Licences

My interest was piqued this morning when I heard on the news that two young men had been arrested for conducting a business without a licence.  There was no information released on the facts in this matter.  I have no knowledge of the special circumstances affecting the men or their business.  What I say here is not intended to advise anyone or their advisers.  If you have any doubt whether you are required to obtain a business licence to cover some activity that you do in Anguilla, you should obtain appropriate legal advice, and not rely on what I am about to say here. 

I have previously written on this issue, as you can read by checking my earlier post of 29 January 2008.  The bottom line of that post was that the law of Anguilla does not require every business conducted in Anguilla to be licensed.  The law only requires “places of business” where specified businesses are conducted to be licensed.  This is what the law says:

Obligation to obtain licence to carry on certain trades, businesses, occupations and professions

3. Every person carrying on any trade, business, occupation or profession set out in the Schedule shall take out an annual licence in accordance with the provisions of this Act in respect of each premises or place where such trade, business, occupation or profession is carried on, and shall only carry on such trade, business, occupation or profession from such premises or place.

The meaning of the words in the section is clear.  If you have a place of business at which you do one of the businesses set out in the Schedule to the Act, then you are required to obtain a licence in respect of the place in question.  The Act does not say words to the effect that “no business shall be carried out in Anguilla without a licence”.  The words above cannot be stretched to bear this meaning.  

A ‘place of business’ is not defined under the law.  However, the meaning of the words is clear enough.  A place is a spot, a space on the ground, a location.  The businesses that are required to be licensed are listed in the Schedule to the Act. 

A place of business is by implication a place dedicated to doing business, a place to which you invite members of the public to do business with you.  If you do your business of designing Christmas and greeting cards on the computer in your bedroom, your bedroom does not become a ‘place of business’.

If you conduct your business from three different locations, then you are required to obtain three different licences. 

If you have a licensed business place, then you must carry out your business from there.  You cannot have a licensed shop, and then open an unlicensed branch and claim that your licence covers that unlicensed branch.

If however, your business is of a type that does not require any contact in person with members of the public, and you in fact have no contact with the public at a particular place of your own, then it is clear that the words of the Act do not apply to you. 

If you conduct your business from your home, or from a pay phone, or from the computers in the public library, ie, if your business is of a type that does not require a dedicated ‘place’ of business, then the Act does not require you to have a licence to conduct your business. 

If I conduct my business in private, without inviting members of the public to come to my residence, then the Act does not apply to me.

Let us take a few practical examples.  The Schedule lists these occupations:

32. Consultant/Arbitrator ............................................................................................... 1500.00

57. Hairdresser ................................................................................................................. 600.00

66. International Trader .................................................................................................. 1500.00

       Each of these occupations can be carried out at a place of business as defined above.  The places where I carry out the business would need to be licensed.  Equally, they could be carried out without a place of business.  I would not need a licence then to carry out the business.

A consultant who lives in Anguilla and is consulted on the telephone or in the homes or businesses of her clients is not required to be licensed.  The St Kitts consultant engineer or attorney at law who flies in to Anguilla to do a particular job for a client, is not required to take out a licence in respect of his hotel room.

A hairdresser who visits clients at their homes or hotel rooms is not covered by the wording of the Act. 

An international trader who uses her computer at home or at the Library and who does not have a ‘place of business’ is not compelled by the Act to have a place of business, and is not required to have a business licence.

A heavy-equipment operator who keeps his equipment near his home, and takes contracts to do work on different construction sites from time to time has no place of business, and is not required to take out a licence.

I hope the police arrested the right persons.  Otherwise they could be in trouble under the law.  Mind you, remember to take advice from your attorney before acting on what I have written here.

Search Warrants

What is the proper response of a Justice of the Peace in Anguilla who is asked to issue a search warrant?  We all heard recently about a search warrant executed by the police.  The warrant had been issued by a Justice of the Peace, or JP.  The JP in question is no ordinary one.  He is the Rt Rev Errol Brooks OBE Bishop of the Diocese of the Northeastern Caribbean and Aruba.  The warrant had been sought by the police to search the offices of a young attorney.  They said she had appeared in court representing a person charged with fraud.  She is no ordinary young attorney.  She is one with a spotless record.  More to the point, she is a candidate in the upcoming general elections.  These are all issues that cried out for the application in question to be treated with strict regard to the law governing the issuing of search warrants. 

