LA to debate police motions Monday
Cayman Islands Legislative Assembly
(CNS): The government has delayed the parliamentary meeting due to start next Monday until Wednesday, 27 April, in order to deal with the two private members’ motions relating to police issues, which were the subject of last week’s controversial meeting boycotted by the government benches. In a release from the premier’s office, officials said that the special meeting will resume at 9am Monday, 25 April, to deal with the motions before the government moves to a new meeting to deal with its massive legislative agenda.
Making it clear that government feels the subject matter of the motions has already been dealt with, the release stated that the motion being moved by MLAs Arden McLean and Ezzard Miller seeking a declaration of no confidence in the RCIPS has resulted in the police commissioner’s resignation. Officials also stated that the governor has now revealed that the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency will be conducting a review next week of the police handling of the search and rescue operation for five Caymanians, all lost at sea, which was the subject of the motion to be moved by Opposition Leader McKeeva Bush and MLA Anthony Eden.
Since the opposition members requested the special meeting, the premier has indicated that he regarded the request as politically motivated and the release from his office implied that the meeting to discuss these matters, which are already in hand, was going to delay government business.
However, the government has not called a legislative meeting for almost six months and, in addition to its own long list of bills, when the meeting starts Wednesday government will be dealing with 48 questions, ten private members’ motions and three government motions. From offshore related legislation to the new education bill, the government will be presenting a list of 18 new laws for debate during the meeting, which is likely to last several weeks.
The bills scheduled for debate include.
The Cadet Corps (Amendment) Bill, 2015;
The Special Economic Zones (Amendment) Bill, 2015;
The Tax Information Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2015;
The Limited Liability Companies Bill, 2015;
The Information and Communications Technology Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2016;
The Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill, 2016;
The Sunday Trading (Amendment) Bill, 2016;
The Accountants Bill, 2016;
The Anti-Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2016;
The Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2016;
The Health Insurance Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2016;
The Health Services Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2016;
The Justice Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2016;
The Standard in Public Life (Amendment) Bill, 2016;
The National Pensions (Amendment) Bill, 2016;
The Statistics (Amendment) Bill, 2016;
The Education Bill, 2016.
What a waste of time, flapping their gums in the LA, instead of going into their communities and dealing with the known criminals directly.
They know who they are and if not, as the Police for their names, addresses and phone numbers. Look them in the face and tell them that they know.
Then, get information about why they are in the crime business and what needs to be done to get them to stop.
The LA should focus on local criminality rather than trying to blame furreigners for that local criminality.
If any of these bumbling louts fail to show up today, that would be really poor.
I’ve never known another legislative body to present more “amendments” for further amendments during each sitting! Wow! Wouldn’t it be nice that laws are drafted correctly the first time!!
Wasting the public’s time rehashing legislation!
First, once again my sincere condolences to the bereaved families of those lost st sea. My prayers are with you. You deserve answers that are as objective as possible and that respect your dignity.
Unfortunately the entire country will bear the consequences of the behavior of some that smacks of.political opportunism in my opinion.
While I accept that all involved do have valid concerns, some have taken to political theatre and more. I predict that the British government, who will never admit to wrong doing overseas will link any possible blame to every non-British person available and the proposed solution will be to double down on British involvement to show the natives how it is done. And to top it off we will pay a tidy sum for the whole exercise. The US coast guard or any other non-British government organization is not going to get involved after it has been so heavily politicized. I hope that Ezzard, Alden, Mckeeva and the rest of the opposition will be pleased with themselves for I am certainly not pleased with them. And yes I am a voter who has voted in every Cayman Islands general election since my 18th birthday.
Rules, laws, facts, and the best intentions are no match for culturally induced ignorance.
Sharkey on Wednesday 13th April the speaker announced that the meeting was postponed until 9am on the 25th. Perhaps you did not believe her or maybe you just missed it.
@ Anonymous 8 :43 pm , did the Speaker announced it publicly ? Give me the link where she did .
The April 13 LA “session”/fiasco is replaying on a programming loop on the Cayman Gov’t HD Channel 20. Was adjourned to this am.
@ Anonymous 8:15 am , I agree with your comment, and I wonder how the other politians can let him get away with such disrespect to them and the LA .
In a release from the Premier office , officials said that special meeting will resume at 9: am Monday , 25 April.
Shouldn’t this have been said by the Speaker of the house ? So he the Premier is doing the Speakers job too , very dangerous.
In fairness, she did, but only on Hon Eden’s request.
