Disabled missed excellent opportunity

THE EDITOR: While one sympathises with the physically challenged who are protesting on Wrightson Road, one can’t help observing that they missed an excellent opportunity to make their most profound statement. You see Sir when two weeks ago there was the usual demand by our “do gooders from the West” that the Police “lock up” the protestors for “disturbing the flow of pedestrians on the pavement” outside NFM, the DPI instead of re-locating ought to have stood their ground and allowed themselves to be arrested and then the bacchanal would have erupted.

In the first place they would not have been able to be taken inside the police station at Wrightson Road to be processed. No facilities. Secondly, if even the police used the open space at the back of the station and gave the protestors bail to attend Court the following day then statement No 2: All the protestors would gather on St Vincent Street, but unable to get to the Courts on the 2nd floor. Well, would the Magistrate (a) hold court in the street or (b) issue warrants for the arrest and detention of the protestors after which they would be arrested and taken to prison on Frederick Street in their wheelchairs in full glare of the media. What could be better than that? While on the subject of arrests and jail, etc I take this opportunity to remind the public not to be too over-awed by the so-called “Crime-Stoppers plan” which is quite simply another way of bringing “informers” out of the woodwork and into the banks. Informers are nothing new.

The late Randolph Burroughs was reputed to have had an army of informers who gave him the hottest tip on which he built his so-called reputation of always “getting his man.” Only trouble was that quite a large number of those who were secretly identified as “guilty” were gunned down, in so-called shootouts. Flying Squad men would afterwards be justified by statements that the deceased was wanted in connection with a series or rapes, robberies, murders etc, etc, just as happened twice in the last two weeks. On those occasion when the men were arrested, the police would thereafter have to go to look for evidence. The proof of the pudding will be in getting a proper conviction of those arrested and being held for long periods without bail. You can be sure that a large percentage of those tipped about would be false claims from “tipsters” hoping to collect a reward.

ATTA K O KUJIFI
Champs Fleurs