Latest update December 10th, 2024 1:00 AM
Mar 10, 2013 News
…report lacks penetrative analysis of police performance – Granger
Leader of the Opposition David Granger has expressed disappointment in the conclusion of the Commission of Inquiry into the Linden shooting; describing the whole episode as coming, “close to a waste of time.”
Granger is of the view that the COI report lacks a penetrative analysis of the police performance since they have now been held culpable for the shootings that occurred in Linden on July 18, last year.
The Opposition leader believes that the report offered by the five-member team was inadequate and did not reach the mandate that the Commission had set out for its self. “The report as a whole is inadequate,” he said. “It did not investigate thoroughly its own mandate.”
Granger said that what was most striking is that the report came to the conclusion that the police were responsible for the shootings, but no connect was made in relation to that. He argued that the police said that they were aware that a crowd of 800 had assembled, but they sent 16 policemen.
What that meant, Granger opined, is that “there were simply not enough policemen to deal with the large crowd.” Granger noted that half of the half unit sent to Linden by the police force was made up of Special Constables who he insisted, “did not have sufficient training in dispersing such a large crowd.”
Granger said that the Commission of Inquiry was very weak. “It simply did not have a penetrative analysis of the performance of the police force. Now if they know that the police force was the agency that did the shooting, there is no report indicating how many rounds of ammunition were discharged, how many canisters of tear smoke were discharged and whether the police could account for all of the ammunition that was discharged.”
“I am very dissatisfied with the report; it was extremely weak,” he reiterated. “It did not provide the quality of analysis that we require. The compensation was another scandal. I was horrified at the low level of compensation which was offered.” Granger continued that, “It seemed as if they (Commissioners) were doing these victims a favour.
“Once the COI had come to the conclusion that the police were responsible, there should have been a more intensive determination of which police were actually responsible, how much ammunition was used, where the ammunition came from and the victims should not have been made to suffer twice.”
Jamaican born, Justice Lensley Wolfe O.J., Mr. K.D. Knight S.C, Trinidad and Tobago national Ms. Dana Seetahal S.C. along with Guyana’s former Court of Appeal Judge, Claudette Singh and former Chancellor of the Judiciary and current Chairman of the Police Complaints Authority Cecil Kennard and Justice Claudette Singh conducted the Inquiry into the Linden shooting.
The report from the Commissioners which was recently handed over to President Donald Ramotar, exonerated Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee, who was initially accused of giving orders to shoot protestors. The police were found to have acted on their own, shooting to death three protestors and injuring several others with tear gas, live rounds and rubber bullets.
The organizers of the community’s intended five-day protest were also criticized by the Commissioners who indicated that had the protest organizers acted differently towards the blocking of the Mackenzie /Wismar Bridge, the incident may have been avoided.
Chairman of the Linden community, Sharma Solomon, on Thursday expressed his disappointment with the COI compensation suggested for the family of the deceased and injured persons. Solomon charged that the compensation recommended was “unjust and disrespectful”. He highlighted his intention to seek legal advice on the matter.
He also asked the police to apprehend and lay criminal charges against those officers who may be responsible for the events of July 18.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, has since said that the government is likely to award compensation only as dictated by the Commission of Inquiry. According to Luncheon, the administration would not bow to criticism of the compensation package, but would award it as written by the Commissioners.
Luncheon said that the government also accepted, though grudgingly and “with a drop of salt”, the conclusion of the Commission that the shooting was done by the Police.
He said that it was a case of the Commissioners saying “We don’t have anyone else to blame, so let’s blame you, the Police.”
Seventy-one witnesses including Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee; Top Cop, Leroy Brumell; families of the victims, Members of Parliament and even Head of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), Winston Brassington had testified.
Justice Lensley Wolfe, in his capacity as chairman of the Commission said that, “267 paragraphs could by no means be daunting for any reader because (the report) is “well written”. He urged that, the recommendations be given the “consideration it deserves”.
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