Archive for December 17th, 2012
Man shot dead in GT
(CNS): A 23-year-old Jamaican national was shot dead Sunday night in George Town and a 21-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Police say that they received a report of gunshots being fired at about 10:30pm in the Shedden Road vicinity of Printers Way. While Uniform Support Group officers wereen route to the scene, they came across avehicle at the junction of Shedden Road and Thomas Russell Way, George Town, with one male passenger inside, who had been shot. Officers took the victim out of the car and tried to resuscitate him without success. He was later pronounced dead at the scene by ambulance personnel.
The police arrested a 21-year-old male at 1:15am on Monday morning in connection with the killing. However, the investigation into the first murder of the year is ongoing and police are asking for anyone who may have witnessed this incident or have any information to call any of the local police stations or Crime-Stoppers at 1 800 (Tips) 8477.
Shedden Road remains closed from the traffic lights at Thomas Russell Way near Jacques Scott's to the junction with Dorcy Drive at NAPA as well as Printer Way running off Thomas Russell Way to Shedden Road while police process what appears to be two crime scenes.
Check back to CNS later for more on the fatal shooting
Clean hands & pure heart
If the allegations against Premier McKeeva Bush are proven correct, he will go down in this country’s history as a liar and a crook. But if they are not proven correct, what happens then? He and his party carry on the same? I don’t think so. Relying on the legal axiom of “innocent unless proven guilty” isn’t good enough when you are in high public office.
Public office is a position of trust and power and we expect those in positions of trust and power to be held to a higher standard of conduct than the rest of us. They have to be accountable and transparent in their private dealings and it goes without saying that we expect them to avoid any conflicts between their public duties and their private interests. If such a conflict does arise we rightly expect that they will proactively declare their interest, remove themselves from any decision making role in which their impartiality might be compromised, and make sure there is a paper trail to provethe true nature of any payments. If their integrity is questioned we expect them to come forward and explain themselves or step aside until the issues are resolved.
We don’t know much about the allegations McKeeva Bush is facing. We do know that he received a payment from Stan Thomas at a time when Thomas wanted the Cayman government to rezone some of his land and that the explanations and documents McKeeva has produced have not convinced everyone. We know that he used his position to try and have some improperly imported dynamite released to a business owner and again the explanations have not answered all the questions.
And we have heard rumors of other murky dealings, the Cohen & Cohen loan, CHEC, the dump contract to name a few. It may well be that none of these involved any illegal activity or that nothing will be proved but in the court of public opinion “no smoke without fire” is just as firmly entrenched as “innocent unless proven guilty” and, as the country’s leader, avoiding criminal conviction alone is not enough to clear his name and restore confidence.
McKeeva has failed in his duty to remain above suspicion and that failure has brought the office of premier, his party and the entire country into disrepute. Of that, at least, we know he is guilty and in most other democratic countries that would be enough to disqualify him from office.
Declaring that he has clean hands is not enough. If he can’t prove to the public's satisfaction that they are clean then he has failed to hold himself to the required standard and he should resign or be removed before any more damage is done.