And one other matter we had to dig the Commissioner on just a little was the fact that his old law school buddy has scored what he feels is an interim success with his PC Alicia Trapp lawsuit. Commissioner Williams had said it would never fly, but now, government has retained outside counsel to defend it in what appears to be a significant case.
We asked the Compol to comment:
Jules Vasquez
"Has very proudly noted that they had to bring senior counsel to fight this Alicia Trapp lawsuit. You said that he couldn't even go to the supreme court. The man di mek you look bad, sir."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"He is not making me look bad. At the end of the day his comments would come across to me as he is now trembling in his pants. He is afraid of Marshalleck. He brought the lawsuit; we will defend it. Simple as that."
Jules Vasquez
"But sir, you had said that it was a frivolous matter. Obviously, people in the Attorney General's Ministry think it's serious enough for them to retain outside counsel and senior counsel at that at great cost."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Well, I don't know if it comes at great cost. That I don't know and I can tell you it is not at great cost. But again, that's a view that you may have. But let me say that I still maintain the fact that the position we took is the right one. certainly, we don't want to have a precedence being established where police officers, BDF and Coast Guard are being treated the same way as the ordinary civilian, because it certainly is going to erode discipline within the different forces and once discipline is erode within the forces, you know who is going to pay the price for that right, the citizens that we serve. We cannot have a system where the court is to say to the police or the military that a police officer on actual duty can go out and campaign for a political party or a police officer can insult or assault anybody within impunity. It cannot be."
