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BBC Caribbean

16 March, 2006 - Published 21:58 GMT


British police for Trinidad streets
The decision of Trinidad and Tobago to bring in British policemen to help fight violent crime has received a lukewarm response from local rank and file officers.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning had included the British officers in a police reform package presented to Parliament on Wednesday.

Manning said: "We are now making final arrangements to receive in Trinidad and Tobago, towards the end of the month of April, 39 officers from Scotland Yard."

The officers are to be armed and will have the power to investigate crimes and make arrests.

They will be hired for between two and three years by the Ministry of National Security.

Corporal Cedric Neptune, the president of the police service association, which represents rank and file officers, said he was concerned that importing the British officers would convey a lack of confidence in the local police.

Success

Nevertheless, he said the association needed far more information than that given by prime minister manning about the imminent deployment.

Mr Neptune wants to know how the UK officers would be operating in relation to the local police, what ranks they will hold and who will they report to.

Mr Manning said the success of consulting work by Scotland Yard officials and U.S. federal agents in December convinced him that hiring full-time officers from abroad would help fight crime.

The Trinidad government is alarmed by rising crime figures.

For the first 75 days of the year, there have been 82 murders, according to police.

Last year, the authorities reported record 389 killings and more than 60 kidnappings for ransom in 2005 - about double the number of abductions in 2004.

Biiatch A$$ British PIGZ CANNOT CONTROL CRIME in THEIR OWN COUNTRY:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4648042.stm

This is a BIG MISTAKE----

------Conditions WILL GET WORSE in Trinidad and Tobago:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4713199.stm
Chase dem DUNCY Bald Heads outta we land!

Oh God Patrick!

Why yuh bring dem Duncy A$$ British Boy in we Country.

lol

Funny, lol

What happened with that big ass red blimp they spent millions and millions of TT dollars for surveillance and as a result, crime still escalating?

the mind of an imperialist

Queen of Sanity:

Let me tell you the REAL STORY of that piece of Sh8t Big Ass Blimp that the T&T Gov't buy for Surveillance-----

-------SOMEBODY got a nice piece a CHANGE kick back in dey pocket from ordering that crap.

IN THIS DAY AND AGE:
THIS is what you Need for Surveillance Today:
http://www.tasuma-uk.com/Surveillance.htm

no sah then you will have assassinations that will be able to be explained or covered up by "technical errors"

Manning is doing exactly what we need to do, keep bringing in foreign help for everything. Bring in foreign people who have no clue of the culture, often have nothing short of condescension towards the “colonies”, to advise and tell us the same things many locals have been saying all along for not even close to what these people will be paid. We are always looking for the foreign messiah. Frankly I think we in Trinidad need to be re-colonised

The self-contempt that is virtually a cultural trait in Trinidad is often nothing short of infuriating starting from that pompous, out of touch, bible-waving illiterate AKA the Prime Minister. But then again, if no less than Dr Eric Williams could make the amazing statement that if the Westminster model was good enough for England then it’s good enough for us, why should any of us be expected to actually use our minds as if we were actually independent.

I’m not arguing whether or not the boys from Scotland Yard or the FBI are capable or good at what they do, I will strongly argue, however, that their services are not required here because we already have the expertise and the knowledgeable people within the defence and law-enforcement community. But the problems – speaking from the law-enforcement/military aspect – have to do with operating under antiquated systems and laws and a sometimes bewildering bureaucracy that has the police commissioner often operating like a “toothless bulldog” to use the famous phrase of a former Commissioner of Police.

Equally problematic is the incredible dogmatism and incompetence on the part of senior police and military officers. Having been in the service up until a few months ago and being very much involved in counter-narcotics/arms, I remember only too well the frustration and the sometimes quixotic desperation of having to futilely trying to convince senior officers who were stuck in a totally different time frame to try innovative tactics to conduct surveillance and interdict the major players in the street gangs and the importers of weapons and narcotics, most of whom we already know anyway. In fact the very reason why I left the service was out of f**ing disgust.

Be that as it may, there are still many in “the work” who are more than capable of bringing the current crime situation under control at least from the enforcement side – which is still useless if the socio-economic aspect is not addressed – but what they lack is seniority. In any case, I wonder how the “Yardies” and “Feds” are going to really make an impact given the fact that certain protocols must be followed when operating with the police and not even the PM or the Minister of National Security has free reign in subverting that. And like I said, the cultural aspect cannot be dismissed either.

This constant surrendering of our sovereignty because of our own failure to operate like we got independence – even if we were just given it by Britain – will soon lead to our downfall yet. Like Marabunta says, this may very well get worse before it gets better.

Oneshot:

The reason why I suggested UNMANNED UNARMED Drones for Surveillance purposes ONLY, rather than a Big Ass Blimp fulla Constables, was purely out of concern for the SAFETY of our Beloved Brothers and Sisters of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Services-------

---------as you know Trinis are VERY FOLLOW FASHION when it come to Copying de latest Yankee trends:
http://www.krqe.com/expanded.asp?ID=11570

ananci let me turn it racist for you.. "those brutes and cannibals in the caribbean cannot police themselves they need us once more to bring them some culture class and civilisation"

I picked up on that many times when dealing with many Brit and American sevicemen.

But often unless it's real blatant, we Trinis are usually willing to humiliate ourselves to them

and they wouldn't have no problem puttin a bullet into anyone that look suspicious too..i think bringin them in would be a major problem because it will change the game now..it will turn racist and all the trini gangbangers and ish will be huntin down the foreign police (the white man)then they will report back to britain or whaever and they will want to send army in..damn i don't think i goin home to live now again yes

__________________
~~When your character is built on spiritual and moral foundations, your contagious way of life will influence millions.~~

I doubt very much they will be operating with arms; there are some strict laws regarding foreign servicemen/law-enforcement people using weapons in a foreign country - not that it is impossible - but I the persons who come here are usually elecronics and forensics specialists. In any event, their being brought here is just the usual way we have of forever looking outside for our deliverance be it crime, economics, culture, law, engineering, medicine, whatever. Forever looking at the former coloniser and the imperialist as the "validating elites" as Lloyd Best often says.

so you trying to tell me that the number of caribbean persons that are in the US and Canada, among them we cannot get enough to satisify our forensics/electronics needs? I find that hard to believe when UWI is churning out engineers