Cops, residents move to get brothels closed

Two brothels in Chase Village may be out of business soon if efforts by Couva North MP Ramona Ramdial, the police and residents are successful. “We can get involved by objecting to the court licence. The Chase Village Community Council can go to court when the business places are seeking to renew their licences and object,” Ramdial said at a community meeting at her constituency office last Tuesday. She added: “I will help them. The illegal activities conducted there are posing a problem “Eleven people were arrested (at one brothel) last week under Supt Johnny Abraham. We have started clamping down on the institutions.” Members of the village’s business community were invited to meet with the police to identify crime problems in the area and work with the law to alleviate them. The council was formed at the meeting, the fourth such installment in the constituency in recent weeks. Senior Supt Deodath Doolalchan and Inspector Chunilal Bedassie, community officers from the Central Division, Inspector Burt Raphael of the Freeport Police Station and Inspector Sharon Corbett of the Couva Police were present.

 

Members identified the places of ill -repute as a major contributor to rampant crime in the area and informed the officers seated at the head table that police and army vehicles also could be seen parked outside. Mohammed Ali, selected as vice-president of the group, said: “The police and the army come there. “Six weeks ago my nephew lost his pickup and to this day the police never came.”Doolalchan assured residents there was an effort to clean up the service of the few bad eggs and said “the situation at the brothel is a work in progress.“We have made some arrests and will continue to monitor the situation,” he added. Inspector Corbett said she was posted at the Freeport Police Station when the licence issue for the establishment came up and not one person from the community objected. The meeting became a little uncomfortable for the officers when the residents shifted from complaining about criminals and turned the heat on the police. Dr Harripersad Panday, a pundit, appointed president of the group, said people posing as patients robbed his office and he was defrauded of $3.7 million within one year. He said: “I called the Chaguanas Police and nobody came. When I realised nothing was happening, I began to lose faith in the system. The reality is nothing is happening. “Criminals have more on their side than law-abiding citizens. They have no regard for the law because the police are sleeping.”

 

The pundit said he once was forced to go into one of the brothels to find out whose car was parked in front of his driveway. He added: “Don’t ever call the police station and expect a response. The number is always busy or they tell you they only have one officer on the compound.” Doolalchan, responding, said: “If we, as a nation, do not employ the best moral values, they could have who and what resources, we will continue to have crime.” He said police officers were working very closely with young people through police youth clubs to deter deviant behaviour at an early age.

 

 

Further, liaison officers now go with officers on crime scenes to establish a link with victims, he said. He added: “I hope the negative customer service you all are experiencing will reduce. You have to come forward and talk about the service you are getting or officers will continue to behave badly. “Let us together get rid of bad apples in the service.” Doolalchan said officers were reminded on a daily basis to be friendly. Later more residents came forward and complained about the police. Robert Soogram of Fit for Life Pharmacy said he had several bad experiences with the police. He said he was robbed at gunpoint and went to the Freeport Police with a “buss head and buss eye”  “They told me they can’t do anything now, they have prisoners in the dock,” he said. He said he went to the Chaguanas Police who sent him back to the Freeport Police. “When I went back their attitude was 100 per cent worse,” he added.