By Melanius Alphonse From Carribbean News Now

IMPACS investigation and the police force

April 24, 2017, Caribbean News Now reported that St Lucia may launch prosecutions of extrajudicial killings.

Recently, three police officers were brought in for questioning reportedly over alleged extrajudicial killings.

Public relations officer of the Police Welfare Association [PWA], Acting Sgt Zachary Hippolyte said, “Probing the IMPACS investigation has singled out the police force.”

Moreover, the government of Saint Lucia has not understood that this is not helpful in isolation of the report, suggesting that “the crime problem in Saint Lucia is facilitated by corrupt politicians/government officials, business persons and police officers.”

In the midst of this, police officers seemingly working in the office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) and recipient of a recent donation of computers and other equipment worth EC$100,000 (US$37,000) by the US embassy in Bridgetown are said to be engaged in investigating police officers who presumable were part of Operation Restore Confidence (ORC) and implicated in the IMPACS investigation.

According to intelligence reports and private investigations, police officers who were delusional and receptive to political change are now convinced that “IMPACS will not go away until something is done. The investigation is with a view to prosecuting and/or removing from the RSLPF. There are a selected few to speak with and help with the investigation. Officers willing to cooperate will be assisted to get immunity, with an outside entity, but certainly not the US.”

Of course, the intended message is directed at the US State Department and Congress that due process is being followed to arrive at a conviction and that the intensified US national security sanctions imposed on Saint Lucia should be lifted.

However, through counter intelligence and local knowledge, the actual message transmitted is that of a false equivalence – a false flag.

Perhaps this presents the opportunity to advance regime change of the current United Workers Party (UWP) government, now faced with the difficulty of resolving a seemingly intractable problem that it created in the first place.

Clearly they ought to take responsible for the turbulent social and economic stagnation Saint Lucia faces. The continuous backsliding of national security is supposedly linked in the light of rampant corruption, plundering of public resources and human rights violations, already, a tricky catch-22 situation with Leahy Law sanctions.

The broken judicial system

The country is facing a high crime rate with 41 homicides as of this writing and albeit calls by the minister for home affairs, justice and national security, Hermangild Francis for the enforcement of capital punishment as prescribed by law.

This is hardly capable of addressing the socio-economic and psychological issues in a trickledown economic system that benefits the political class and the well connected.

IMAGE: Melanius Alphonse is a management and development consultant, a long-standing senior correspondent and a contributing columnist to Caribbean News Now. His areas of focus include political, economic and global security developments, and on the latest news and opinion. His philanthropic interests include advocating for community development, social justice, economic freedom and equality. He contributes to special programming on Radio Free Iyanola, RFI 102.1FM and News Now Global analysis. He can be reached at [email protected]

For more on this story go to: http://wp.caribbeannewsnow.com/2017/10/02/commentary-national-security-equity-continuously-backsliding-st-lucia/