easily as the choice of appointment of one person.
How is law enforcement, in its larger context, going to treat to the drug barons, those who hide behind legitimacy but are the ones who actually make the real trades, the decisions and the money?
How is law enforcement going to deal with the poverty that makes many youth readily available to be at the whim of these barons? The poverty is reflective of policy decisions, of cultural behaviours and socioeconomic developments over the years. This can only be dealt with by changing the mindsets, education and skills and providing opportunity.
That last sentence is more easily written, than done, as it clearly is a mammoth task. But, it also is the ONLY way to address that poverty and the related behaviours.
Interestingly, that video is directly related to the first of these points, the mindsets, as it is the opposite of what is needed at this time. Instead of positive direction it justifies and posits the negative view.
I fear that the only way that the real drug barons will be dealt with, is by the foreign authorities arresting them for trafficking and money laundering. When will that come? We do not know but what we have surely seen, is that some cannot put a foot outside of Barbados.
Do the authorities know ‘who is who’? I am willing to bet that they do. Watching and waiting. That gives me comfort.
Because ultimately these people need to be addressed. Will more arise? Probably, but the knowledge that they will be watched and eventually dealt with must be a deterrent of sorts.
De higher de monkey climb.
The short answer is that the appointment of a COP will not address the deeper issue. For it to address the daily issues, that COP must be given the resources, mandate and tools to do as necessary.
Just do not be upset when a 5:00am raid in some district, seizing weapons, is necessary and is conducted with a disciplined ruthlessness.
Because that may be required.
You cannot make bread without flour.
@Crusoe
It has been reported he has reached retirement age.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/05/11/cop-set-to-retire-soon/
A Gary Griffith person will demand resources as a prerequisite for accepting the job. A top person will not want to be setup to fail.
What are the advantages/disadvantages, if any, of getting a COP from outside
Less local political entanglement?
Family is away from the war zone and so he/she can act more decisively?
May not be truly vested in solving our problem?
Discuss
David et al,
Bear in mind that as we write, the Police in Mexico are under brutal and directed attack by the drug barons (gangs). One may suggest that the only way to address this latest development, is for the Mexican government to direct the immediate and extrajudicial arrest of a mass of persons. IF they know who all are.
What do you do to protect the country, if the criminals are not playing by the laws? Have a think on that. Arrest who gotta be arrested. Lockem up and hold the key.
And if they resist? ”Man Down, SLR wid a red light pun it and ‘puhllaaa, puhllaa’, however you want to call it. ”
After all, that is the game they are playing, we have just been told so. If they playing cricket, wunna going play football?
How much do you love your country?!
@Crusoe
The blogmaster has reconciled to the fact a long time ago that an extraordinary intervention will be required to arrest the crime rot (enforcement component). The country is in a pivotal position to send a different kind of message if we are serious about attacking the issue of crime..
TheOGazertsJune 2, 2021 12:58 PM What are the advantages/disadvantages, if any, of getting a COP from outside
Less local political entanglement? Family is away from the war zone and so he/she can act more decisively? May not be truly vested in solving our problem? Discuss
All of the above, except that a professional does their job that they are paid to do. No vesting required, even if it helps.
David et al,
Remember Dudus Coke? It may yet come to that. If it gets any worse, it surely will.
Many who depend on them will not like it, but the average Bajan will rejoice.
Dabid
Gary who? You gotta be joking.
@ dompey
Any of us who have shot at the range are familiar with Rat Brown. His case was not one of illegal possession for criminal use but in fact having more ammunition for the range than was issued.
The point is he never rose in the ranks because his style of policing was seen as obsolete. He warned those in power over 20 years ago about what was happening and was told he was ” being an alarmist.” Well I guess time has proved him right today.
Go away!
@ Dompey
He was also running a private security firm and was a well known critic on how the force was performing. I guess some thought it was time to bring him down a peg or 2.
John A
Rat Brown, the same man who Killed Dr. Rat and Shot Harding over there by the QEH hiding in a tree back in the early 80s?
John A
So what offence is having too much ammunition in his possession? It has to be an infraction of the law in order for the police to have arrested and charged Rat Brown Sir.
John A
The facts are, Rat Brown was charged with unlawful possession of ammunition.
What kind of foolishness you are telling about the man had too ammunition in his possession?
