BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – MEMBER of Operation Rescue and former minister of government Dwyer Astaphan has claimed that some officers of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force (RSCNPF) are seeking his assistance to air their views on alleged discrimination and a number of other issues affecting them.
Speaking on his talk show programme – The Operations Room – at WINN FM on Tuesday night (Oct. 21), Astaphan said he was in possession of an anonymous correspondence, purportedly written by a member of the RSCNPF, within which the writer highlighted some details of the Commissioner of Police and the inhumane treatment being meted out to them while performing security duty at the residence of the Speaker of the House, the Hon. Curtis Martin.
“An anonymous letter was sent to me in the post, purportedly from inside the police force. The letter was sent also to Michael Powell. This is very serious stuff. We have a Commissioner of Police that spends more time in the air than on the ground. He must be a pigeon, and it seems to me, we are told, that most the times he flies, he flies first class. I hope I am wrong and this is nothing personal. I am not paying taxes for no Commissioner of Police to fly first class wherever he goes; not with my bloody money, not with mine.
“Hear what he says: ‘Please help the police and protect us from Edmond Lawrence, Denzil Douglas, Curtis Martin, Astona Browne, Patrick Wallace and CG Walwyn. Please hear our plea and help come to our rescue to expose this injustice in your radio broadcast. We cannot take this madness and injustice that these heartless and greedy people are doing to us SSU officers and other police. We are frustrated and the stress of the work is getting to our heads.”
Astaphan stated that the writer claimed the officers are treated worse than dogs and are belittled by the Speaker of the House whenever requests are made to use his toilet facility.
“We are guarding by the GG house 24/7 and by Speaker Martin’s house and the treatment we are getting is worse than what dogs get,” Astaphan claimed the correspondence reads.
He however stressed: “Again, I will be forced to apologise if this information is not true and not correct. I am bringing it because I think it is a matter of public importance. It has to do with governance of this country, with security of this country and with every fabric that ties this country together as a polity, as a society and as an economy.
Continuing with the contents of the correspondence, the Operation Rescue member said the writer stated that ‘when we wake up by Curtis Martin’s place and we want to urinate or have to ease our bowels we have to go in the grass or in the bush. When we tell him if he can allow us to use the toilets, he doesn’t allow us to do so and slams the door in our face, and tell us we should think about that before we come to work and we are trained to contain and control our bowels, and stop knock pun he door because he don’t want his toilet to get dirty, and that the police force should make provisions to put a mobile toilet in the yard or on the road’.
Astaphan noted that the writer said that Martin curses them and when he arrives at his residence whilst the officers are performing guard duties, he would pass them without the courtesy of a greeting.
“Well, I don’t know what he wants security for in the first place. Nobody studying him! He is his own biggest enemy. If he wants to be frightened, look in the mirror. That’s his main source of fear. Nobody here going to do him anything. He is wasting the government money, wasting our money, the police, and then being so rude and inhumane to these people who protecting your life and your property. They say he cusses them when they go there. They say he is so bombastic in himself,” Astaphan said.
He continued: “They talk about him bringing guests and putting cloth over people head and so...I don’t know! But he has a right to security at safety and his own privacy. The writer says that one of the units in the police gets special...actually there were created by the present Commissioner to report directly to him even if they working in Nevis. Not to the Commander in Nevis but directly to him. Incidentally, this is the guy who said recently that he had Basseterre under lockdown, so when he squeezes the balloon then it spreads somewhere else. Well in the 10 years prior to CG Walwyn as the Commissioner there was an average of 17 murders a year. In the three years since we had him the average is 20 murders per year. Let the numbers say whatever they say!
“But the complainant in this letter is saying that certain of these units are given special treatment and some of them are engaged in a private security company owned by a certain man and his wife, and that the command structure of the organisation has been severely undermined and eroded. And along with that goes the morale. They say up by Curtis they don’t even get a chair to sit on or a drink of water if they are thirsty. And when they complain the Commissioner tells them - this is what they say – that ‘he didn’t send them up there to eat or drink or to sit down’. But while they are up there standing there all night or taking a breeze against a tree, he may be at the Marriott by a function and texting people and BBing them.”
Intimated that the officers who perform security duties at certain places are from the Special Services Unit and that those officers suspected to be supporters of Team Unity are treated differently.
“These people who guard certain places are connected to the SSU. So when their guard duty finished at those places they have to go straight to barracks. Sometimes they don’t see their family for days. And they are tired, they are frustrated and they have nobody to speak to. Maybe that is why we get this letter. They said that people who are felt to be Unity supporters in the police are treated differently. “
He also said that the correspondence contains something that is very unnerving about ways and means of roughing up protesters and Unity supporters, and showing them who is boss in the country.
“What we have here is the potential; it is a grain of truth in this for serious repression in this country! And repression always faces repercussions. I am not inciting or exciting, I am advising and cautioning and asking those in authority please, please this information to be wrong,” he added.
The former government minister said the correspondence spoke about the existence of intimate relationships in the police force and also about a certain man who purportedly came to train officers on the procedures of crime scenes.
“Boyfriend and girlfriend business...they say a man came here to train people on crime scene. He’s here three years. They don’t know how many local men have been trained so long on the crime scene. He’s been given a renewal contract, driving a government vehicle, handsome rent paid by the government, handsome salary, no human resource development...so he drops them, gone tomorrow or leaves. And the story that girlfriends are connected with boyfriends in preferred units and sent away purportedly on courses, but they well and have their courses – outer courses, intercourses and other courses. There are a lot of gory details in there that I cannot really reveal. But this here is serious stuff and all this money and expenses are being met by the people of this country.”
He further said the correspondence spoke to sexual harassment and abuse.
“One of the complaints also in this letter has to do with sexual harassment in the organisation, and the abuse of PEP girls working in the organisation, and an attitude of disdain and disrespect being shown in some quarters in the organisation towards the women of St. Kitts.”
He however did not provide details of these accusations, for which he said he would not call any name.
Directing his attack towards the Commissioner of Police, Astaphan challenged him to make public the cost of the vehicle assigned to him.
“I hear somebody said that the Commissioner recently said that the vehicle they are making noise about only costs $50 000. I challenge CG Walwyn tonight to publish the receipt for the vehicle, publish it. And if he publishes it – I am not sure he said fifty thousand, but I am told he did – If he said $50 000, I dare him to publish it. And if it is $50 000, then he tells the truth. If it is $165 000 or more than $50 000, then he should resign and go back from where he come from because that’s a big lie. My information is, the vehicle costs $165 000, because it is not a jokey vehicle. So, let him come and speak the truth to the people.”
In conclusion, Astaphan said he could not verify 100 percent that the contents of the correspondence are factual, but “wherever I said what I said, remember I gave you the disclaimer and invited those who know better and who would choose to be honest about it to come and correct us. I am referring specifically to the letter purportedly from the police.
