Justice system really worrying

THE EDITOR: A TV6 news item has caused me to worry about the justice system in TT.

Two men charged with the crime of possession and cultivation of marijuana with a street value of $3.6 million and a gun and ammunition pleaded guilty after being caught "red-handed" in a police exercise.

The goodly magistrate imposed a fine of $10,000 on each man, who are both unemployed, and gave them three months to pay or face an alternative of nine months hard labour on the drug possession charge, and two years on the gun and ammunition charge.

No wonder the police and even the government ministers feel sometimes the judiciary is not on the same page as the rest of the country, when these lenient sentences are imposed. I hope the DPP or the State appeals this decision, because it is certainly sending a message to those who want to break the law.

Many times people who plead guilty to gun or drug possession are given slap-on-the-wrist fines with time to pay. I suppose they have to go and "work hard" to get money to pay the fine.

According to the old saying, maybe justice is really blind.

RICHARD PATINO

Arima