EDITORIAL - Troupe and Reid should go!

The moral thing for Michael Troupe to do is resign his deputy chairmanship of the St James Parish Council.

If he doesn't, the People's National Party (PNP) is obliged to cut him loose. For the party, and Mr Troupe himself, should know that with such serious allegations of criminality hanging over his head, public confidence in the office would be compromised if Mr Troupe continued to occupy it.

Further, while our preference would be that they resign altogether, both Mr Troupe and Mr Sylvan Reid, the councillor for the Salt Spring division, should take leaves of absence from the local government authority until their cases are resolved.

This position, at least, may find favour with the PNP, whose general secretary, Peter Bunting, who also serves as the national security minister, said both men would be asked to "step back" from any positions they hold in the party once they are formally charged.

Our position is not about the ultimate guilt or innocence of Mr Troupe or Mr Reid, Mr Troupe's two sons, or anyone else arrested in Wednesday's police raids on their homes. However, we expect that the police would have had to present prima facie evidence of criminal activity, and the detainees' involvement therein, to have obtained the search warrants.

Indeed, the lottery scam, in which the detained men are alleged to be involved, is a serious transnational cybercrime that compromises Jamaica's internal security and economy and stresses its bilateral relations.

The United States, for example, is not happy that many of its citizens, mostly elderly pensioners, are the subjects of identity theft and are bilked, according to US and Jamaican law-enforcement agencies, of hundreds of millions of dollars annually. That the names of the victims are often purloined from offshore call centres in Montego Bay, the capital of the parish of St James, of which Mr Troupe is the deputy mayor, is potentially detrimental to the future of those businesses in Jamaica. Then there is the claim by the Jamaican police that scores of murders in Montego Bay and elsewhere in western Jamaica are related to feuds among the scammers.

INFLUENCE

It is against this backdrop that Mr Troupe and Mr Reid should concentrate, which we expect to be their intent, on proving their innocence - but at a distance from public office. Should it be otherwise, there can be the appearance of them being able to influence and/or compromise the investigations.

These observations notwithstanding, there is a perception of growing confidence by the constabulary to pursue alleged criminals, despite political standing, or social or economic status. In that regard, the arrest of Mr Troupe, an influential figure in the governing party in western Jamaica, is significant.

The police must continue to assert their independence, which Mr Bunting says he has no intention of weakening. No one, he says, can expect protection from this Government, regardless of political affiliation.

That is a principle that has not always been followed by Jamaican political leaders. Now, though, the constabulary must take Mr Bunting at his word.

Perhaps we will be seeing more influential and socially senior figures in police lock-ups and facing the courts.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.