NEWSDAY JANUARY 14, 2 K 14 ‘Things real bad’ By Clint Chan Tack Wednesday, January 22 2014 INDEPENDENT Senator Elton Prescott SC yesterday declared the seizure of $640 million in cocaine from a shipment of juice from Trinidad to Norfolk Port in Virginia, shows the extent to which crime has reached in this country. Notwithstanding this, Prescott said he could not support passage of the Bail Amendment Bill 2013 which proposes a “one strike and you’re out” provision for repeat criminal offenders. Government needs the support of at least four Independent senators to get the required 19 votes (three fifths majority) to pass the bill in the Senate. Government has 15 senators and the Opposition has indicated its six senators will not vote for the bill. Speaking during debate on the bill in the Senate, Prescott said, “We know that crime is out of hand. Yesterday’s news about billions of cocaine masquerading as if it came out of Trinidad and one of our manufacturer’s shops tells us how bad things are.” Recalling that “in the 1960’s we were only concerned about marijuana,” Prescott observed, “Today we are talking about billion dollar crimes which point to our brand name and for which we may be innocent.” Agreeing with Opposition Senator Faris Al-Rawi’s earlier argument that the existing Bail Act could help Government achieve the same objective it wanted to in the bill, Prescott asked, “Have we been persuaded in this or any House (of Parliament) that this is the last resort and that it therefore warrants us taking away the right of the accused person to be brought promptly before an appropriate judicial authority? “In my view the answer is no. It cannot be said this is the last resort,” he stated. Expressing concern that the bill infringed the Doctrine of the Separation of Powers, Prescott declared, “The Legislature must not infringe upon the Judiciary at any time unless our backs are against the wall.” He said even then, the measures should not be described in the way articulated earlier by Attorney General Anand Ramlogan. He said if persons are unhappy with the way the Judiciary is functioning, they should be “bold enough to say so.” Earlier in the sitting, Al-Rawi said a paid advertisement in Newsday from the Communications Ministry brought the objectives of the bill into question. Arguing the law “cannot stand in a vaccum,” Al-Rawi said the ability of the Police Service to detect crime has steadily declined since 2010 and “the Anti-Gang Unit is in jail.”
Posted on: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 09:58:31 +0000
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