Port of Spain West MP Nileung Hypolite has started seeking legal assistance for detained footballer Keon Quow following futile efforts to get assistance from Government on the issue. Hypolite confirmed the situation yesterday.
He said Quow was a promising footballer and had just gotten contracts with a prominent football club and had also played for Police FC teams. Hypolite said Quow was detained by police in search and seizure exercises at Beetham Gardens just over a week ago.
Quow was among two others detained from one household. The other two detainees are his cousins. Hypolite said he had made an appeal on the issue to Sports Minister Anil Roberts in last weekend’s debate on the state of emergency.
Hypolite said: “I appealed for the Sports Minister to intervene with the National Security Minister John Sandy to see if they can look into this since Quow is a young man with a lot of promise and a lot of talent. He does not smoke or drink.”
“But Sports Minister Roberts laughed it off and said nothing, so I am trying on my own to seek legal assistance to try and help in some way,” Hypolite added.
Hypolite who noted that President George Maxwell Richards proceeded on vacation, questioned whether Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar would be leaving T&T as initially planned to attend the United Nations’ General Assembly on September 19 - 24. Earlier this year Goverment had stated that the UN General Assembly was among the PM’s engagements for the latter part of the year.
Because he's black and from Beetham, says Cox.
T&T Express.
W-Connection footballer held...
September 2, 2011
A PROFESSIONAL footballer with no criminal record is one of the 360-plus alleged gang members arrested during the State of Emergency, Opposition Member of Parliament Donna Cox said yesterday.
The only reason Keon Quow was arrested is because he is of African descent and living in the Beetham, Cox said.
Cox made the statement during the debate on the motion which asked the House of Representatives to take note of the President's statement, which set out the specific grounds on which the decision to declare a State of Emergency was based.
Quow, a professional footballer with local club W Connection, once represented the country with the under-20 national team, Cox said.
Quow was one of several Beetham residents arrested under the Anti-Gang legislation during a police raid, Cox said.
He has no criminal record.
Quow will be unable to access bail for at least four months because he was arrested under anti-gang legislation, Cox said, adding that the State of Emergency is a way to "legitimise abuse" by law enforcement officials and a way to make "wrongful arrests". Government MPs chided Cox for her statements.
However, Cox told Lopinot/Bon Air West MP Dr Lincoln Douglas, who was seated behind her, if he was living in the Beetham he would have been "well qualified" to be arrested and labelled as a gang member also.
Cox said the Government was also spinning top in mud in relation to the fight against crime as the Repeat Offenders Programme (ROPE), which monitored gangs, was disbanded.
She said alleged gang leaders arrested at the Hyatt Regency hotel last week were awarded Government contracts the day they checked in to the hotel.
Alleged gang leader Cedric "Burkie" Burke, 36, and gang member Keon "Baine" Bain, 31, were arrested by police at the hotel last Friday.
Cox also said the fact that "borderline criminals are housed with hardcore criminals" will only fuel crime.
She described the State of Emergency as a "short-term solution to a long problem", adding that what is really needed is a "sustainable, fair and legal" alternative.