 The issuing of a warrant to search someone’s home or office is not a task lightly to be executed.  It is not a mere administrative task, to be routinely performed.  The issuing of a search warrant is a quasi-judicial function, to be performed based on the evidence presented to the Magistrate or other judicial officer.  Such a warrant includes power to enter the premises, by force, and breaking doors, if necessary, and to search the same for files, correspondence, computers, cellular telephones, flash drives, fixed and external hard drives, and to seize such items and bring them in due course before the Magistrate.  Such an application in relation to any professional such as a certified accountant, a physician or a lawyer, becomes a particularly sensitive matter.  The private and confidential affairs of possibly hundreds of innocent clients will be exposed to unauthorized eyes, and no one knows what use will be made of the information.  Such a step is clearly open to abuse.

The real reason why the police are not permitted to search a home or office without a warrant is to interpose the protection of a judicial decision between the citizen and the police.  All jurisdictions with the rule of law put constraints on the powers of police investigators.  They may not invade a home or office unless they obtain a search warrant, save where the officer is in ‘hot pursuit’.  It is a basic line of defence of the citizen against arbitrary search and seizure that such a warrant be first obtained.  Otherwise, we should all be subject to home invasion by the armed wing of the State on the slightest suspicion. 

As every first year law student learns, such a quasi-judicial function is to be performed only on the judicial officer being satisfied that the prescribed circumstances exist.  Our liberty depends on the independent scrutiny of the judiciary to protect the citizen against the excesses which would inevitably flow from allowing an executive officer to decide for himself whether the conditions under which he is permitted to enter upon private property have been met.  That is why an application for a search warrant must be accompanied by an affidavit setting out the evidence available and the grounds for the officer’s belief that further evidence is likely to be obtained as a result of the search.  Only a trained lawyer, familiar with the laws of evidence and the intricacies of criminal procedure, is likely to be able properly to perform this serious function.  No lay JP, even one as eminent as a Bishop, is qualified to issue such a warrant.  Such a warrant would only be granted by a qualified Magistrate if he or she was first satisfied that there was adequate evidence and grounds for suspicion.  This basic protection of the citizen must not be permitted to be trampled by the unnecessary use of a lay JP to avoid  the investigator having to go before a qualified Magistrate and to satisfy him that the test has been met.

So, the question becomes, how is a non-legal Justice of the Peace in Anguilla properly supposed to react when a police officer comes to him or her, in the middle of a political campaign, just before general elections, when there are two qualified acting Magistrates who could easily have been approached, and the lay JP is requested to issue a search warrant to search a professional person’s office and/or home, especially when that person is a candidate for election to the House of Assembly?  

 In my submission, the only proper thing for him to respond is, “There are two qualified Magistrates in Anguilla at this time.  You are asking me to do something that is going to have very serious consequences for the reputation and future career of a young professional.  There will be serious implications for the political campaign of this candidate for election to the House of Assembly.  You must be crazy if you think I am going to just sign and issue the Warrant without knowing what I am doing.  Leave my office immediately!”

For the future guidance of all non-lawyer JPs in Anguilla, that would be the only proper reaction to such a request.

Election bribes

Is it an offence for a political party to fly in voters from the USA, Europe and the Caribbean to vote in Anguilla’s upcoming elections?  A lawyer’s answer might be that it is not an offence if such generosity is not caught by section 73 of the Elections Act.  You can read the section for yourself, and be the judge.  The relevant part of section 73 reads:

Bribery

73. (1) The following persons are guilty of bribery within the meaning of this Act

(a) every person who, directly or indirectly, by himself or by any other person on his behalf, gives, lends, or agrees to give or lend, or offers, promises, or promises to procure or to endeavour to procure any money or valuable consideration to or for any voter, or to or for any person on behalf of any voter, or to or for any other person in order lo induce any voter to vote or refrain from voting, or corruptly does any of those acts on account of any voter having voted or refrained from voting at any election;

(b) every person who, directly or indirectly, by himself or by any other person on his behalf, gives or procures, or agrees to give or to procure, or offers, promises, or promises to procure or to endeavour to procure, any office, place or employment to or for any voter, or to or for any person on behalf of any voter, or to or for any other person in order to induce the voter to vote or refrain from voting, or corruptly does any of those acts on account of any voter having voted or refrained from voting at any election; . . .

