Gail Alexander
Various recent events have shown the need for and also demonstrate the dangers of the controversial Bail bill.
The case for and against the bill was made in Parliament yesterday respectively by Government and Opposition, citing various news reports.
Government cited Tuesday’s explosion in Port-of-Spain and the fatal shooting in the Port-of-Spain General Hospital.
However, the Opposition, concerned about abuse under the Bill, cited Police Commissioner Gary Griffith’s concerns about rogue police officers and being “set up.”
“We say to people who have bombs, grenades and automatic weapons, they should know they’ll have limited access to bail,” Attorney General Faris Al Rawi declared.
UNC MP Roodal Moonilal, however, said: “If police officers, as the Commissioner is suggesting, can attempt to set up and frame him who is we?”
Moonilal said the Opposition isn’t inflexible on the Bill and is open to discussing an amendment he proposed.
“So let’s pass this Bill,” he added.
The Bill seeks to deny bail for 120 days to people who have no charges or convictions who are found with prohibited weapons—bombs, grenades, automatic weapons—and those trafficking weapons. It was passed in the Senate last week with the support of some Independent senators’ support. The Bill requires Opposition support for passage in the Lower House.
Al Rawi said debate arose yesterday when the Guardian and Express’ front pages reported on Tuesday’s “Hospital Hit” on Laventille resident DeJean Broker and the “Mystery Bomber” in Port-of-Spain.
“Could we have anticipated that? News in Trinidad and Tobago talk about bombs having detonated or explosive devices going off? Perhaps fate has a way of working its way out,” he said.
Al Rawi said firearm possession, use and conviction is an “epidemic.” While the role and function of the judiciary will be maintained under the Bill, he said the court should give careful consideration on bail and it shouldn’t be an automatic or easy process.
He asked Opposition MPs, whom he said supported the 2011 Anti Gang legislation denying bail, whether they could “look at themselves in the mirror” and say if they would be inconsistent with that now. He challenged Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar to remove the “whip” from her team and allow a conscience vote.
But Moonilal, said while the UNC didn’t want to see people “running around with weapons like Rambo” or carrying grenades in crocus bags and was prepared to support Government on any law regarding the crisis, the Opposition’s job is to defend the public.
He said the Bill represented a U-turn by Government on legislation passed in August which denied bail for 120 days to people on gun charges who already have other charges and past convictions. Moonilal’s amendment proposed adding the offences of possession of prohibited weapons and trafficking to that Bill.
Noting Al Rawi’s comment on Tuesday’s explosion and shooting, Moonilal said: “Look how both fall into the two offences we’re considering . . . I’m not suggesting anything like that could have been pre-planned It’s bewildering but it happened.
“But something else happened overnight and we didn’t plan that either,” Moonilal said, noting yesterday’s T&T Guardian story about a man who initially claimed Griffith choked him, but subsequently said it didn’t happen.
Moonilal said the story had serious implications for the Bill which has room for abuse. He said the man who made the allegations claimed there is a “committee of police officers and media personnel operating to take down” Griffith. He noted that Griffith also said there was an attempt to use rogue elements in uniform and one or two media individuals to deliberately undermine the T&T Police Service.
He called for investigations into the purported attempt to set up the Commissioner.
Moonilal also said spent shells could be thrown over anyone’s fence before they were raided. He called on Al Rawi and other ministers to “look in the mirror and think of themselves and their children.”
“The Commissioner has alerted us there are rogues in uniform. The police don’t even trust the police in Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.