Free Ish & Steve!!! Free Ish & Steve!!! (I smell tee shirt sales...)

Having dinner at my parents' house over the Christmas season, I was informed by my mother that certain people that she knows are very upset at my published articles on the issue of Ish & Steve and their pending on again/off again extradition to the United States to face criminal prosecution for the crimes that they committed in that jurisdiction.

You see, it turns out that they apparently know the Galbaransingh family and they (the Galbaransingh clan)  apparently expressed dismay that I would take such a strong position on the issue, obviously not taking into account that these are husbands and fathers of wives and children who miss them terribly and would miss them more if they were jailed in the United States for their crimes.

To be quite honest I hadn't even thought about the thing from that perspective, and now that it has been pointed out to me I feel rather ashamed that I was supporting a system of justice that would separate criminals from the rest of society at the expense of their families and loved ones.

Aghast at the revelation, I want to apologize, not only to the Galbaransinghs and the Fergusons, but to the families of each and every single prisoner behind bars anywhere in Trinidad & Tobago.

I am ashamed of our cold hearted system of justice that demands that the responsibility for crime against the people could result in punishment.

I want to apologize on behalf of our Prime Minister who ought to know or have known the implications of her borrowed 'If you do the crime, you will do the time' speech.

I want to apologize to criminals and ne'er do wells everywhere for our apparent insensitivity.

Had I known then what I know now I would surely have supported our Attorney General in his obvious position on the matter earlier and resisted writing on numerous occasions that, because they OUGHT to have known better, Ish & Steve need to be made examples of.

Based on this new way of looking at the thing it is quite obvious I was wrong in my earlier assessment and conclusions, and it is appearing patently obvious that we need to find better ways of punishing our officials who, having been appointed to National Office by dint of connections and contributions and who find themselves unable to resist the urge to steal and plunder, find themselves on the wrong side of the law.

I suggest that we start over.

We should open the jails and let all but the family-less go, tear up all case files of people with relatives, remove all existing laws from the books that would punish those guilty parties that have families and write new laws just for them.

Perhaps the Attorney general might want to look at consequences like bed without supper for a week on each count for white collar crimes, and for capital crimes like murder and rape, no dessert for two weeks enforceable by the police.

It is noteworthy to note that this would in no way affect the cases of ghetto people and black head chickens as they usually cannot tell who is related to who in the first place, and the general public need not be unnecessarily concerned; what is it they say about the heights of confusion being father's day  in Laventille?

Anyway, I am sure that it is not too late to right these wrongs, and I would like to thank everyone who helped me to see this the right way finally.

Can someone get in touch with Calder and let him know that it's safe to come back?