Senator says hits called on Facebook: THREE RABBITS BRING DEATH

GANGSTERS are using social media platforms like Facebook to order “hits” on victims, Independent Senator Paul Richards told the Senate in Tuesday’s debate on a wire-tapping bill. More disturbingly, these “shot-callers” are operating from behind bars using contraband cellphones, he added.

Backing the bill, Richards said known, high-risk, high-profile inmates have regular access to cell-phones which they use to disrupt TT as if they were free.

Given this, he asked what was the use of putting them in jail.

Citing Minister of National Security Stuart Young, Richards said, “He said shots are called disrupting Port of Spain and disrupting the operations of the country on a regular basis.”

Richards said the walls of Port of Spain and Golden Grove Prisons are falling apart to such an extent that they cannot physically accommodate the equipment needed to jam phone calls made by inmates from illicit cell phones. He said cellphones are smuggled in by prison officers and visitors, by being thrown over the wall, by being dropped in by drones and during the transport of inmates to court. Richards said the prisoner transport service should be held to account, by examining their protocols and maybe imposing sanctions.

While law enforcement may intercept cell-phone calls coming from jail, Richards claimed inmates are now using social media to order hits, and new systems must be used to combat this.

“The inmates and their cohorts, in every jurisdiction around the world, are not only using cell-phones and verbal communication. They are using fake Facebook profiles where they would put up picture of three rabbits and that picture of three rabbits would mean a hit is on.

“It may seem innocuous and benign to the general public because it is just a Facebook profile but they have a cell-phone in the prison and they have social media accounts which are fake and they send codes via social media.

“They are not going to say ‘I am going to kill X.’ They will send a lot of coded information through their Facebook profiles.”

He hoped the bill lets the authorities intercept this as prosecutable evidence.

“It is a great concern in other jurisdictions because of how pervasive social media is. If I am an inmate, I’m not going to pick up the phone and say ‘X and Y, we’re on for tomorrow, two o’clock.’ I am going to send it in a code on the most pervasive means of communication in the world now which is social media.”

Richards lamented inmates have live-steamed parties from inside jail via social media platforms. Generally he thought cellphones were one of the hardest items to regulate, as they were the most valuable commodity inside jail. The Interception of Communication (Amendment) Bill 2020 was passed by 22 votes for, six against and one abstention.