Paragraphs (a) and (b) set out the two most important bribery offences for the purpose of elections.  There are several other more specialised forms of bribery, but we need not look at them here.  The two main offences under section 73 are the paying or promising to pay any money or other valuable consideration to any person to induce any person to vote for a particular candidate, or to refrain from voting for any particular candidate.  That would clearly include a gift of cash, or a fridge, or a TV set.  Any person who is offered any cash or other gift to secure his or her vote should make a report to a senior police officer, and to his candidate.  Any person who knows of any bribe that has been given to any other person to induce them to vote a particular way, has a legal duty to report that situation to a senior police officer. 

This corrupt transaction happens routinely in every Anguillian general election.  We all wink knowingly at each other and discuss the various truck loads of building material and household equipment that is alleged to be supplied by some candidates in order to induce their constituents to vote for them on election day.  This is bribery, and it should be reported to the police and to your candidate when you have evidence of it happening.

A gift of an airfare is no different to the gift of a fridge.  We all know of cases where it has been alleged that certain politicians pay the airfare for their supporters living in other countries to come home for a holiday at election time and to vote for them.  This paying of airfare is bribery under section 73 of the Act, as it amounts to the prohibited “any other valuable consideration” given in order to induce the voter to vote a certain way. 

Where there is any evidence that airfares have been paid by a political party for persons to return to Anguilla to vote, it should be reported to a senior police officer.  Report it as well to your candidate, so that he or she can not only begin to prepare an election petition in case the election is stolen, but also for the purpose of getting on the back of the police to ensure that they do an investigation and bring any necessary prosecution.

            Paragraph (b) deals with the bribe of offering to get a job, or place of employment, for any voter in order to induce the voter to vote or to refrain from voting in a particular way.  Any campaigner who makes such a promise, or pays such a bribe on behalf of the candidate, makes the candidate liable if the court is satisfied that the candidate knew about it. 

If you have information of any of these offences being committed, report it to a senior police officer and to your candidate.  The penalty for bribery is a fine of $19,200.00 or a term of imprisonment of 6 months.  Additionally, any person convicted of bribery is disqualified from being registered as a voter or as a candidate for elections for a period of 7 years.  If a candidate is convicted for bribery after he has been elected, he loses his seat and cannot stand in elections again for 7 years.

Phishing

The email was so
realistic, with the cute little logo and all.  It invited me to click on a link to update my
information “as part of our continuous effort in protecting your account.  I have seen dozens of these over the past
several years.  I can only hope that no
customer of National Bank of Anguilla is taken
in by the scam.  It helped that the usual
mis-typings and mis-spellings expected of these scams were present.  I immediately forwarded a copy of the email
to Val, Roy and Ian at NBA suggesting they get an urgent notice to the police
and the public using all media.

Dear Valued Customer, It has come to our attention that your NBA Online profile needs to be updated as part of our continuous effort in protecting your account  and reducing instances of fraud on our website. This is being done to secure your accounts and to protect your personal informations from being compromised.We at National Bank of Anguilla Online are committed in making sure that your online transactions are secure. Click on the link below to start the verification process and re-confirm your account https://www.nba-online/_mem_bin/formslogin.asp Once your information has been updated and confirmed your online service would continue as usual and would not be interrupted Sincerely, National Bank of Anguilla Customer Service

Wikipedia explains
that in the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally
fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as
usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy
entity in an electronic communication.  Communications
purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment
processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting
public.  Phishing is typically carried
out by e-mail or instant messaging, and it often directs users to enter details
at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate
one. Even when using server authentication, it may require tremendous skill to
detect that the website is fake.  Phishing is an example of social engineering
techniques used to fool users, and exploits the poor usability of current web
security technologies.  Attempts to deal
with the growing number of reported phishing incidents include legislation,
user training, public awareness, and technical security measures.

A phishing technique was
described in detail in 1987, and the first recorded use of the term
"phishing" was made in 1996. The term is a variant of fishing,
probably influenced by phreaking or password harvesting fishing,
and alludes to baits used to "catch" financial information and
passwords.

The main thing we
have all been taught is DON’T CLICK ON THE LINK.  If you check out the ACTUAL address for the
link you will find it takes you to a site that looks exactly like NBA but it is
actually http://thomaspaulpillow.com/main.html.  Once you sign onto your account, they have your logon info.  If
you already signed on, better check with the bank or put a hold on your
account.