John A
I met Rat Brown several times and my impression of him as a CID detective, was he did not possessed the drive like the notorious CID detectives liken to Arthur, Merrick, Eswick, Invader 1, Bynoe, Gittens Dirty Harry, Tracksuit Top, Forte, Vincent Cummins, Robinson, Nurse and even Lion Man who spent the end of his career as a CID detective, and a man I really disdained.
and Big Sam ….and Yard …a good friend of mine, who died early of heart problems I believe …..
DompeyJune 2, 2021 9:57 PM John A Rat Brown, the same man who Killed Dr. Rat and Shot Harding over there by the QEH hiding in a tree back in the early 80s?
Hero then. And that is the man that got charged for a few extra rounds of ammunition? As an ex police officer with such a sterling record, he SHOULD have greater than the usual allocation of ammo, as he would have a lot to protect himself for and probably even received threats.
Whomever charged him should be ashamed! Ungrateful sods.
When I saw it, my first thought was that someone wanted him sent a message to back off. So, what did he know about someone?
Mr.Brown Sir, if you read this, THANK YOU for your great service!
Lion Man was a boss. Should have ten like him now.
That fella caught with the AK47, if he pointed that at the police, you really feel that he should have been brought into the station or go to the magistrate’s court?
Wunna like wasting court time.
DompeyJune 2, 2021 10:23 PM John A I met Rat Brown several times and my impression of him as a CID detective, was he did not possessed the drive like the notorious CID detectives liken to Arthur, Merrick, Eswick, Invader 1, Bynoe, Gittens Dirty Harry, Tracksuit Top, Forte, Vincent Cummins, Robinson, Nurse and even Lion Man.
Wait, leh we back up a bit. How many a dem got a Barbados Service Star or some such recognition? Much deserved. Maybe that is the problem, people do not give such excellent police their due credit.
Call summa dem and put them on the honors list. Seriously.
Crusoe
“My very thoughts”
After all Rat Brown has down for Barbados regarding his duty as a law man, I was surprised and rather shocked to see this man who was respected and feared by the criminal element of his day in Handcuffs.
And if I were to hazard a guess, I would point to one man at the higher echelon of RBPF today, that would have given such and order, know his career.
Crusoe
Your opinion of Lion Man leaves much to be desired because Lion Man policed through Fear and Intimidation, and a good Detective knows that you cannot allow your emotions to guide your investigation, only the facts and the forensics.
Crusoe
One thing is certain, if and when the current Commissioner of Police retires, and the BLP crony Deputy Commissioner of Police Oral Williams should get the job, it will be the same old same old.
Man’s inhumanity to man.
https://trib.al/3a2C93q
DompeyJune 3, 2021 6:23 AM CrusoeYour opinion of Lion Man
You may be technically correct, but hearing what he used to do, go in a building alone and come out with multiple culprits, I still support him 100%.
Lion indeed. Like it or not, sometimes you need that.
Too much namby pamby and correctness and the idiots get to hide behind a lawyer tails.
@ dompey
You ever heard of a motorcycle officer called Cyrus that ruled the roads way back? One man basically kept order on much of the roads then. How come today we can’t do the same? Why do we have 30 and 40 motorcycles riding around on the rear wheels every Sunday? What went wrong?
John A
I heard of him, but I never met him or he was probably before my time, but I knew a motorcycle name Teethica who ruled the road in the 1980s, but unfortunately, he got fired for some unknown reason. I also knew Blades and Greenidge, ….the Mounted Man Judicest younger brother who ruled the road during the 70s and 80s.
John A
Fear and Intimidation has no place in the Force of today; there has to be a mutual or reciprocal respect or working relationship between Law Enforcement and the General Public, in order for there to be a positive impact on the current trend in the pervasive escalation of violent crime in our society.
But there seems to be an adversarial or distrustful relationship between Law Enforcement and the General Public, and this only makes matters worse in the quest to quell the phenomenal proliferation of violent crime.
“Remember Dudus Coke? It may yet come to that. If it gets any worse, it surely will.”
@ David
Mentioning ‘Dudus Coke’ reminded me of when the Crime Management Unit (CMU), led by Senior Superintendent of Police Reneto Adams, went into Tovoli Gardens looking for gunmen and weapons. 27 People were killed
The CMU was a paramilitary styled, elite police anti-crime squad, consisting of 8 police officers that was formed in 2000 to combat Jamaica’s escalating violent crime.
