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Use even hand in disciplining cops

Published in Trinidad Guardian: March 24th, 2009

The dismissal of acting Police Corporal Clinton Auguste is likely to be met with mixed reviews. Of course those opposed to Prime Minister Patrick Manning and the PNM will argue vehemently, without regard to the facts, that the decision to dismiss the officer was purely contrived.

Then there are those who will wonder how come it took so long to relieve the Police Service Commission of the responsibility for disciplining from the brass to the brass-faced in the Police Service, which in any event they exercised with great infrequency. That power, belatedly handed to the commissioner, must be dealt with an even hand and after Khemrajh Bissessar’s epic, the pillars of natural justice ought not to be rickety poles, swaying in the hot air and cold breezes that politicians can sometimes generate.

Ultimately, it may be fair to say that with the Prime Minister more of a complainant than a witness, Auguste never stood a chance. Now we would look to the many other cases in which more independent courts and tribunals rendered both guilty verdicts and uncharacteristic disgust to see if the boss will move with equal dispatch.

Clarence Rambharat