Cayman’s Hard Rock Café closes its doors

George Town’s Hard Rock Café that opened its doors on the waterfront in 2000 has now closed its doors thirteen years later with around 20 jobs lost.

At first the closure was thought to have been due to the decline in cruise tourists that has affected other George Town waterfront businesses but it has been reported this is not so.

Hardrock franchise holder Kevin Doyle told the Caymanian Compass that this was not so as cruise ship numbers were expected to rebound significantly over the next few years.

He said it was a litigation dispute with The Hard Rock Café. The Hard Rock Café in Grand Cayman operates under a franchise he explained but did not disclose any details of the dispute.

The Hard Rock Café has 175 outlets in 53 different countries.

The Hard Rock Café brand holder indicated soon after the business closed here that they hoped to return to Cayman in the future with a new local business partner and in a different location.

Bernie Bush is LA’s Deputy Leader of the Opposition

Third elected member for West Bay, and in his very first term as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (LA), Bernie Bush was sworn in as Deputy Leader of the Opposition.

Her Excellency, Governor Helen Kilpatrick, carried out the honour at her office in the Government Administration Building on Wednesday 9^th October.

Carjacking gunman charged

Matthew Whittaker (23) appeared in Court at the end of last month charged with driving whilst disqualified, driving without insurance, dangerous driving, taking and driving away a vehicle without the owner’s consent and threats to kill.

Whittaker is accused of being the man who stole a Honda Civic at gunpoint at around 6pm on September 17^th, near the Red Cross building in Huldah Avenue.

A police patrol gave chase after receiving the report of the carjack and said the car was travelling at speeds of up to 80mph along Shamrock Road, weaving in and out of traffic, and so, in line with the RCIPS pursuit policy and concerns about public safety, the critical incident manager took the decision to stand down the road pursuit and instead use the Air Support Unit. The RCIPS helicopter tracked the car to Midland Acres, where it swerved off the road. The suspect ran into a nearby yard and bushes where he was arrested by Uniformed Support Group officers whilst being guided by the helicopter crew.

The video of the chase and arrest was shown on local televisions CITN/Cayman27.

Man who pleaded not guilty to murder challenges his incarceration

Brian Borden, a West Bay man, pleaded “Not Guilty” of shooting Robert Mackford Bush in a gangster killing at the junction of Birch Tree Hill Road and Capts Joe and Osbert Road in West Bay on September 13^th 2011. Bush was sitting in his car when two men opened fire and killed him. Borden is accused of being one of the men.

The killing is believed to be part of a tit-for-tat week of gangster violence in which another four young men were shot dead and a fifth seriously wounded.

Since then Borden has been incarcerated for13 months without bail.

Local attorney, Nick Hoffman, who is representing Borden, has argued the bail law, which removes the presumptive entitlement to bail for a number of offences, is a basic breach of the fundamental human right to freedom. He said Borden should be allowed to argue his case for bail on the circumstances of his case and not on the basis of the charge.

Although remand in murder cases is not mandatory, it has for years been treated as such.

The case was heard by Chief Justice Anthony Smellie.

Hoffman said because entitlement to bail had been removed for certain offences, the burden of proof, which should lie with the crown to demonstrate one of a list of legitimate grounds for refusing bail, was removed. As the law elevates the actual crime as a ground for refusing bail, this makes the argument against remand very difficult. This leads to an almost automatic jailing for murder and undermines the fundamental principle of the presumption of innocence for any defendant that is a basic human right.

Jacqueline Wilson, for the Crown, said there was nothing unconstitutional about the law, the burden had not been removed from the crown and, as with all bail applications, those from defendants facing murder charges would be argued in the same way based on the grounds for retaining someone on remand. These include flight risk, interference with witnesses, potential to re-offend and the length of sentence, which in the case of murder is mandatory life.

If Hoffman wins the case, it could open the floodgates of new bail applications from many prisoners in HM Northward.

MLA says EE residents have lost faith in police

East End MLA, Ezzard Miller, said on Thursday October 10^th in the Legislative Assembly, “You would be hard pressed in my community today to find a single resident who has any faith, hope or confidence in the police.”

At a meeting held in East End the previous night, the RCIPS revealed that at any given time there are only 5 police officers to cover the entire Eastern district.

Miller said a local offender in his constituency was released on bail with an electronic tag device only to commit another burglary days later. He was able to leave without the monitors being aware he had left his home by wrapping the device in aluminium foil. He then stole property from someone else.

Children learn boat building for Pirates

Students from six public schools in the Cayman Islands, including the two high schools and the Light House School, are all building at least one boat each in time for the Pirates Week Festival landing on Saturday November 9th.

The initiative is from the Pirates Week Committee and sponsored by Cox Lumber who provides all the building materials, to teach children the tradition of boat building.

Pirates Week is the Cayman Islands National Festival.

Dive Company announces redundancies

Don Foster’s Dive, one of Cayman’s oldest dive companies has just announced 10 staff redundancies.

Mervyn Cumber, owner of Don Foster’s Dive said it was due to Carnival Cruise Line cancelling its contract.

“We applied to them for an increase in our rates,” he said, explaining his company had not had any increase for the past 6-years.

“We got a very blunt reply from them where they said effective from the 1^st of November this year, the seven tours we do for them, would be cancelled forthwith,” he told CITN/Cayman27.

Miller leads protest march on government immigration reforms

Even after one organiser of the protest march on government’s proposed immigration reforms announced it was now cancelled, Northside MLA Ezzard Miller said this was not so. He would still be marching on Friday (11) even if he did it alone.

At 10am he marched on Friday into George Town from the Government Administration Building, not alone, but with about 80 or so followers.

After waiting for the cameras and other media they shouted their protests about governments immigration plans, carried and waved banners and cards including ones demanding human rights for Caymanians (forgetting that the 1,500 expats at the centre of their anger, who have been here for nearly eight years, also have human rights, too!) they marched untidily into the Legislative Assembly Building.

Premier Alden McLaughlin, who said all the points they were making would be discussed by cabinet, received them courteously.