Last week, I gave an interview to the Royal Gazette. A comment I made to the reporter was misquoted, and has caused great consternation to the BPSU and the BIU. By the reporter’s own admission, he misquoted me and informed the BPSU that he had done so. When he told them what I actually said, they maintained their reaction. To date the Royal Gazette has not acknowledged publicly that I was misquoted.
So now I would like to clarify what was meant from my perspective as a former civil servant, having worked within the criminal justice system.
What I meant was this: the government of the day states that it is a government that represents and addresses the needs of the community, in particular the Black community, and this would be evident in the makeup of the current government, which is 99 percent Black and 1 percent white. The civil service, in particular the criminal justice system, of which my former clients and I have had knowledge and experience of for over 20 years, is essentially Black.
Obviously, not all civil servants are Black. Furthermore, when I was speaking about a Black civil service, I meant that’s what is represented in terms of the race, the people who are working in the criminal justice system and the people whom my former clients would see would essentially look just like him or her.
The point I was making is that the civil service and the government has let the people of this country down, especially the vulnerable and the underserved. I know for a fact, having spoken to and worked with individuals, who come from challenging backgrounds that this is true.
I, along with former colleagues, have tried to address the problems to assist this vulnerable population as best we could.
And what we found was, the civil service and the way systems currently run did not allow this to happen in an efficient way. The public needs to know the truth about how government systems work and negatively impact on the lives of persons in the community, especially the underserved and vulnerable.
I would advise everybody who feels that the government is not taking care of their needs and their community to get out and vote and let’s make change.