Hopefully, no one in Anguilla who received this, and I am sure I am not the
only one, was tricked.

Caning

Corporal punishment is purely pragmatic.  It is intended to make the cost of law-breaking exceed the benefits.  Modern punishments for children and for adults reinforce the notion that there is no punishment that will deter a determined offender.  In today’s Anguilla following the rules is a matter of choice, and is the norm only for very well brought up persons.  Hooligans have the option to ignore the rules.  There are no consequences of any significance.

When I was a school boy, caning day involved the entire school body assembling to witness the canings that were to be delivered in public.  Our school children were mischievous as ever.  But, we were safer than today.  Violent boys met a violent punishment.  Violent adults were the exception, not the norm.

By contrast today, when the sissifyication of education is almost complete, disorder in school has become the norm.  There are no consequences for the use by children of obscene or disrespectful language.  Teaching is often impossible.  Teachers hide in the common room, afraid to confront violent and uncontrollable kids.  Some even side with a disorderly child, particularly if he has a belligerent parent.  A teacher using force to stop an assault is likely to be interviewed by the police, and punished for having employed unauthorized corporal punishment. 

Singapore does not have a problem with indiscipline in school.  What follows is a video of a school boy being punished for breaking the rules.

I don’t think either he or any of the other students were likely to treat breaking rules lightly.  For a few weeks at least, until the memory wore off.

Singapore does not have a problem with drunk driving.  What follows is the punishment that was awarded to one first offender.  Not everyone will have the stomach to see it through to the end.

I shudder to think what the punishment could be for a second offence.  I suppose that is the point.  There is never any second offence.  And, the cost to the tax payer of such a penal system is little or nothing.

The pros and cons of corporal punishment for adults have been debated for years. 

All in all, I think the pros win.  Imprisonment is the barbaric, dehumanising and counterproductive punishment.

I advocate corporal punishment in school and in the court system as an alternative.

Incarceration

The Governor alerted us to this statistic at his press conference earlier this week.  Anguilla has one of the highest rates of imprisonment in the world.  The eighth edition of the World Prison Population List has been published.  It gives details of the number of prisoners held in 218 independent countries and Overseas Territories.  It shows the differences in the level of imprisonment in those countries.  It makes it possible for us to compare how many persons per hundred thousand each one of these countries makes a habit of incarcerating.  These are the highlights:

A little research reveals that in the USA in FY 2001, the average operating cost to incarcerate one inmate in the Federal Bureau of Prisons system was US$22,632.  That is more than it cost the US taxpayer to send the same person to college.  It has been estimated that in Pennsylvania the average prisoner cost the taxpayer US$33,615 a year.  For about US$18,000 he could have got a college education.  For about $25,000 he could be followed around on the street by a parole agent, one on one.  Are the comparisons likely to be any different for Anguilla?

In Britain in 2007 the estimated annual cost of imprisonment was 37,500 pounds sterling.  A family of five, I believe, could be kept on that sum.

Curiously, the death penalty is the most expensive punishment there is.  In the US, a recent study found that the median death penalty case costs US$1.26 million.  By comparison, non-death penalty cases (to end of incarceration) costs a mean of $740,000. 

Does anyone know what the figures are for the average operating cost to incarcerate one inmate in the Anguilla prison?  The cost of the prison service is in the Budget.  Anyone with a copy of the budget or the estimates should be able to tell us.  First, find out the number of prisoners in Anguilla at any given time this year, then take the average.  The result will be more or less accurate for the entire year.

Which makes us recall that it was the Quakers who promoted the warehousing of prisoners in penitentiaries as an alternative to corporal punishment.  They also believe that when you are attacked you should not attempt to defend yourself but should turn the other cheek.  So, who wants to be a Quaker?

Despite poverty, Islamic countries maintain a very low crime rate thanks to a variety of corporal punishments.  A man makes a habit of stealing?  Off with his hand!  Another makes a habit of raping?  Off with his penis!  What does it cost Yemen or Saudi Arabia?  One hour of one surgeon’s time?

