CN photo
By
Ricardo Swire
Strong internal security suspicions abound about a Royal St Vincent & the Grenadines Police Force (RSVGPF), Special Services Unit (SSU) or Rapid Response Unit (RRU), element called the Black Squad. The Police Commissioner alluded to these ghost lawmen when he publicly declared; “There are some police officers within the RSVGPF who are involved in activities unbecoming of the oath and expectations of their positions.”
The Vincentian Black Squad police model was adapted from Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces’ elite Black Wasps unit. Members wear black fatigues labelled “Police” across the back minus hats, name tags, rank insignia or any other visible identification. In 2002 one senior SVGPF officer admitted the Black Squad emerged to specifically target “emergency police matters.” During 2008 the Vincentian Prime Minister doubled its size, citing that the Black Squad was the only police element citizens feared.
The following year, while conducting special “Operation Vincy Pac,” unidentified Black Squad officers shot dead three civilians in the Vermont community. The combined SVGPF/Regional Security System four week exercise recovered twelve illegal guns, three hundred and ninety-five cartridges of assorted ammunition, eight point five million marijuana plants and seven point three million seedlings. In late June 2009 residents of the capital Kingstown’s Murray Village contested Black Squad officers beating a resident because he requested to see a search warrant.
In November 2009 four Black Squad officers assaulted and caused grievous bodily harm to a fourteen year old and fifteen year old boy. The two Corporals and two Constables rendered both teenagers unconscious and hospitalized for seven days. Two years later Black Squad members shot and killed an escaped prisoner. In October 2013 two visiting yachtsmen, aboard a thirty-nine foot vessel moored on Union Island, were attacked and injured. High level questions were raised about the non response from either the RRU or Black Squad members.
Ricardo Swire
Ricardo Swire is the Principal Consultant at R-L-H Security Consultants & Business Support Services and writes on a number of important issues.
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