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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PORT OF SPAIN 000138 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR WHA/CAR 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PTER PHUM KCRM TD
SUBJECT:  AMID THE TRAGEDY OF CRIME AND VIOLENCE IN T&T, A TROUBLED 
POLICE FORCE 
 
REF: 
 
 
1.(SBU)  SUMMARY: The arrest of T&T businessman Inshan Ishmael 
apparently on an initial charge under the Anti-Terrorism Act, for 
distributing unlawfully printed leaflets, has at best deepened the 
public's cynicism toward the police and at worst led to allegations 
of dictatorship and repression of the people's fundamental rights 
and freedoms.  At the same time, public concern with the level of 
crime and violence is verging on hysteria, particularly following 
some high-profile murders and kidnappings.  The belated decision of 
the police to declare all-out war on the criminals, only after one 
of its own was brutally murdered, has added to the public's cynicism 
and frustration and to some confusion as to which is worse: a 
do-nothing police or a police that shoots first and asks questions 
later.  END SUMMARY. 
 
 
-------------- 
"WHAT A JOKE?" 
-------------- 
 
2.(U)  On January 23, a squad of some four or five police vehicles 
with a sizeable number of officers reportedly descended on the home 
of Indo-Trinidadian Inshan Ishmael and hauled him off to a police 
station for 15 hours of interrogation which included a 
strip-down-naked body search.  In the press, Ishmael has been 
variously described as a businessman, a social activist, radio 
broadcaster and TV talk-show host on Trinidad and Tobago's new 
Islamic TV channel. 
 
3.(U)  Throughout January, Ishmael had mounted a national campaign 
to have businesses and other organizations "shut down" on January 25 
and 26.  The "shutdown" which was largely observed in Central, a 
heavily Indo-Trinidadian area, was intended as a very visible 
protest designed to rally government and public to the fight against 
the tide of crime and violence sweeping the country.  Yet, according 
to Ishmael's lawyer, Ishmael was initially charged with violating 
the Anti-Terrorism Act, a statute which carries a minimum penalty of 
20 years imprisonment.  Whether this is an accurate account of what 
motivated the contingent of police to make the arrest, the charge 
was ultimately downgraded to a simple misdemeanor violation of the 
regulation governing the distribution of handbills, a very minor 
offense which normally goes unheeded by the authorities. 
 
4.(U)  By all accounts, Inshan Ishmael, a Muslim and apparently a 
member of Winston Dookeran's recently-created opposition Congress of 
the People (COP) party, has never demonstrated any terrorist 
leanings and does not have a history of incitement to violence. 
Following in the tradition of peaceful democratic protest, he 
distributed leaflets and pamphlets advocating for the "shutdown." 
In addition, Ishmael urged the public to attend a mass rally against 
crime, at a suburban Port of Spain venue, scheduled for January 27. 
The permit for use of the venue was subsequently revoked by the 
local council which is controlled by the ruling People's National 
Movement (PNM), allegedly for political reasons. 
 
5.(U)  Without exception, editors and political commentators blasted 
the police for its "keystone cops"-type behavior.  "What a joke," 
screamed one headline; "The wrong message sent" was the more sober 
assessment of a high-powered lawyer and Independent Senator in a 
guest editorial.  Some analysts went so far as to accuse the 
government of instigating Ishmael's arrest.  However, in the face of 
such stinging rebuke, the government quickly distanced itself from 
any implied link with the arrest, in the hope that any subsequent 
court proceedings over the misdemeanor charge would bring an end to 
the matter. 
 
6.(U)  The opposition political parties saw even more sinister 
motives behind the Ishmael arrest.  First Winston Dookeran, 
Political Leader of the COP, and then Kamla Persad-Bissessar, 
Parliamentary Opposition Leader of the United National Congress 
(UNC), sought meetings with President George Maxwell Richards.  They 
complained to him of a creeping dictatorship in the country and 
increasing repression by the Government of the people's fundamental 
political freedoms and human rights.  Although they asked him to 
intervene, Richards has taken no action so far. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
CRESCENDO OF CONCERN OVER CONTINUING HIGH CRIME 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
7.(U)  Public concern over crime has risen sharply during the past 
two months, spurred by a number of high-profile murders and 
kidnappings.  In December, Vindra Naipaul Coolman, Chief Executive 
Officer of the Xtra Foods Supermarket Chain, was violently kidnapped 
for ransom and has yet to be found dead or alive, while Burt 
Allette, a local councillor representing the PNM, was brutally 
murdered.  Then, in January, heavily armed and well protected gunmen 
 
PORT OF SP 00000138  002 OF 003 
 
 
burst into the home of Police Constable Elizabeth Sutherland and 
executed her, her husband, her daughter and a family friend with 
bullets to the back of the head.  At the same time, the newspapers 
carried lengthy interviews with women who had been kidnapped and 
lived to recount their experience of unimaginable pain and physical 
and psychological outrages perpetrated against them. 
 