I am reminded that this is a moment of severe economic crisis.  Hint, hint…

Parents

Why parents must be held more accountable and responsible. I was talking to the unmarried father of an 8 year old boy recently. He has a problem with the mother of his child. Every time he brings the child back to the mother after he has spent the weekend with him, the mother locks the child out of the house. She refuses to let him back in the house until he cries and begs to her satisfaction. She screams abuse at the child constantly. He has tried to get the Department of Social Development to help him, but there is nothing they can do under our present legal system. There is nothing the police or the court can do. There is no legal remedy. The mother has all the ‘rights’ and the father only has ‘obligations’. His concern is that the lack of love and affection is going to turn his child into a criminal one of these days. He is so right.

The present serious juvenile crime situation in Anguilla is a social phenomenon, not entirely susceptible to legal solutions. Only the parents can solve the nub or nut of the problem. The sad thing is that so many of our parents are themselves the product of broken and abusive homes. All they can do is to repeat the cycle of domestic abuse and neglect. It is human nature to do so. It is also an aspect of culture and education. When so many mothers and fathers have been educated to bring up anti-social children, why are we surprised when they so often succeed?

That is why some social reformers advocate holding parents responsible. We need to put more pressure on parents to perform their parenting role. It should be backed up with educational programmes on how to be a good father and good mother. It always amazes me how many parents do not begin to understand how destructive their example and behaviour is. Then, when we point the finger at them, they respond by saying it is unfair. No, it is not unfair.

If a mother or father persistently permits their child to be a truant from school, that ought to be a crime on the part of the parent.

If a mother or father persistently permits their child to mix with gangsters, that ought to be a crime on the part of the parent.

If a mother or father persistently permits their child to bear arms and offensive weapons in the home, that ought to be a crime on the part of the parent.

The object is not to punish the parent. The object is to convince the parent that he or she needs to do more to monitor and supervise the behaviour and acquaintances of their child.

The result will not be a flooding of our jail with delinquent parents. The Magistrate will make an example of one or two, and suddenly attitudes will change.

It is not the fine or the jail that is the wake up call. It is being brought before the court and named and shamed that is the effective part of prosecuting a social crime. We have to face reality as a society and take active steps to break the cycle of child abuse and negligent parenting.

Of course, if we were rich like the Americans or the British, we could try doing like them and throwing lots of money at the problem. I don't see that working for them, and we certainly can’t make that a solution here.

Just my thoughts, while I thank God every day that I am not a parent myself.

Measures

Weights & Measures. Why is there no government officer in Anguilla charged with checking annually the weights and measures used by merchants on this island? I know that the Weights and Measures Act says that there should be Inspectors of Weights and Measures who are supposed annually to go around and check on these matters. There is one, and sometimes several, in each other island of the West Indies. We must be the only one where the consumer is so blatantly exposed to short changing and overcharging.

I challenge anyone in government to show that any inspector has actually been appointed and trained to perform the statutory duties. The Act says that the inspector is an officer in the Accountant-General’s office. I emailed our Accountant-General and asked her if any had ever been appointed in Anguilla to her knowledge. As the Deputy-Governor is in charge of public service appointments, I asked him as well. Needless to say, neither has responded to my enquiry.

Take one of those little red one-gallon gasoline canisters sold at all the hardware stores in Anguilla. They are made in the USA, and I would expect they measure 1 US gallon. They state they can hold 1 gallon, 4 fluid ounces. One gallon would be up to the “safe” full mark. The extra four ounces, I expect, would be if you fill it up to overflowing.

One US gallon is 128 US fluid ounces. One Imperial gallon is 153.7 US fluid ounces. The gas stations of Anguilla are obliged by the Weights and Measures Act to sell gasoline by the Imperial gallon. If they are doing so, and if you fill one of those little made-in-the-USA red canisters, you should get considerably less, nearly 20% less, than one Imperial gallon in it.

One of my correspondents conducted a little experiment. He went to three of the seven gas stations on the island. He filled his canister, paid for it, and emptied the contents into his car. He went to the next gas station and repeated the process. Each time he filled up the canister he checked the amount of gasoline alleged to have been sold to him. It should have been approximately .8 to .9 of a gallon in each case. He made a note of how much gasoline the machine said he purchased. He tells me that he found that each of the three gasoline dispensers stated that he had bought more than one gallon. One stated that he had purchased as much as 1.4 gallons, another 1.2 gallons. Needless to say, that is what he was charged for. None of the three gas stations recorded or charged for the correct volume dispensed.

It is conceivable that some of the gas stations on Anguilla have begun to use the US gallon instead of the Imperial gallon. But, that is unlikely for two reasons. One, it is against the law. Two, these things are standardized. In any event, why would one gasoline dispenser state that he had purchased 1.4 gallons, while another stated 1.2 gallons?