On Wednesday, March 14, 2001, the CMU conducted an operation in Braeton, during which 7 young men between the ages of 15 and 20 years old, (now known as the ‘Braeton Seven),’ were killed. Amnesty International accused Adams of being responsible for human rights abuses including extra-judicial killings and executions.
On Tuesday, May 7, 2003, four people, including two women, were killed during a shoot-out with members of the CMU in Kraal, Clarendon.
The Unit was subsequently disbanned on Monday, June 9, 2003 and after several weeks of investigations, Adams and five members of the CMU were charged with murder. However, they were acquitted in December, 2005 and the Adams was assigned to a desk in the office of the Commissioner of Police.
In 2007, Adams was among several senior police officers who applied for the post of Police Commissioner. Several Jamaicans were in favour of him being appointed to the job. However, the hierarchy changed the qualifying requirement so that candidates must have a degree, thereby automatically disqualifying him and, in 2008, he retired from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).
The US banned the six members of the CMU and their relatives from traveling there.
Despite being regarded as one of Jamaica’s most feared crime-fighters of all time and idolized in dub songs, Adams and the CMU used the gangster methods against them, resulting in alleged human rights abuses.
Interestingly, for reasons similar to that of Jamaica, Trinidad and Guyana created similar anti-crime squads.
I gave BU this EXAMPLE to ask a simple question, is Barbados is ready for a Gary Griffith or Rento Adams type Commissioner of Police, the resulting consequences and the accompanying scrutiny by the international human rights agencies?
I agree with Dompey’s comments re:
“Fear and Intimidation has no place in the Force of today; there has to be a mutual or reciprocal respect or working relationship between Law Enforcement and the General Public, in order for there to be a positive impact on the current trend in the pervasive escalation of violent crime in our society.”
There must be a balance.
@Artax
Is it about being ready or doing what has to be done to remove the crime cancer. Bear in mind an attack on crime requires a muliprong approach. We tend to focus on the end stage of the issue In Barbados. What about the justice system? What about stakeholders in civil society participation etc. what about holding politicians and security forces accountable. What about ensuring PSA and other oversight bodies do what is mandated of them etc etc.
Artax
You had forgotten to mentioned that Adams, and several others Jamaican Police officers ( think of the said Unit) were arrested and put on trial for murder charges which he beat, and subsequently there after the Trump Administration banned Adams and his family from entering the US, because of what the Trump Administration called human rights violations.
Adams, then in an interview stated unequivocally, that he did not wish to visited the States, because the country was one big ghetto.
In the middle 80s, when I first arrived in the States, I met a Jamaican Ex-Police Officer who was a member of a then Police Unit similar to that of Adams called ( the Eradication Squad), and these Police men would travelled the 14 parishes of Jamaica eliminating violent criminals. So what Adams had done weren’t anything new, because it was part and parcel of the Police culture of Jamaica.
Artax
And to understand criminal culture of Jamaica, is to understand why the Jamaican Police Force need men like Adams and the above mentioned friend, because they are certain places in Jamaica police dare not go for fear of getting shot at and possibly killed.
So the Jamaican Police and the Jamaican Army operates jointly when enter into these dangerous area of the country because if it is one thing the Jamaican criminal element fear the most is the soldier.
Artax
Before Adams Bigger Ford, who is now a member of the Jamaican Police Hierarchy, was feared and respected by the the Criminal Element of Jamaica.
However, when Adams was sent to quelled the rebellion in Tivoli Garden, he was not yet a member of the Infamous Unit he headed.
Do you all honestly think based on where we are that one can sit down and reason with these thugs?
If you do you living in lala land as that time long past. The disregard for human life and love for the bling life style have long replaced reason with these guys, as a dead police 2 weeks ago is evidence of.
John A
Do you honestly believe that the deceased officer identity himself as a Police officer to those criminals? I do not believe he did, so how could you concluded that the youths of today do not have any respect for the Law Enforcers?
“Do you honestly believe that the deceased officer identity himself as a Police officer to those criminals? I do not believe he did, …?”
So if John believes he did and you do not, who is correct? Please continue to direct your responses to John A
John A
the youths of today’s can easily concluded that the criminals of the 70s hadn’t any respect for the Law Enforcers as well. Because Dr. Rat, Buddy Brathwaite, Theophilus Pile, Big Michael, Sand Fly, Mark Young, Harding, Hall, Bradshaw, Oliver and Bend Toe etc have used violence against the police.