8.(U)  In the past, editorial writers and news analysts have tended 
to attribute the vast majority of the 368 murders committed in 2006 
and the 29 murders committed so far in 2007 to nothing more than 
"inter-gang warfare."  However, even they were forced to modify 
their assumptions, in the face of the particularly senseless and 
horrendous murder of an elderly middle-class couple in their home, 
on January 30.  This seemingly endless spree of violence has been 
accompanied by a crescendo of editorial criticism as well as public 
concern expressed in letters to the editor and in man-on-the-street 
interviews by the electronic media. 
 
---------------------------------- 
THE POLICE AND GOVERNMENT RESPONSE 
---------------------------------- 
 
9.(U)  It is becoming more and more evident that the execution-style 
murder of Police Constable Elizabeth Sutherland may have triggered 
an attitude-change in the Police toward what the public views as an 
unacceptable murder rate.  Immediately after Sutherland's killing, 
Police Commissioner Trevor Paul declared an "all-out war against the 
criminals," and, as if to demonstrate that he meant business, 
police, just hours later, killed Tor John, a suspect in the 
Sutherland murder, in an alleged shootout, even though John was 
apparently killed from behind and had no traces of gunpowder on him, 
which might have indicated that he had fired at the police. 
 
10.(U) Most recently, on February 2, police officers, again alleging 
a shootout with criminals, killed four suspects in one fell swoop. 
Subsequently, it emerged that at least two of the suspects were 
known gang members wanted by the police on at least 20 counts of 
murder, and that they had actually been tried on two occasions but 
escaped conviction because witnesses failed to show up to testify 
against them.  Asked to comment on the incident, Commissioner Paul 
said:  "if the police find themselves in situations (with criminals) 
which require a response in a way that could result in someone's 
death, then so be it!"  Increasing citizen support for such strong 
measures parallels the public's outrage at the audacity of the 
criminal element.  On February 6, a businessman, who had been 
kidnapped and robbed in 2005 and was scheduled t testify in court 
against his attackers, was murered in his furniture store by three 
men who walked in, calmly executed him and drove away. 
 
11.(U) There is a clear impression of growing Government frustration 
with its own inability to control crime.  One indication is that, in 
recent statements, Prime Minister Patrick Manning, Minister of 
National Security Martin Joseph and Minister of Trade and Industry 
Kenneth Valley have all attempted to focus the public's mind on the 
fact that crime is a global problem and not one that afflicts 
Trinidad and Tobago alone.  There has also been a tendency to spread 
the perception that crime-fighting is "everybody's business" and to 
blame the public for not assuming its share of the load. 
Accordingly, in a new televised public service announcement 
sponsored by the Ministry of National Security, the narrator 
shamelessly tells the viewers:  "We are doing our part," and then 
calls on them to "now please do yours."  But perhaps the best 
illustration of the country's frustration and its search for answers 
is that it recently turned for salvation to Trinidadian-American 
citizen Choc'late Allen, a precocious 13-year-old girl who is 
unusually articulate and has a well-developed social conscience.  As 
she sat, fasting against crime in the lobby of the National Library, 
a stream of citizens came by to greet her and draw inspiration from 
her, including none other than Prime Minister Manning, UNC 
opposition leader Persad-Bissessar and many other luminaries. 
 
12.(SBU)  COMMENT:  It is widely recognized, even within Government 
and police circles, that the police service is in dire need of 
technical training, more vehicles and even protective vests for all 
officers;  that the police might have a better chance of defeating 
the criminals if there were more officers on the beat;  that 
adequate crime-fighting legislation is sorely lacking, such as 
legislation to permit the use of DNA evidence (recently laid by the 
Government before Parliament) as well as court-authorized 
wire-tapping;  and that the police service would benefit from 
stronger support on the part of what is currently a dysfunctional 
judicial system.  However, the arrest of Inshan Ishmael and the 
immediate response of the police to the killing of Constable 
Elizabeth Sutherland demonstrate that what is perhaps in shortest 
supply at the highest reaches of the police service is sound 
leadership.  Such leadership would have called a halt to the Ishmael 
arrest before it ever got underway, and would have recognized that 
to arrest someone on a terrorism charge simply for exercising his 
democratic rights is to make a mockery of democracy and to devalue 
 
PORT OF SP 00000138  003 OF 003 
 
 
the seriousness of terrorism at the same time.  The police service 
cries out for leadership that would have declared war on the 
criminals years ago, leadership that is attuned to the public 
relations consequences of its actions and leadership that is able to 
see the police as the public sees it, cynically, and not merely 
through the prism of its own narrow self-interest.  END COMMENT. 
 
 
SWEENEY