Different strokes for different folks?

THE EDITOR: After reading the report on page three of your Sunday edition of Newsday under heading “Don’t charge Rowley,” I have come to the firm conclusion that there are different sets of rules and laws for different folks. When two or more ordinary private citizens of lesser importance and stature get into an exchange of words that eventually ends up in a fracas in which fists and other objects are thrown around, the police are called in. They promptly arrest one or both individuals, escort them to the nearest police station and charge one or both of them for one or more of several charges, ranging from assault and battery, disturbing the peace, occasioning actual bodily harm or one of several other charges that can be laid.

Additionally, they may be dealt a few blows with a baton and locked in a cell for the night to face a magistrate first thing next morning. They are not allowed a bath, a change of clothes or even two Alkaseltzers for the headache that they may very well have. Apparently this normal procedure does not apply to members of the august house of parliament or its environs in which, the members who should be top exemplars and paragons of deportment and behaviour but frequently assume the role of hooligan, do not fall within the ambit of the recognised legal procedure that the rest of the population has to conform to. In my personal view, if this type of behaviour cannot and is not condoned on the streets and roads of this country, it cannot and must not be allowed to take place anywhere else and especially not in the precincts of the parliament of Trinidad and Tobago. It most certainly would not be tolerated by any judge or magistrate sitting in any of our numerous courts in this country.

As a matter of interest, I have to wonder whether had it been a matter of Rowley vs Sharma instead of Sharma vs Rowley, if the DPP would have adopted a similar view and made a similar decision? Of course if all citizens are equal under the law and I presume that they are, there would be nothing to stop Mr Sharma from instituting civil proceedings against Dr Rowley in a court of law. Or does the DPP have control over our courts as well as the police service? As a matter of interest, I am a free and independent individual who do not belong to or support any political party and am in pursuit of truth and justice for all.

MARTIN KAVANAGH
La Romaine