Sometime ago a story broke in the local media that a cache with arms, ammunition and narcotics was found the ceiling of the St. Joseph Station. Like most people I was appalled at this find and wondered what the officers were thinking. I also wondered what they were going to do with the items. Why were the items being stored, and of all places in the station. Following the daily updates on this interesting story I remembered that there had been a raid in Bangladesh (which is the settlement between Curepe Secondary and WASA on the Priority Bus Route) a few months ago. It was reported in the news that a raid was carried out in Bangladesh and it was apparent to law enforcement officials that the residents and targets of the raid were aware that the raid was going to take place. Upon investigation it was found that a call was placed from the St. Joseph Police Station to someone in the area and it was believed to be the tip off.
If an investigation was conducted and it determined that the tip off call came from the St. Joseph Police Station it means that somebody watching and monitoring the Station. Therefore it would only be a matter of time before there was a raid on the station. If I had things hidden in a cache in the ceiling I would get rid of it and go on leave, get swine flu or something to absent myself from that whole scenario. But I guess common sense not so common and thank God for that. Now it could have been that the officers thought that someone would have afforded them the same courtesy and give them a tip off. Or they just thought that nothing would be done to investigate the station further.
As to what the items were being stored for I am not sure but there are several options. The civilian view is that the police officers stored the items with the intention of passing it on to criminal elements in society. This is frightening to say the least. Imagine that they taking away guns from one set of criminals and passing it out to a different set of criminals. The second set being their friends so even more invincible than the first set. Frightening to say the least.
The Police perspective is different. There are some who believe that the Police when seizing arms, ammunition and narcotics do not report the full amount seized. This is because many times the person found with the items is not the actual owner but simply a petty transporter. However when searches are carried out on the known “big men in the business” nothing is ever found. The Police officers frustrated by this have to find crafty ways to hold the known perpetrators. So they use the unreported guns, ammunitions and narcotics found in previous raids to pin on “known” criminals to charge them. This would explain why they did not remove the items when they realized that the station was being monitored. While noble, this sort of vigilante justice is scary, because we have all heard the story of somebody son who was held with a small amount of weed, probably for personal use and when he get charge the amount mysteriously increased. So, where does the vigilante just stop? While I admire the fact that the police try their best to work with the system that they have but this leave the window open for abuse of power. Additionally it is hard for a police officer to charge a criminal and then to go before a magistrate to be released shortly thereafter.
The police service gossip behind the items found in the station was that a member of the Criminal Investigation Department which was the unit in the St. Joseph police station that was raided sold out the unit to the Anti Corruption Bureau. So it makes me wonder if that man had not gotten bad feeling about his co-workers this thing would not have been investigated because it seems to be the norm. Who knows if this gossip is true? But it does offer an alternative theory.
If an investigation was conducted and it determined that the tip off call came from the St. Joseph Police Station it means that somebody watching and monitoring the Station. Therefore it would only be a matter of time before there was a raid on the station. If I had things hidden in a cache in the ceiling I would get rid of it and go on leave, get swine flu or something to absent myself from that whole scenario. But I guess common sense not so common and thank God for that. Now it could have been that the officers thought that someone would have afforded them the same courtesy and give them a tip off. Or they just thought that nothing would be done to investigate the station further.
As to what the items were being stored for I am not sure but there are several options. The civilian view is that the police officers stored the items with the intention of passing it on to criminal elements in society. This is frightening to say the least. Imagine that they taking away guns from one set of criminals and passing it out to a different set of criminals. The second set being their friends so even more invincible than the first set. Frightening to say the least.
The Police perspective is different. There are some who believe that the Police when seizing arms, ammunition and narcotics do not report the full amount seized. This is because many times the person found with the items is not the actual owner but simply a petty transporter. However when searches are carried out on the known “big men in the business” nothing is ever found. The Police officers frustrated by this have to find crafty ways to hold the known perpetrators. So they use the unreported guns, ammunitions and narcotics found in previous raids to pin on “known” criminals to charge them. This would explain why they did not remove the items when they realized that the station was being monitored. While noble, this sort of vigilante justice is scary, because we have all heard the story of somebody son who was held with a small amount of weed, probably for personal use and when he get charge the amount mysteriously increased. So, where does the vigilante just stop? While I admire the fact that the police try their best to work with the system that they have but this leave the window open for abuse of power. Additionally it is hard for a police officer to charge a criminal and then to go before a magistrate to be released shortly thereafter.
The police service gossip behind the items found in the station was that a member of the Criminal Investigation Department which was the unit in the St. Joseph police station that was raided sold out the unit to the Anti Corruption Bureau. So it makes me wonder if that man had not gotten bad feeling about his co-workers this thing would not have been investigated because it seems to be the norm. Who knows if this gossip is true? But it does offer an alternative theory.
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