John A
the first Police officer on scene during the murder of the plantation owner Sisnet was an uniform officer, when Peter Bradshaw, David Oliver and company shot out one of his eyes.
@ Dompey
What we are seeing now is not a handful of bad criminals like buddy Brathwaite and the ones mentioned above, but a blatant disregard across the board for law and order. There is a difference between a criminal element and what we are seeing here today. You have the bike boys, the Zr boys, the drug boys etc etc etc. What we have here is a lack of respect for law across the board and yes a handful of Rat Brown’s will send the message that enough is enough. One thing is for sure what we are doing now ain’t working. How much more will it take to convince you and others that the horse done left the stable? Will we wait then till tourism returns and these thugs shoot a few tourist and Rob them to take note?
We are a talk nuff and do little society that has always been our problem.
John A
And the reason Peter Bradshaw who sat on Death Row for years, escaped the hangman rope, was because of the torture he sustained at the hands of police. Bradshaw, lawyers appealed his case to the Privy Council, on the basis of the torture Bradshaw sustained at the hands of police, and won the case, and the Queen of England granted him the pardon, and Bradshaw escaped the hangman loose.
Where has that thuggish approach to policing ever worked????
Is it working in Chicago????
As David says, this must be a multiprong approach. All you guys know is roughing up stupid little black boys. What about their lords and masters?
John A
the moral decadence we are witnessing today regarding the our young people stemmed the total moral breakdown of the tapestry of the society, where the Institutions of the Home, School and Church, no longer influence the behaviour of the youths.
John A
the reason I know that the days of beating suspects until their feet with a hammer is over, and the day of wrapping suspects up in plastic and beating the day light out of you is here.
Is because my elder brother daughter who lives in Barbados, got arrested in a domestic dispute involving her boyfriend, and for some reason she fought the police and was arrested and taken to the station, where she was wrapped in plastic and beaten. This she share with my elder brother here in the States and that is the honest truth.
Heard about that wrapping in plastic thing long ago. Did not know they beat women that way too. Thought they only hit them from behind with heavy telephone books to the head.
Who can respect police who behave like thugs and break the law???
As I told the station sargeant at Oistins, you reap what you sow.
Donna
did not know that they beat woman either until my niece told my brother the name of the police that beat her….one of the young CID detectives…
Dompey,
A cousin of mine told me about the telephone book she was hit with on the head. Acting on a malicious tip and with no evidence that sick man hit that bone bird full force. Left her with a permanent headache problem. No charges were ever filed because she was innocent. She lodged a complaint that went nowhere.
All those people calling for tough policing know nothing about police practices in Barbados.
Or they don’t care that the law enforcers are the law breakers.
It appears that these beatings are not reserved for the bad boys. If police are beating both good and bad then they may find themselves without the support of the ‘good’ folks.
The good, the bad and the police is a step towards a police state.
There is so much to be corrected.
These past few days have extremely rough. What I see is a society that’s failing in many areas.
—Just for the Miller—
As I think of the many issues confronting Barbados, I can recall a story of a young Dutch lad who saved his country by sticking his fingers in a hole in a dyke. However, there appears to be more dykes with cracks than Bajans have fingers.
Just too many dykes in Barbados.
“@ The OGazertsJune 3, 2021 7:38 PM
Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!
The grasshopper Miller has met his master when it comes to the use of Literary techniques while looking through the (fragile) glass of life:
Maybe the Admiral MAM has met ‘its’ Waterloo and has fallen from a Joan of Arc to a Jezebel in the eyes of the passengers aboard the SS Bajan Titanic.
When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – – that’s all.”
We may be bad but we en mad!
John AJune 3, 2021 1:55 PM Do you all honestly think based on where we are that one can sit down and reason with these thugs?
If you do you living in lala land as that time long past. The disregard for human life and love for the bling life style have long replaced reason with these guys, as a dead police 2 weeks ago is evidence of.
‘I understand what you are saying, but think that the change is more about an increase i those who do not respect authority and less that it never existed.
Buddy Brathwaite used to throw dynamite at the police. Harding was probably the most dangerous and irreversible criminal ever to live on these shores.
Yuh Brudda allegedly only escaped so many times because of who his rumoured father was. But periodically gangs surfaced, to eventually confront the police and be suitably dispatched.
The problem now is that drugs, guns and money have given backing to these sorts and even created more.
