Not one woman, not one homosexual. What a country!

Jun 27, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Magistrate Judy Latchman sentenced Ronella Junior to 36 months in prison for stealing $200, 000 from her employer. Ms. Junior, the court was told, was a first offender. Interesting to note that in prison terms, three years are not calculated as 36 months. In court a year is ten months. When the accused is sentenced in months, not years, then twelve months are twelve months.
I have written enough of Judy Latchman. If you Google ‘Freddie Kissoon and Magistrate Latchman’ you will see how many times I have journalistically indicted her. I wrote the Judicial Service Commission asking for an investigation into a particular incident. I received a letter from the then-Chancellor, Carl Singh, telling me an investigation found her not guilty of wrongdoing. There was no formal appearance of Ms. Latchman, because there was no formal hearing. I didn’t follow up, because I knew why the Chancellor acted that way.
I wrote the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) again when Kwame McCoy and company were charged for assaulting me. My submission argued that because of my trenchant questioning of Latchman’s ability on the bench, the JSC should request that she recuse herself. I stated in my communication that the Magistrate had rejected such a request from me.
I never heard from Chancellor Singh. I know why he did not intervene. I guess my readers will never know why the Chancellor acted that way. I cannot include that story in my published memoirs. In writing about the possibility of penning my memoirs in a column a few years ago, I did opine that should I do so, I would have to climb the court steps everyday answering libel writs.
This same magistrate fined Sonia Baksh $50,000 for stealing a Galaxy phone valued $160,000. How do you explain the discrepancy in the Junior and Baksh decisions? This same magistrate put bail at $60,000 on a man for throwing oil in his neighbour’s yard. The same magistrate put $60,000 bail on two security guards at Charlestown School who exchanged fistic blows. One of the reasons I have focused on some magistrates is because of the nature of the sentencing.
Wasn’t there something wrong when Magistrate McLennan sentenced a driver to pay a fine of $100,000 for violating a stop sign and killing a motorist and badly injuring his daughter? A driver is convicted for death by dangerous driving and is fined a mere $100,000. Such a situation cries out for investigation. Wasn’t there someone in the legal profession who stood back and said, “wait, something is wrong here?”
When you see sentences like the one in McLennan’s case, it has to draw curiosity and should probably engender questions from the Chancellor, who at the time was Carl Singh. The same magistrate has now been promoted to judgeship. Really! This is the land of incredible things.
Do you sentence a young woman to three years as a first offender for stealing $200,000? Where are our feminist groups? Where are our homosexual groups that are constantly calling for justice for the LGBT community?
This country is one big circus and the clowns are unstoppable fools. I like Mark Benschop’s characterization of the Bar Association in a letter published in this newspaper two weeks ago. That necessitates a separate article, and indeed there are some colossal clowns in the Bar Association. But let’s return to the LGBT. I read a reply to one of my columns by three LGBT groups and there was a hilarious section that I laughed so outrageously that my coffee spilt and burnt my leg.
These three groups, after informing me about their existence of the activism on behalf of the human rights of LGBT victims, suggested that I join them in the picket line when they have their activities. Not a bad exhortation. Human rights of all minorities must be respected. But what about the human rights of Ms. Junior? She got thirty six months for stealing $200,000 and she was a first offender. Does she deserve a picket to protest such cruelties? My answer is yes.
Can the LGBT organizational leaders contact me so we can arrange a picket protest? What about the exciting, dynamic, brilliant feminist groups we have in Guyana. Will they denounce what happened to Ms. Junior? No they will not. You see, Ms. Junior is a non-entity that is dispensable. If it was a nice, little lady from middle class society with her Gucci handbag and BMW, and the magistrate had jailed her for running a red light, Red Thread would have seen red.

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