The results are sufficient to indicate to me that there are no standard measurements enforced in the sale of gasoline in Anguilla. That is what the Inspector of Weights and Measures is supposed to be checking on for our protection.

In the case of the gas station falsely claiming payment for 1.4 gallons for filling the gas canister, in particular, the proprietor should be prosecuted and his licence taken away from him. But, we need to have a properly trained inspector appointed first.

With our complete indifference in Anguilla to the need to hold to proper standards, and our cow-boy attitude to the sale of goods and services generally, in my opinion the Anguillian consumer must be one of the most exploited in the West Indies.

Related links: Sale of goods

Cops & Robbers

Is our police force up to scratch for the task? Things in Anguilla on the criminal front are bad so far as our tourist industry is concerned. Really bad. From what I am hearing, they are about to get worse. And, I am not sure our police are up to it. I am not saying they are keystone cops. But, some of our citizens are mad as hell at them.

And, let me not be misunderstood. There are some very good police officers. Unfortunately, they are overwhelmed by the numbers of lazy officers among them, and the total lack of leadership at the top.

I am sure we have all heard by now about the two and a half hour conference the police had with members of the much victimised restauranteurs last Wednesday. The meeting was chaired by Police Commissioner Keithley Benjamin. He answered all the questions. Supts Rudolph Proctor and Illidge Richardson had little or nothing to say. I'm told it was all classic Keithley. The body language signified everything. Keithley is hard to understand at the best of times, as he speaks in a muffled, tight-arsed style. On this occasion, he did nothing to make it easy for his audience to understand, far less take confidence in, his mind-numbing platitudes and assurances. For the entire duration of the meeting, he spoke with his elbows resting on the table, and his hands clasped together – in front of his mouth. He generally avoided eye-contact, making sure he was speaking only to his notes on the table in front of him. Several people had to ask him to speak up, all to no purpose. Even with straining to hear, few could understand what he was talking about.

Someone tells me that this type of body language indicates one of two things. Either you lack confidence in the truth of what you are saying. Or, it indicates the speaker's irritation at having been ordered to a meeting that he did not wish to attend.

Keithley referred to the three successful violent restaurant robberies, and the one attempted but repulsed, that have taken place in recent weeks. He suspects there may be a total of eight different individuals involved.

The Minister of Tourism, the Hon Victor Banks', main contribution was to urge restauranteurs not to arm themselves and act like Anguilla is the Wild West. Good advice, if the police can come up with a strategy to protect our restaurants. They are the only businesses likely to be carrying home large wads of cash late in the evening, and must be prime targets for villains of the night. If anyone in Anguilla deserves to be armed for protection, it is restaurant managers carrying home cash late at night. If it was me carrying the cash, I would not exit my restaurant late at night except with a gun in my hand.

A cellphone was found in the vicinity of the Barrel Stay, and one person is in custody over this incident. What he did not say is that it was civilians who discovered the evidence. They had to practically push the police, who responded to the report, out onto the beach to examine the foot prints in the sand.

Both Barrel Stay and Veya victims complained at the meeting that no written statements had been taken from them. They do not know what is happening with the investigation. Police took several hours in each case to examine the crime scene.

Pump House's Gabi was so upset at something that she walked out of the meeting. I must ask her what she was so mad about. I suspect that, as usual, no one in the police force has been in touch with her since the day of the robbery, and she feels frustrated and betrayed.

One classic Keithleyism was his, ”You do not like us, and you don’t believe in us, but we are still serving you!” All the time looking down at his notes, and refusing to look anyone in the face. Well, thanks, I say.

Another, when Keithley was asked if a murder had to happen before things change, was his response, “Well, then, we shall have to find the perpetrator.” I understand this pearl of wisdom had the room stunned for a moment. One or two got up and left. They all should have left the room.

Mango Dave was not reported to me to be present. Maybe he was still in the States. It would be useful to learn what his experience with our Royal police has been like since his robbery.

No update on the gun-toting robbers at Caprice Restaurant. But, no update is ever given to victims. That was one of the problems highlighted.

And, now the Koal Keel has been broken into and burglarized. The security guard is reported to have slept through the whole incident. But this is probably an exaggeration.