DompeyJune 3, 2021 9:11 AMJohn AFear and Intimidation has no place in the Force of today; there has to be a mutual or reciprocal respect or working relationship between Law Enforcement and the General Public,
Examine that statement in its entirety. You should then understand why the statement exhibits the qualities of an oxymoron. Of course, you may counter argue that ‘General Public’ is a term of specific connotation, with respect to the ‘good people of Barbados’. Ha.
But General Public in this context means the public ‘other than the Police’. When the public is rife with those, at all levels, who benefit from the drug trade and are complicit in the provision and use of guns and violence, inherently there can be no ‘working relationship’. Of course, some may counter that argument with recent, ahem…events, wherein certain people seem to span various lifestyles. Is it cooperation out of necessity and your ‘working relationships’?
This is made more complex by the reliance, just as with Coke, of communities on certain individuals.
Hence why I bring up your reference above, textbook though it is, moral though it is, as an oxymoron when considering the realities.
When we realise this, we must accept that the solution takes on a whole new aspect and needs to be looked at using a method that, instead of merely being a roadmap focusing on incidents and localised areas, needed though that is, in the first instance, the plan then must become an umbrella solution, covering funding sources, international links, distribution etc etc.
Because ultimately there are only two causes, we know that. The drugs trade is one, the second is greed or poverty, depending on where the various individuals or groups derive from.
Dompey June 3, 2021 12:29 PM #: “You had forgotten to mentioned that Adams, and several others Jamaican Police officers ( think of the said Unit) were arrested and put on trial for murder charges which he beat, and subsequently there after the Trump Administration banned Adams and his family from entering the US, because of what the Trump Administration called human rights violations.”
@ Dompey
It’s clear you did not read my contribution.
Artax June 3, 2021 11:45 AM #:
“Adams and five members of the CMU were charged with murder. However, they were acquitted in December, 2005 and the Adams was assigned to a desk in the office of the Commissioner of Police.”
“The US banned the six members of the CMU and their relatives from traveling there.”
Dompey June 3, 2021 12:56 PM
As the old people would say, ‘you too love uh argument.’ The problem with you is, when confronted with new information, you rush to Google and present the ‘first set’ of information you see as the ‘Gospel according to Luke,’ and then ‘speak authoritatively’ on the subject to make it seem as though you ‘know wuh gine on.’
I thought you would’ve learnt your lesson from your erroneous argument that prostitution is legal in Barbados because ‘it’s all over Google’ that it is.
RE: “Before Adams Bigger Ford, who is now a member of the Jamaican Police Hierarchy, was feared and respected by the the Criminal Element of Jamaica.”
If you had done a bit more research, you would have known Former Senior Superintendent Cornwall ‘Bigga’ Ford is NOT now a member of the Jamaican Police Hierarchy. He RETIRED from the JCF in December, 2015.
The argument is not about who came ‘before or after,’ but about who Jamaicans regard as the most feared and respected police officer of all time.
RE: “However, when Adams was sent to quelled the rebellion in Tivoli Garden, he was not yet a member of the Infamous Unit he headed.”
WRONG AGAIN.
In September, 2000, then Prime Minister & Minister of Defence, P.J. Patterson named Senior Superintendent of Police, Reneto Adams, to head the NEWLY CREATED Crime Management Unit.
One of the main units involved in the operation described as a raid for illegal arms stock in the Tivoli Gardens, West Kingston on Saturday, July 7, 2001, was the Crime Management Unit, headed by Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams.
I suggest you read the Report of the West Kingston Commission of Inquiry and Amnesty International reports.
Artax
You are so wrong about me Sir because the reality, I never really google that much, and most of my information about Adams Whom I did actually know until my Jamaican wife told me many stories about this man came from reading about him, and watching interviews he has done on Utube. However, as I have said to you: I live in the United States and in a States with the largest Jamaican population in this country, so my entire life in the States is/ were centered around Jamaicans and the Jamaican culture.
As well as two of my brothers are married to Jamaican as well as myself, so there is no need for me to Google anything about Adams, because his name is mentioned in casual conversation in the Jamaican stores, and restaurants here Sir.
Artax
I am not the type who like to Google to ascertain information for anything, because most of what I know comes from actually reading books, articles, watching videos and dialoguing with people.
Sir, my entire juvenile as well as my adult life has been centered around the library in Bridgetown and in St. Peter, and as an adults in practical every Library in the surrounding town here in the States where I live, so again Sir,
( and commit this to your standard memory bank) I am not the type who like to google, I prefer to ascertain my facts from reading books, articles, watching videos, and dialoguing with people.
