Police bungling in Keyana case

The spin doctors of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) have been trying to do this now for quite a few years where they hold “press conferences”, to instruct us peasants on what they think we should know. After all, they are best qualified to tell us, as they have placed themselves right next to God; who, coincidentally, also happens to be a Trini.

In a nutshell, they sought to distance themselves from their bungling incompetence in the case of little Keyana Cumberbatch of Maloney. In all fairness to them, this is not to say that they could have prevented the loss of the Keyana’s life. But in the ten minutes between the report and the time they said the search began, a lot could have been established, providing of course they had initiated their search in their professionally detailed, itinerary fashion.

The sad loss of life of little Keyana has garnered more than its fair share of comments from all quarters; even amongst hard-core criminal elements. Her death, and the circumstances strike at the mores (pronounced (mor-rays) — strongly held values of a culture — and her name now joins the list of those who fell before her, Sean, Amy, Hope, Daniel, et al a list too long to detail here; and we wonder who is next.

The TTPS however, in their efforts to downplay their collective incompetence, provided us peasants with details in a meticulous fashion. What they ignored in their press release was that we, the peasants, are aware of their MO (modus operandi) only too well. So we are quite aware of the variation between what the details of their diary went on to explain and what actually happens. For anyone gullible enough to buy the PR version of their story, the search for Keyana was started almost immediately. And for the record, it must be noted that it was not the police who found her decomposing body — at home.

For some people, logic and science and a foreign concept to the TTPS called “intelligence led policing” are integral to any investigation being undertaken in today’s world. Are we to believe that a search was initiated without a visit to the home of this child? That is what their itinerary also tells us and as was evident in their attempt to cover up their professional incompetence, despite the “badjohn” talk.

And I cannot help but recall the stats from their website which shows the pathetic detection rate in every category except one: drugs. And I wonder for the sake of wondering, if they were searching for drugs, would they have found it? Which pillow would have been left unturned if they were searching for cocaine? Would they have looked inside the deep freeze? Or the toilet bowl tank?

To add insult to injury, the PM in her capacity “as a mother and grandmother” as she is famous for quoting, has set up a commission to look into the problem of child abuse; headed by a “management expert.” Dear Mme PM, in case you and your Cabinet colleagues may have missed it, the problem is not the children; they are merely the victims. Why not look into society’s other failed institutions, beginning with Parliament, to see where the problems germinate. And the next time a pitbull mauls someone, another committee will be established, this time perhaps by a “dawg expert”. I patiently await that call.

Rudy Chato Paul, Sr

D’Abadie