The UDP sent out an official release today demanding that Home Affairs Minister Ralph Fonseca speak to the nation about what the opposition calls a “dramatic surge in violent crime and the careless miscarriage of justice.” That so called “careless miscarriage” refers to the disappearance of the Chayben Abou-Nehra caution statement from the case file – a slip-up that the DPP puts squarely at the doorstep of the police.
Well the Minister of Home Affairs spoke alright but didn’t say anything that the Opposition wants to hear. A release from the Home Affairs Minister says that the UDP leader’s call is, “irresponsible, despicable and reckless.” It continues on in that vein for about...say another 500 words or so, concluding that,“ this Minister of Police has never gotten involved in any police case.”
And while the release fumes, froths and fulminates impressively, it does not address, even glancingly, the matter at hand: which is how the caution statement went missing from the file and who may be responsible. And that’s pretty much in line with the Police Department’s stated position which is that it does not want to, or have to and by implication does not have to get into a back and forth with the DPP’s office or anyone else for that matter about the missing statement.