Oh dear! Some of us are slow to realise that Artax will outdo us in the research department.
My lazy behind asks him to do the research for me.
Learn to appreciate and avail yourself of the strengths of other people!
It’s the smart thing to do.
Artax
And finally, I took an American Government class in college years ago with a professor who was from Nigerian Africa, and in dialogue in the class, I said to the professor: ” Nelson Mandela was the first person to induced violence in the ANC fight again Apartheid.”
And the professor swore in front of the entire class that he did not, until I brought him the facts in the following class.
But what the professor did not know or had failed to consider is the fact that I had read Nelson Mandela autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, in which Mandela made mentioned of this fact, and the professor had no choice but to recapitulated.
Dompey June 4, 2021 5:27 AM
Please don’t let us make this about you.
Although you may live in Jamaican dominated community and your life is “centered around Jamaicans and the Jamaican culture,” you and your two brothers marrying Jamaican women, Adams’ “name being mentioned in casual conversation in the Jamaican stores and restaurants (there),” and reading about him, and watching interviews he has done on Youtube ……………
……………… yet, you still came to BU with INCORRECT information.
Now, what does that tell you?
I offered a simple example to David BU’s thoughts on the substantive topic and you came in to give an irrelevant history lesson about some other Jamaican police squad, and to ‘say’ Adams’ policing methods aren’t anything new.
Then, you went to ‘say’ what I forgot to mention, when I obviously did not.
A smart cricketer knows when he has been bowled out and returns to the club house without arguing with the empire that the wind blew off the bails.
Artax
I have one question for you Sir: where have gotten your information about Adams? Google of course, but I have been around Jamaicans who knew this man personally, and have lived in communities where this man has policed in the past.
@ Dompey
Okay, according to you, “I got my information about Adams from Google of course.” Good……. ‘fair enough.’
You “have been around Jamaicans who knew this man personally, and have lived in communities where this man has policed in the past”………….
Taking the above into consideration, please bear in mind the CMU was established in September 2000 and Adams was Officer-in-Charge from its inception.
The Tivoli Gardens raid occurred on Saturday, June 9, 2001…….. approximately nine (9) months AFTER the CMU was established.
Yet, you wrote, “However, when Adams was sent to quelled the rebellion in Tivoli Garden, he WAS NOT YET a member of the Infamous Unit he headed”…………..
………….. which is INCORRECT.
You also ‘said’ Cornwall ‘Bigga’ Ford “is NOW a member of the Jamaican Police Hierarchy.” It’s a pity your Jamaican friends did not tell you Ford RETIRED from the JCF six (6) years ago in 2015.
I was going to give you the benefit of the doubt, but remembered one of your Jamaican friends convinced you prostitution was legal in Barbados, simply because two of her niece dance in clubs here.
What did you do? Run to “Google of course,” and ‘said’ she was right because “it is all over Google that prostitution is legal in Barbados.”
Either way, perhaps you should do similarly to me and get your “information from Google of course.”
Artax
Go and listen to the interview Adams made about the Trump Administration on Utube, regarding his denial of entry into the US by the Trump Administration, and his response to this denial. Listen!
Sir, I never knew much about the Adams until my wife was wondering as whether or not Adams was born in Jamaica. And then I took the time and effort a few year ago to researched this man. Because prior to Adam, the Jamaican youths of the 1980s used to talk about a Jamaican Detective name Bigger Ford whom they sung about in Dance Hall music of the 1980s.
😀
I think you should give him the ‘win’ and move on.
I think Dompey is playing for the last word.. He reminds me of a guy who did not know the meaning of ‘have the last word’ but used every trick he knew to ‘have the last word’.
The Mandela track has been opened.
Artax
You can find the details of that raid on Utube, and I actually know what occured in the raid, because its account were related by the family members of the victims who were murdered by police.
TheoGazerts
Sir, it is not all about winning, and if you think that for on minute, then your education isn’t worth a cent! ….. it is about speaking from your own unique angle of view Sir, …….. Now have you ever sat down and listen to philosophers of different philosophical point of views deliberate about the existence of life and the reality of God. I am quite sure you have …… well it is a never ending debate, where one and all wants to get their point across….
2/2
You can have the last word. I dun.
