We Serve and Protect?

[s/v Moondancer]

This week in Trinidad seven people, including three serving officers of the Trini Coastguard and two in the police force, were arrested for beating/drowning/shooting/murdering a gold dealer...The dealer made frequent business trips to Trinidad and died shortly after joining three Coastguard men on a boat. The Army Chief of Staff has agreed that the Army will pay all funeral expenses. $600,000 US has still to be recovered.

Generally crime is much decreased in Chaguaramus harbor because of the marinas employing private security guards.

Phil & Nell in Chaguaramas

[S/V Illusion]

tough love

[GordMay]

$17 Million GYD Stolen, $12M Recovered, & $4M unaccounted for.

$1 USD = ± $2.04 GYD

➥ Stabroek News - Bartica gold dealer died of asphyxiation -post-mortem

➥ Trinidad News, Trinidad Newspaper, Trinidad Sports, Trinidad politics, Trinidad and Tobago, Tobago News, Trinidad classifieds, Trinidad TV, Sports, Business

[s/v Moondancer]

My wife is shopping in Trinidad at the moment, she is carrying $50 US and wearing a $5 watch and no jewelry.

Carrying millions in T&T clearly was suicidal

[barnakiel]

" ...Generally crime is much decreased in Chaguaramus harbor because of the marinas employing private security guards..."

You are wrong. Employing security guards does not decrease crime. Catching and sentencing the criminals does. But catching the criminals is not what is being done there.

We have the same problem in Las Palmas (Gran Canaria, Spain) - there are new security guards, new gates ... but not a single case of a thief caught by those guards nor the local police.

;-(
b.

[GordMay]

Whilst hiring guards may not reduce crime; it may relocate crime, and somewhat reduce crime againt we (behind the fortress walls).

The gating of a residential area (or marina, in our case) is not a new phenomenon.

During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, kings and other royalty provided gated enclaves for their families and loyal followers during times of siege and pestilence. Fortified with towers, moats, and drawbridges, they stood as formidable reminders of class distinctions. In the late nineteenth century, St. Louis developed a large network of private gated streets for its beer barons, most of which still exist today.

The major question that is asked of gated communities is "Do they really keep crime rates down?" The answer seems to be yes, but only by very little. The city of Miami reports that "some forms of crime such as car theft are reduced, at least immediately after the streets are closed. However, data indicates that the long-term crime rate is at best only marginally altered"

In gated communities, the trend is that crimes against the person go down and stay down in controlled access developments. This occurs because perpetrators do not want to go to an area that they are unfamiliar with and where it might be hard for them to make an escape. According to preliminary research, crimes such as burglary drop in the first year or so of gating, but then rise back to the level of the areas outside.

Some interesting reading:

Putting up the Gates ~ by Edward Blakely & Mary Snyder
➥ http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/93/gates.html

Fortress America: gated communities in the United States
By Edward James Blakely, Mary Gail Snyder
➥ Fortress America: gated communities ... - Google Books

[captmick39]

To portray ALL law enforcement, whether Customs, Military (as in Coast Guard) or down to the "beat cop" is inappropriate and the vast majority (even in T&T) are probably good and honorable individuals.

If not the people would revolt. There's this other angle to that as well of WHO CAUGHT THESE "Bad Guys"?
The GOOD Cops, right?

How they are punished now caught will have great bearing on whether You have further type behaviors, or less of them.

(EG:the HARSHER the Penalty, especially for their positions of public 'trust', the less likely it's repetition) I'd bet the majority of their co-workers, fellow law enforcement now with a giant 'black eye' would like to see these guys "thrown under the bus" judicially speaking.

When abroad I wear a FOUR dollar (US) watch, wedding band, and clothes suitable for both climate and that country/island. NOTHING Fancy & while in the "wrong places" obviously stand out as a "tourist"...surely don't look like a rich one, or even one that has much (if any) "CA$H" in his pockets. Wife learned the same. We don't even wear "fancy glasses frames" (corrective lenses) when ashore in ports of call.

Lifelong lessons learned from a brother in the merchant marine, who's been ashore in some places where he surely would have been "mugged" if not following these steps for personal security. Wearing (or transporting) Gold would be out of the question.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by captmick39

To portray ALL law enforcement, whether Customs, Military (as in Coast Guard) or down to the "beat cop" is inappropriate and the vast majority (even in T&T) are probably good and honorable individuals.

If not the people would revolt. There's this other angle to that as well of WHO CAUGHT THESE "Bad Guys"?
The GOOD Cops, right?...

Well said Mick!

[David M]

Hmmmm...now where have we heard before of a bad cop not getting prosecuted?

[captmick39]

Originally Posted by David M

Hmmmm...now where have we heard before of a bad cop not getting prosecuted?

And David, You're a Moderator!
I was trying to NOT make this a political issue and point out the fact that the "good guys" (in most places, even mexico) outweigh the bad guys, You come in and make it all "political" again...for heaven's sake we have a TAX CHEAT running the Treasury Dept. In This Country!

Even Drew Peterson (no relation...swear!) got HIS own personal orange jumpsuit, eventually.

T & T aren't bastions for criminality (well, maybe), with a little due diligence and no "stupid", You can find them wonderful places to visit. They have beautiful countrysides and beautiful (for the most part) people. Some could say the same about Liberty City, North of Miami if that's all they ever Saw Of Miami, as in Florida, USofA.

Bad cops, get caught by good cops. Sooner or later.