Says CG Walwyn is playing a political role
CHARLESTOWN, Nevis – COMMENTING on a number of statements Celvin ‘CG’ Walwyn made during an interview with WINN FM’s Toni Fredericks, Nevis’ Deputy Premier Hon. Mark Brantley said the Federation’s Top Cop does not understand the customary function of a Commissioner of Police but, rather, playing a political role.
He also accused the Commissioner of being responsible for the increase in violent crimes on Nevis.
Brantley was at the time (Oct. 8) hosting his weekly talk show programme ‘On The Mark’ at Von Radio in Nevis.
He played a clip in which the Commissioner of Police was asked to comment why he believed Nevis had been experiencing a spike in gun-related crimes.
In response, the Commissioner said: “When you squeeze a balloon at one end it pops out on the other end. We had the Delta Squad in St. Kitts along with the SSU and the Drug Squad. We had the high visibility patrols in St. Kitts and the bad guys felt uncomfortable in Basseterre and they started moving out.”
He continued: “We provide the same training to Nevis. I can show you a document that I wrote two and a half years ago in Nevis, telling the officers in Nevis that they need to be doing the same things that we're doing in St. Kitts. You have to get out the police station and get on the street. I had to go to Nevis as the Commissioner and patrol the streets in Nevis with the officers to show them if you're not out there things are going to happen. What I found when I went to Nevis is that at 10 o'clock at nights the stations were closing and the officers were going to bed, but they have police cars, they don't want to ride in the car by theirself, so they shut the doors and the crooks go to work at night.”
Also on the clip, the Commissioner said the Nevis Command did not meet his expectations and he is preparing to make changes in the command structure on that island.
He also stated that he has roots in the Federation through his great grandparents and grandparents and that “I am related to at least two people in Unity”.
Commenting on the Commissioner’s statements, Brantley said: “He was imported from America. He claims to have Kittitian and Nevisian roots but he does not live here and has not lived here in a long time. He came in...he was given the job of Top Cop. I’m told his contract has just been renewed for another three years...But, the Commissioner, I have said time and time again to him privately and publicly that he seems to misunderstand his role. He seems to feel that he is Mark Brantley or Vance Amory or Denzil Douglas or Timothy Harris. We are politicians. He, on the other hand, is a public servant and one of critical importance; one who must at all times command the confidence not just of the political directorate but, more importantly, of the public. Yet he continues to make utterances which are so obviously, transparently and clearly political, that one wonders: ‘CG, what really are you trying to do? What is it you are trying to achieve?’”
Brantley suggested that his attack on the Commissioner’s role was premised on the statement he made about two of his relatives.
“Why the Commissioner would feel the need to say to the media that he has cousins in Unity is rather interesting! He didn’t say he has cousins in Labour, NRP, but he has cousins in Unity. I keep saying that the Commissioner, if you listen to him long enough you will recognise that while he is talking the talk about law enforcement, he is really playing a political role.”
Addressing the analogy of squeezing the balloon, the Deputy Leader of Team Unity insinuated that the Top Cop is the one who is responsible for the upsurge in violent crimes on Nevis.
“...Now, mark you, I started out before I played it [the clip] I said he is the Commissioner of St. Kitts and Nevis. He said if you squeeze a balloon the air will flow from one part to the next. He said the bad guys felt uncomfortable in Basseterre. So where did the bad guys leave to? They headed to Nevis. And hearing it from the Commissioner, it is his own confession! Doesn’t need me...from his own lips he has condemned himself, because he has basically confessed to that clip to creating a situation where he has squeezed the balloon and the bad guys, to use his words, felt uncomfortable in Basseterre. So what happened to Charlestown?
“Everybody is around talking about crime in Nevis, but people are not looking and seeing the deliberate efforts being taken by some to create in Nevis a situation of instability, which is then used by some to point at this new government that somehow we are not doing what we are supposed to be doing. Bear in mind that the Minister with responsibility for Security is the Prime Minister. He is the Minister of National Security.”
In disagreement with the Commissioner’s statement about officers on Nevis not going out on patrols with the “police cars” that they have, Brantley said the last time that the Federal Government had given a vehicle to the Nevis Division was in 2000, noting that vehicles to the Division were provided through the generosity of the private sector, including himself.
He is also of the view that security in Nevis has been abandoned and stressed that the Nevis Division does not possess the resources that are available to Officers and Ranks in St. Kitts.
“I said at the outset that the security of Nevis has been abandoned. The Commissioner has confirmed that for me. Hear what the Commissioner said in that statement: ‘He said St. Kitts has Delta, they have SSU over there, they have a Drug Squad, they have a Robbery Squad. They also have the Army based in St. Kitts which can provide manpower when necessary. They have the Coast Guard based in St. Kitts, which can patrol and provide manpower along the seafront and points of entry. They have the Customs over there.’ Yes, they have Customs in Nevis too but the Customs in St. Kitts is equipped with canine. I was at the airport talking to a Customs Officer, who said to me that they have something like nine Canine Units in Customs in St. Kitts...not one in Nevis.”
In further comments on the balloon analogy, Brantley inferred that when criminals find that a particular place would impede their nefarious activities, they would seek another that has weak security.
“If you are a criminal and you come to understand that Customs in St. Kitts has nine Canine Units, who can sniff your gun and your drugs and all the contraband, but none in Nevis as a deliberate policy...left wide open, where are you going to bring in your guns and your drugs and your contraband?”
He answered that question by saying, “To the point and port of least resistance. And you are going to tell me this is not deliberate ladies and gentlemen, that the security of Nevis is not being compromised in some petty, narrow myopic political interest to say you are making the Government in Nevis look bad.”
He continued: “You tell me, anybody sitting down and planning an overall security for the nation of St. Kitts and Nevis and they could pour all the resources into St. Kitts, none in Nevis, to the point where the Top Cop himself is on record saying he squeezed the balloon and all the air gone Nevis. The bad boys feel uncomfortable in Basseterre so they rushing into Nevis and he has no difficulty saying that, and admitting by his own mouth is failure as a matter of policy.”
The Deputy Premier reiterated that while St. Kitts has a large number of resources to fight crime, Nevis has been abandoned. “But every time something happens in Nevis they jump on the political platform in St. Kitts, they jump on the radio in St. Kitts and they start to blame and say the government in Nevis is not dealing with crime.
In recent times, Commissioner Walwyn was at the receiving end of many criticisms from members of the public and the legal fraternity, who are displeased with his methodology pertaining to suspects in custody.
Rumours have also circulated about tensions within the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force over his management style, but, in response, the Top Cop said: “I was hired to do a job and sometimes you have to do what is right even though it's not popular, and that's what I've being doing... I'm going to so what is right, regardless of what they say.”