@ Dompey June 4, 2021 9:40 AM
(Quote):
Now have you ever sat down and listen to philosophers of different philosophical point of views deliberate about the existence of life and the reality of God. (Unquote).
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sacré bleu! The “reality of God”?
There are many gods which are the figments of the human imagination.
Which one(s) is/are the real McCoy? The Indian? Chinese? The Aborigines?
The Egyptians Greeks or Romans?
Or the Jewish version of patent plagiarism with which you been totally immersed with its jingoistic propaganda?
Dompey June 4, 2021 9:00 AM
I beginning to believe you’re being deliberately silly.
If you had actually taken the time and effort to research Adams, you would’ve know HE was OIC of the CMU when the unit conducted an operation in Tivoli Gardens in June 2001. It’s that simple.
There isn’t any correlation between the above fact and Adams’ interview about the Trump administration.
You just want to PROVE the point that YOU KNOW, when in actuality you DO NOT.
And, rather than admit you don’t know, you are introducing irrelevant arguments, hoping to convince the forum….. and more so yourself, that you do. As such, your arguments are irrational and you’re not making any sense.
Anyhow, I’ll take my friends advice to “give (you) the ‘win’ and move on.”
Miller
It is self evident or at least it ought to be self-evident that I am speaking of the God Jehovah of Christendom.
Miller
the dialogue regarding the existence of the Lord
Jehovah will going on into perpetuity because one players requires empirical evidence; the other player can prove his existence through reasoning and realism; and an other is not sure whether He does or does not exist, so he calls himself and Agnostic and the argument goes on and on.
@David, a few pedantic items, if u will 😎
When I read this a few days ago I was trying hard to define who Gary Griffith was as you made no connection in your piece of his identity beyond the inference that he was an expat CoP in a Caribbean island! As I said just a lil nudge .
(Oh I didnt check but I will guesstimate he is one of those that was in TnT).
The other piece of really very minor ‘pedantry’ is to you @Mr Dompey!
Is it laziness or indifference that causes you to continually write sentences like: “You had forgotten to mentioned that..” or “…when Adams was sent to quelled the rebellion in Tivoli Garden…”
What’s up with this past “participled” infinitive!
For a guy who spent so much time reading books in the local libraries you surely ‘read’ a lot of new fangled sentence structures into ur daily posts!
Just saying bro… more power to u!
Anyhow, to the matter at hand.
Now @David, I get it that you are inciting debate but your reasoning gotta be a bit more solid than above tho!
As @Donna said re “No foreign CoP can solve our problems for us” and you then basically reiterated with … “Bear in mind an attack on crime requires a muliprong approach […] What about the justice system? What about stakeholders in civil society participation etc.” !
So do u really believe that a expat top CoP would be the “extraordinary intervention” you also noted!!!
Looka, history of those type recruitments has shown that it really means diddly squat UNLESS the entire structural change is part of the deal (as u highlight). Our force members have been trained by all the top centers so for all practical purposes no expat will bring in unknown techniques or methodologies… yes he brings his experience but without an almost carte blanche memorandum for action … wha gine really change!
If u want to shake up things den get a fella like Lt Col Nurse (or is that Major) and make him CoP … note I said a fella like him (he is too close to retirement himself to take that role now) : a local, highly trained military officer who can come in guns blazing … lord almighty not literally, of course!
Anyhow, I gone.
Alright den, I fact checked myself to discover that Griffith was in TnT but was NOT an expat but a local, FORMER military officer.
Ah.. you duped me into that one Mr Blogmaster… 😎 your piece suggested he was an expat … but then again it also left it up in the air!
As they say above … I must let Google be my friend more readily.
Lata
@Dee Word
You provided fodder for a hearty lunchtime laugh. You just needed to pause and read the heading of the blog.
De pantic
Man looka hear, who really cares about sentence structure on social media? Man go and rest yah old bones or find someting betta tah do, cause nah body en give two flying kicks bout yah sentence structure.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CQj6VyXo4mn/
I read this story for the sole purpose of finding a flaw and attacking it.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/06/26/oncology-massage-training-for-therapists/👍🏿
The story was well written. There was NO promise to deliver more than a massage should/could.👍🏿
One paragraph worthy of discussion (outside of the scope of the article) was about use of make-up because of skin darkening “Make-up, because sometimes the chemotherapy darkens you about three or four shades than you were before. ”
This interest was prompted by the general use of skin-lightening products in our community.
Source: Nation
Source: Nation