Crime fighting unit another Gestapo?

THE EDITOR: I write to express my deep concern with regard to the Hon Prime Minister’s plan to establish “with immediate effect,”  a “Special Crime Fighting Unit.” He informed the national community that Colonel Peter Joseph had been “relieved of his command as Commanding Officer of the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment” and, following his promotion to the rank of Brigadier General, is now “mandated”, by the political arm of the State, to head this unit. We are left to consider the following issues:
1. What functional relationship would this unit have with the civilian police force on the one hand, and with the military arm of the State, on the other?
2. With a military person at its helm, one wonders whether this ‘unit’ would have more of a military bias. The police are trained to subdue and arrest, while the military are trained to shoot to kill.
3. What specific laws would govern such a “professional” unit? Does appropriate legislation exist for its creation?
4. To whom would they be responsible?
5. Cognisant of the Prime Minister’s often repeated admonition to the effect that matters of national security are not open to public debate, and his repeated refusal to discuss matters related to this issue. I ask: to what extent will the funding, modus operandi, accomplishments, controls etc, be available for public scrutiny?
6. On whose specific orders are they to respond?
7. To what extent can the public at large, and more specifically those, like Mr Kirk Meighgoo, who was arrested in Chaguanas, i.e the dissenters among us, be assured that this unit would not jump to the music of some megalomaniac with little thought to a person’s fundamental rights? Indeed, to what extent will such a unit be obliged to be open to fair scrutiny?

To all intents, this unit will be a type of “Secret Police.” Such secret police are a special category of police. Historically, they have tended to be established by national governments (usually fascist states), so as to maintain political and social orthodoxy. They generally tend to be clandestine organisations that operate independently of the regular civil police. Secret police not only have the traditional police authority to arrest and detain, but in some cases they are given unsupervised control of the length of detention, assigned to mete out punishments independent of the judiciary, and allowed to administer those punishments without external review. Civil police or militia may continue their traditional common policing roles and may even, at times, restrain secret police, but the tactics of investigation and intimidation permit secret police to accrue so much power that they usually operate with little practical restraint. Who decides on the “successful applicant,” and with the apparent dearth of adequate checks and balances in the existing civil police force, how are “better” ones to be implemented? If they exist, why not apply them to our existing police service? As to why the need for this. Mr Manning hints at an answer: “The Government recognises that demonstrations are a legitimate expression of dissent in any democratic society. However, the Government wishes to make it absolutely clear that we will not tolerate acts of civil disobedience and will enforce the laws of the country rigidly and fearlessly. Lawlessness will not be tolerated from either the criminals or from any other persons who wish to disrupt the society no matter how strongly they may feel about their cause.” Was it “The Government” and not the civil police the one responsible for suppressing the “dissidents” in Chaguanas? I certainly hope not. Yet, I am not so sure... since Mr Manning did affirm his prior knowledge of the protest.

Was the police action ‘politically’ instigated? When the Prime Minister thunders that “Lawlessness will not be tolerated from either the criminals or from any other persons who wish to disrupt the society,” his attempt at reassurance rings hollow and insincere, in the light of his prior flippant attitude toward the plight of previous kidnap victims, and suggests that his empathy, if not tolerance, is tinged with a bias. On ending, can I remind you of just two famous “secret” police units: the Gestapo, which Hitler established, and the Russian equivalent, the NKVD (People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs). Like these two units, the one envisioned by our Prime Minister is being given life primarily for the purpose of “intelligence gathering.” Both Hitler’s Gestapo and the Russian NKVD were created for the expressed purpose of “intelligence gathering.” Brothers and sisters, we must indeed be extremely wary of these developments, more so in the light of the hitherto unprecedented resolve of the present Prime Minister that the “Riot Squad will be the subject of review and shall be provided with the most modern equipment now used in countries around the world.” It is as though he anticipates riots). He spoke of helicopters with “attack capabilities,” and indicates his administration’s intent to embark upon a programme of “Public Reorientation” (“Public Education”) since “... some of our young people do not have a proper concept of right and wrong and are therefore in need of reorientation...” (by the State?)

DR STEVE SMITH
Port-of-Spain