The one conclusion that everyone came away from the meeting with was that the police have no plan for dealing with the recent upsurge in gun-carrying, machete-wielding thugs. Victim complaints are all to the same effect. Police response time to crimes in progress stinks. Telephone calls are never returned. Written statements are seldom taken. Crime scene evidence is looked for days after the incident, when the crime scene has long been messed up.

All in all, the séance was standard bull-s+++. “Just permit the restaurant owners to let off steam, and then we can go back to business as usual”, must have been the plan.

Or, so I'm told. Maybe some of the participants can correct this impression if I have been misled.

Isn't there a Brinks equivalent who can visit all the restaurants in the island before closing up time with an armed guard and pick up bags of cash and deliver the bags to the banks for a fee? It would only take two vehicles to go out every night. One for the west and one for the east. Zaras is in a lonely spot, and I am sure Shamash's comfort level would increase. I know that most tourists do not bring cash to the island. Most of them use credit cards or travellers' cheques. But, the bandits do not seem to realise this.

As for the suggestion raised at the meeting that the security guards be armed, I recall during Hurricane Omar a sailboat washed up at Sherricks Bay at 3:00 in the morning. The owner sought refuge at one of the damaged villas at Cove Castles until it died down. He returned to his boat at 6:30 and found one of the security guards and another person at his boat “checking to make sure no one was hurt”. Later, examining the contents, he found his camera, video cam, binoculars, radio and gps missing. He confronted the guard, who got really indignant and walked away. He called the police and filed a report of the theft. You know the rest of the story. End of story.

Good luck with arming security guards!

Magistrates

Why do Magistrates have to be very careful about police evidence? Police officers are only human. They can lose their tempers just as quickly as you or me. They too can become berserk when that rush of adrenalin meets a low-sugar blood level. That is why no Magistrate worth his or her salt would believe police evidence that an accused youth “assaulted a police officer in the execution of his duty”, or “obstructed a police officer in the execution of his duty”, or even, “used indecent language to a police officer” without independent corroborating evidence. I have no statistical evidence to rely on. But, I would say from my own reading, listening and studying, that probably a full fifty percent of such accusations, when there is no independent corroborating evidence, is falsely concocted to cover up wrongful arrests.

It happens in every country, including the USA and in the UK. The video below is a report on a shocking case from the UK. A war hero, out drinking with friends, was mistaken by police for a person who had been reported as being unruly. They saw he had had too much to drink. They assumed that he was the culprit. They rushed him, flung him to the ground, and savagely beat him up when he struggled. All of it was caught on camera. The Magistrates still convicted him of the charges brought against him by the police. It took an appeal for him to be cleared of the false charges. Meanwhile, Lance Corporal Mark Aspinall lost any chance of getting a job, and his life has been ruined.

In the UK, there is an independent Police Complaints Commission. They investigate complaints from the public about misbehaviour on the part of the police. The Commission is swift to report when they find wrongdoing. Police officers can be severely reprimanded, or worse. Yet, despite knowing this, UK police officers still sometimes make the kind of mistake they made in relation to Aspinall.

What chance do members of the Anguillian public have of getting justice when we are mistreated by the police? We have no independent oversight of our police whatsoever. You can try complaining to the Commissioner of Police, or even to the Governor. See what response you get! You will be received politely enough. You will get every assurance that the complaint will be investigated. But, nothing ever comes of it. Not a single police officer to my knowledge has ever been reprimanded, far less prosecuted and punished, for committing any kind of offence in Anguilla. No apology has ever been made to a victim of police misconduct. Charges are dealt with “administratively”. The offending officer is asked to retire or resign quietly in return for the matter being hushed up. The offences that police officers have allegedly committed in Anguilla during my time have ranged from being the cause of persons dying in the police cells to shoplifting and other assorted crimes. Just five years ago, it was common gossip that only certain police officers were permitted to sell cocaine at Johnnos. I have stopped investigating cocaine distribution in Anguilla since I learned how widespread it is, and how dangerous it can be to become too interested in the personalities involved.

Let us hope that Aspinall is properly compensated for the brutal treatment he received.

We cannot be sure that our Anguillian Magistrates will see through fabricated police concoctions of evidence when they occur.

The new Constitution must give Anguillians some sure recourse from this kind of abuse taking place in the future.

By the way, does anyone know when we are going to be shown the “new” draft constitution the Ministers have been deciding on behind our backs? The one that the British are going to be told we have all agreed to?