Coil: A Tree Grows on Carmichael Street

by Vidyaratha Kissoon

The police man asked me “What is your first name Mr Kissoon”. Young man, pleasant and polite. I was shocked that he knew my name.

I asked him “How do you know me, we have never met.” And he said that he knew me from being out there and seeing me around the place.

We were standing at the corner of Carmichael and Middle Street, near the Attorney General Chambers. I had never seen him so he must have been doing his surveillance excellently.

Mark Jacobs had planted a palm , as a memorial to Courtney Crum-Ewing who used to stand there saying anil-must-go. Somebody shot Courtney Crum-Ewing on 10 March, 2015.

There is a protest organised around the 10^th of every month to call for justice. More people click Like on the Facebook posts and pictures than actually come to the protests. Forgetting is one of the ways to deal with trauma. And Facebook sharing and liking and commenting is probably the other way.

Mark Jacobs asked one of the men weeding the parapets in the new Keep [some parts of] the City clean mania, to weed around the palm. He had some mould in a nice green bag – apparently there are people selling good quality compost.  Some whitewashed stones were put around the palm.

A man at the protest said that there should be a yellow ribbon around the palm – yellow ribbons signify memorials. A yellow ribbon was tied around the palm.

Some women from Red Thread joined the protest. The banner was moved closer to the road. The people who drove past looked ahead, looked at us, some  nodded, some tooted.

One man said ‘yall geh change and yall still aint geh justice?”.

Mr Peters was walking past and stopped. He is easy to recognise. The first time I had met him, he had asked me if I am ‘Vidyaratha Kissoon’ pronouncing my name correctly. He had read my letters in the papers. The next  time he spoke with me he could not remember me and wondered if I was in the WPA.

He wore his white safety helmet, suit jacket, waistcoat, shirt, trousers – in the hot sun. He touched one of the branches of the young palm and told Mark to tie it up, because the branch would loosen. 

He asked jokingly if there was permission. He noted that people were butchering trees, and some of
the plants he had put down near the Ministry of the Presidency had been destroyed. “Soldier boy’ has a problem with him, he said. Mr Peters has been in court on different charges, and he said ‘they doan bother to turn up”.

Mr Peters had a Bible and a copy of a Local Government manual. He hopes to run as a councillor in the Local Government Elections. He used to lead a political party.  He is probably the only politician who has bothered to drop in on the protest recently since the elections.

The day Mr Peters  suggested tying up the branch of the palm was the day when the State agreed that the person or persons who killed Courtney Crum-Ewing put the Taurus pistol and 14 rounds of ammunition in the house in which citizen Regan Grey Boy Rodrigues lived without the knowledge of Mr Rodrigues. There is no dispute that the Taurus is the one which was used to kill Courtney Crum-Ewing. When the police went to arrest Mr Rodrigues, he attempted to escape.

A journalist and a photographer from the state media turned up at the corner. There probably is no story in a couple of people standing next to a palm tree with a yellow ribbon. Pictures were taken.

The pictures were not  published. It could be that it was not appropriate to publish the pictures of the memorial the same day of the reports of the State agreeing that Mr Rodrigues did not know anything about the gun in his house.

The State has given Mr Rodrigues three years imprisonment for escaping from custody. Mr Rodrigues reportedly wept , then kissed his elderly mother before leaving the court room. Courtney Crum-Ewing’s mother, Donna Harcourt,  says she will continue to seek justice. She spoke in an interview on the day about the contradictions in the testimonies and statement.  The State media has not bothered so far to interview Ms Harcourt.

Days after the State agreed that there was no evidence linking Mr Rodrigues to the Taurus which killed Courtney Crum-Ewing, President Granger said that he was confident that the police were gaining an upper hand in Crime.

It is not clear what evidence the President is using. Making arrests, as has been seen in the Courtney Crum-Ewing case is only one part of the winning the war on crime.

A man told me of visiting a police outpost to report child abuse. The policeman had his feet up on the counter and was watching TV. The man, who is assertive, said he could not imagine how a person who had been victimised would feel making a report. The policeman watching TV spoke through another junior officer without moving his feet.

A friend called a station to report a missing girl. The constable told her she should go and look for the girl herself.

The pleasant policeman who was taking my name at the protest said yes, some of them behave just like how “the police behave in dem ole time indian picture”. Corrupt police and not corrupt police are frequently portrayed in Bollywood films, and at least one hit, Dabangg, has a police officer who is corrupt as the hero.

Maybe Bollywood inspired the PPP which saw nothing wrong with  slap-and-strip-bheri and anil , and others and that is why there are praises and condemnations for the police. Maybe the police watch Bollywood on TV and get ideas on how to behave.  Maybe the President should remove TVs from all the police stations so that the police cannot be distracted while taking reports.  The war on crime would be won faster if reports could be made in the first place.

Justice takes a long time, many court dates and appearances.

The policeman told me of a charge against Courtney Crum-Ewing which was thrown out because the complainants did not bother to turn up in court. It happens often apparently, that police make charges and then complainants do not bother to turn up in court.  The policeman said as far as he saw, when he had Courtney Crum-Ewing under surveillance, there was no wrong doing. “The man was doing his thing.”

I asked the policeman if he knew the bodyguard who was questioned for the shooting. He said no.
According to a Kaieteur News report on  Courtney Crum-Ewing’s funeral –
“..A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Leader David Granger also paid tribute to the fallen hero, asking the pertinent question of how was it possible for a man to be gunned in his own neighbourhood and no one can stop it or bring the killers to justice.

He referred to the killing as the highest manifestation of political intolerance existing in society.

“What sort of life or police force can this government promise its citizens, when its police force
cannot protect its citizens?”

The Government changed. It is not so easy though. The Leader of the Opposition became President.

In a minibus speeding down the seawall road and then onto High Street and Main Street, there is a rubbed out APNU+AFC sticker from the 2015 elections “It is time for Change”. The only thing which seems to be changing is the brilliance of the green and yellow sticker, slowly ageing .

The silence of the passengers, including me, has not changed much as we enjoy the ride and hope that the police, or another vehicle, will not stop it.

In another minibus, the dutty (and not so dutty) music is pounding. It is school children time. In God we Trust is on the wind shield. A small  Tiranga, the flag of India is hanging on the window.

The  conductor and the driver move to the music. They don’t seem to be Indian.

I ask if the music can’t change, the driver smiled and say nothing. He is listening though. Turns the music down a bit.. Nobody bothering with me in the bus as far as I could see. I continue with all kinds of thing about God and so. Bus driver say – “look out deh, yuh ain see dem lifin dey leg tuh”. I said, “man driver, I in de bus, is you got to put on de uplifting music fuh de yutes dem , lil praises, I not out dere, You is de leader in dis bus, wid God in front”

Driver kept laughing. Music continued with the calls to gyals to do dis and dat, not necessarily go to school and not be sexy.

When I came out the bus, he reached out his hand and we  shook hands and he said have a good afternoon. He did not change the music. Change was probably difficult much like the police and the justice system which seem to continue with business as usual in some places – some charges, some arrests, some convictions, and limited or no accountability as it seems after the recent issues with the Special Organised Crime Unit.

The palm outside the Attorney General chambers with the yellow ribbon is probably also a memorial  for the dream of “It is time for change” . A reminder that it is easier to change Presidents, than it is for Presidents to change the police and the justice system and minibus drivers and passengers and citizens.

The palm with the yellow ribbon could be a symbol for the work still to be done.