I wish the Premier would stop trying to dismiss this entire motion and requested debate as not important and trying to turn this on the independents and opposition. You know what they should not have to do this, the review and debate should have been brought forward by the Government but they did not think it as important enough. This goes way beyond the COP and RCIP or even the five souls that have disappeared. This should be a debate by the entire population of these Cayman Islands who care about safety and who are frightened and alarmed by the continuing crime rate, when we have been told that crime is going down. Mr. Premier we are not all in the position that you are in, most of us cannot expect police to run to us every time we fear that someone might be outside our house, or that someone might be walking too close behind us but you have that luxury. We want a Cayman that is as safe as possible and as the leader of these Cayman Islands we expect you to take this serious. You cannot dismiss our concerns nor the concerns of the opposition and independents. I am pleased that you have finally understood that they have as much right to have their motion heard and debated as you have and you and your government need to pay attention to the issues that effect all of us not just the selected few. We all needed to know if every effort was made in a urgent manner to try to locate the missing five people, we need to feel that if anything like this should happen that it will be handled urgently. What is wrong with that? We do not need your platitudes and arrogant talking down – we need to feel confident that you have our backs and that we can depend on you and your government doing whatever possible to keep us safe. You said that you and the Governor had been in discussions about the crime and the way the COP was doing things, if that is so then why did you not think it was important to let us the public know that. Didn’t you think that would have been beneficial to us and perhaps the opposition and independents would not have had the need to bring these motions. I also wonder if now that the Chamber has come out calling for a debate of the RCIP and crime you have been prompted to discuss the motions after all, or is it that you finally get how the LA and motions should be dealt with.
Alden, you have finally awaken and realized what a stupid position you put yourself in by trying to play big shot and boycotting the meeting last week.
Did you not realize that if that meeting was not adjourned, by a motion from the floor, that your next scheduled meeting could not be called to order?
Did you not realize that the motion to adjourn the meeting called by the Hon Speaker of the House would require a quorum in order to move the motion?
If you had a quorum to move the adjournment motion then you could be outvoted and the two motions set on the order paper could be debated.
What a nincompoop! Get to work and do the business the people are paying you to do!
Do I notice a distinct mention of OMOV? Wrap it up PPM or pack it up.
Interesting story, the RCIPS always seems to be the whipping boy, but crime is just the symptom of other problems in society. I suspect the Cayman community needs to look inwardly at itself to address the issue, but of course it’s much easier to blame everyone else, rather accept some responsibility for the state of crime and disorder. As someone who served pre and post Ivan, I think Ivan was the turning point for the island. Pre-Ivan the criminals were still there, but they were not ’emboldened’ in the way they are now, and much of the crime which did take place was not reported courtesy of Maceeva, and protecting the islands image. During and after Ivan the RCIPS was brought to its knees as a result of the destruction of the police infrastructure, and sheer volume of officers who quit, most of whom’m just walked off the job without giving notice. Combine these factors with the anarchy which took place in the community post-Ivan, and it created an environment for criminality to flourish. Crime was being committed, the criminals realised they could get away with it as the RCIP was essentially innafective, and it was a bit like a boulder rolling down a hill, picking up in speed as it went, and the RCIPS were just unable to keep up. Identifying, investigating, and producing sufficient admissible evidence to prove an offence ‘beyond all reasonable doubt’ is hard enough under the best of circumstances, let alone where you have a department which is poorly led, suffers from lack of training, recruitment and retention issues, issues with experience, equipment and infrastructure, combined with a Crown Prosecution Service with similar issues. Good luck to the new Commissioner who gets the task of trying to fix this mess.
Bas, you have listed a llot of issues that need attention, so wouldn’t you agree that the motion is quite valid.
This is just a useful deflection right now to what is looming over the horizon.
You make some interesting statements. Much of which should be addressed in order of importance. That being said, some points to consider: you used hurricane Ivan as a watershed moment and point of reference for the crime problem in Cayman and the effectiveness of the RCIPS; you suggested that the RCIPS always seems to be the whipping boy; and you suggested that the Cayman community needs to look inwardly. I will comment on these points respectively. Hurricane Ivan was a hurricane. That means it can happen every year, although, thankfully unlikely based on historical records. Hence, the RCIPS (and so that I don’t attribute blame solely to the RCIPS, the Cayman community) should include hurricanes in our strategic plans and adaptable understanding of crime and the RCIPS’ effectiveness. Thus, a hurricane regardless of its severity should not be used as justification for an ineffective RCIPS, judicial system, and or community, especially several years later or indefinitely. That is like a police officer who served before and after the terrible 1932 hurricane, saying today that our crime is a result of that hurricane. Whatever the reason for Cayman’s crime problem, hurricane Ivan can’t be the whipping boy. With regard to the RCIPS being the favorite whipping boy, you can appreciate that because there exists a significant number of officers who regularly use the public, that is, citizens as whipping boys, it creates a culture of abuse and protectionism within the RCIPS or at least the perception that citizens are the whipping boy for the RCIPS. Hence, the reason the RCIPS suffers the karma and equal reaction to their own actions. I agree with you that the Cayman community needs to look inwardly, if by that you mean all of us need to individually and collectively look at our own faults and strengths and potential and power to affect positive change, including the RCIPS and the judicial system. Finally, I agree that it is much easier to place blame on others rather than accept some responsibility for the current state of crime and disorder, which is precisely why I can’t blame the Hon. McKeeva Bush, you the RCIPS, the judicial system, and or my fellow citizens. What I can and should do is to look inwardly and change my goals and actions and assist others to bring about the positive change that we may desire to experience. Thank you for your intelligent and informative comments and for your service. May you have peace and happiness.