Dear Chief:

I have sat on many committees with you in your present capacity and in my capacity as Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security.

Chief, I know you to be a man of sound values and an upright citizen. Chief, I know you to be a loyal son of Grenada who has always had the interests of Grenada at heart.

Believe me, this is a time of crisis and Grenada needs you now more than ever to be strong and bold in defence of her virtue! Please grant me the time in your busy schedule to consider this, my letter to you. I trust that you will forgive me for making this an open letter but it is done because I fear that our country is quickly slipping into a state of lawlessness and hopelessness that is likely to cause persons to become impatient and to take the law into their own hands and make our work much harder.

I say our work because policing and national security is everybody's business even more so than tourism. I am gravely concerned that the confidence of ordinary citizens in the impartiality of the police force is slipping.

Here are some of the reasons why I am so gravely concerned:

(1). Mr. Bernard Coard, a ward of the state and my client, who is constitutionally entitled to legal representation and other rights as a citizen of Grenada, sent to you a letter about 7 months ago in which he claims that his signature was forged unto a document while he is in prison.

The obvious purpose was to libel his name and create distrust in the minds of the Grenadian people towards the National Democratic Congress at the height of the last election campaign.
Notice the crimes: FORGERY and BREACHES OF THE REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE'S ACT! To this date there has been no report about the progress of any investigations that are intended or have taken place.

I have tried to ask questions time and again of the officer who I was told was in charge of the intended investigations but to no avail. Is it that our police force upon which we depend is refusing to act upon hearsay?

Is it that the accusing finger is being pointed in the wrong direction? The issue is not really about who is being accused or who the accuser is. It is about the crime that is being committed!
Chief, I suggest that this is your role, that is, to prevent and detect crime.

(2). Members of your force launched themselves lustily into investigations related to the conduct of Mr. Michael Baptiste while he was the Minister of Agriculture, the investigations having started many years after he demitted office.

Charges were then laid against Mr. Baptiste and the case is being prosecuted by the same person who is the head of the unit who investigated the claims against Mr. Baptiste. Investigator and prosecutor at the same time! How immoral, grossly unfair and unethical!

Chief, can you please tell the nation what was the basis used to launch the investigations into the conduct of Mr. Baptiste? Chief, is it not true that the investigations started based upon hearsay? Surely, someone must have called or written, making a complaint against Mr. Baptiste to have your investigations started! If you are not sure please ask your legal experts to assist you in coming to the answer.

(3). Chief, I was watching the news tonight and was shocked and petrified to hear the Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit say that because you, not he, were presented with what he calls hearsay then there is nothing to investigate.

Chief, you owe a duty to the public to see that justice is being done! You are a public servant! You owe a duty to the nation to be impartial and to seem to be impartial!

Chief, could you please tell us to whom the Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit reports? If he reports to you is it that he is pronouncing to the nation what you have decided, that our Police Force is not prepared to investigate the serious allegations that have been leveled at our Prime Minister?

Why are we not at least anxious to have the name of our Prime Minister cleared so that as a nation we can breathe again? Chief, all Grenadians are waiting to exhale! Chief, we beg you; please help us to raise our heads in the international community!

Chief, please do not take advice from persons who come from countries that are accustomed to the misdeeds of a totally corrupt police force! They are used to cover-ups in their countries and it is normal to them!

Look at what it has done to their country! Policemen are killed at random on the streets, and pitched battles are waged between the police force and civilians!

It is because that police force is not trusted to protect and serve impartially. That police force is not trusted to seek to dispense justice to all! Please, Chief, I beg you; please have the hearsay investigated!

(4). Chief, as a Grenadian and a lawyer I feel grossly insulted and offended by Mr. Wildman's statements! Does Mr.Wildman have any training in investigative procedures? Is he a trained police officer who is experienced in investigation?

Mr. Wildman knows fully well that the determination of what is hearsay is a matter for trial and not one for investigation! Has he then concluded that there is a case to answer by the Prime Minister and he has to begin mounting a defence for him?

Please tell Mr. Wildman that he is acting in conflict with his present appointment and the proper thing for him to do is to resign because he has rushed to the defence of a person against whom a complaint is being laid and made a pronouncement even less than 24 hours after looking at some documents.

He should resign and let the Prime Minister hire him as a defence attorney. Chief, worse yet, to add insult to injury, Mr. Wildman proceeds to threaten the opposition leaders with being arrested for CRIMINAL LIBEL! What a load of rubbish!

Chief, do not look at that! All he is trying to do is to put pressure on you to use your powers to intimidate persons in the society! Chief, look at the danger this man is exposing the nation to!

If what he says is true then everyone will be afraid to report crime because if I write to you about what comes to my knowledge and ask for it to be investigated then I am guilty of a crime!

Chief, this goes directly against what you have been trying to develop in the community for so long. Don't you want the public to report crime to your officers?

(5). Chief, I expect that you are really under some pressure, because I was dumfounded to hear the alleged wrongdoing of our Prime Minister reduced to a BLACK AND WHITE issue by a member of the Upper House, MY NAME SAKE.

What a sad and unfortunate occurrence! Chief, please say to my name sake that you have sworn to fairly and impartially uphold the requirements of the law and it does not matter whether the accuser or the accused is BLACK OR WHITE!

Black men do dark and sinister deeds just as white men! Chief, please tell Mrs. Hood, that no one is trying to hang anyone, we are just, as a nation, trying to grapple with the specter of our leader being boldly and openly accused of crime.

Tell Mrs. Hood and Mr. Wildman that whether it is hearsay by white people or hearsay by black people we need to know the truth because it is that alone that will set our nation free!

Chief, we all have children and we must sacrifice for them to make sure that they do not lose hope in the fairness of our system and commit themselves to crime and banditry! We do not want to become like Jamaica or like Trinidad!

Chief, persons have said to me that I have to be careful about what I say for obvious reasons. I have said to them that my life is not mine to lose or keep, it is the Lord's! I will die, not in man's time, but in the Lord's time! I have already counted the cost!

The Prime Minister has said to his people not to be afraid for him because he can take care of himself, but be concerned for the country Grenada.

Chief, I do not have bodyguards, but still I will say, do not be afraid for my life because my creator will take care of me and will not allow me to die before I have fulfilled my role in Grenada!

But having said all this, let us rally around our country and put its interests first and not our selfish interests! Chief, I know that as a child you had to take the bitterest medicines at the hand of your mother. Remember the bitter worm medicines and so on? Remember how you thought that you were going to die at that time?

Chief, no doubt your mother used to say that it is good for you, even when you could not have seen the good. You needed a purge she would say! Chief, you are like a mother to Grenada and Grenada needs a purge! Please help Grenada to purge itself, as painful as it may be! Do not be afraid, it will redound to the good of our nation!

Chief, what if you lose your job or popularity as a result of your stance? You will have done yeoman service to your country and would have contributed to its growth.

Please think about it Chief! Grenada is depending on you to have the hearsay investigated! Chief, you cannot use Mr. Wildman and his boys because he has disqualified himself, he has shown his hand!

We need outside help from some international body! Please call on our friends in the international community!

Sincerely yours in the service of Grenada.

Cajeton A.K. Hood
YOUR former Permanent Secretary