When you hear the phrase "a ticket to your dreams" you automatically think of the lottery... I'm sure that has been etched in our minds since we were pretty young; watching TV with your parents and in between the news or after the newscast came the evening's lotto draw. Remember the days when there was only ONE lotto draw per day; now with so many gambling options we're up to at least four times a day with those games being offered by Supreme Ventures, but I digress.The word ticket means:
| Noun: |
| A piece of paper or small card that gives the holder a certain right, esp. to enter a place, travel by public transport, or participate... |
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| Verb: |
| Issue (someone) with an official notice of a traffic or other offense. |
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(courtesy of Dictionary.com)
The one we will be focusing on is the latter, or rather started out as the latter, and then became one big mess.. Yes I am going to go there, those of you who have been watching the news should probably already know where this is going.....Bruce Bicknell, of TankWeld Metals, was speeding on some roadway across the island, and was stopped by a police officer. Anybody would know that when a police man stops you while driving, he's gonna ask for your car papers. Now it is alleged that JMD $2,000 was in the envelope within which the car documents were presented to the officer; now if that money was in the envelope for another purpose and it was given to the police man to make it SEEM like a bribe (when it really wasn't), we don't know... But the police officer quickly wrote up a "bribery ticket", or rather stated that Mr. Bicknell would be charged for bribery. He then went on to drag in MP Daryl Vaz and SSP (Senior Superintendent of Police) James Forbes.
So from a speeding ticket, to a bribery charge and then to include 2 other "innocent individuals" in the mess.The maximum charge you can get for a speeding ticket these days is JMD $5,000 I believe, and you are going to jeopardize your reputation for five thousand Jamaican dollars, and then drag two other seemingly upstanding citizens down with you?... (well let's be honest nobody really thinks Daryl Vaz is an upstanding citizen, but SSP Forbes of course). Isn't this whole mess just absurd? Mr. Bicknell can afford to pay a traffic ticket, it's not like he' strapped for cash ... Is it then that he just feels like he is superior to the justice system? and let's not even bring up that he gave the police officer a measly $2,000 ... and you know this man is NOT driving an economical sedan... you know he's in a gas guzzling SUV and is gonna look at the big big police man and give him 2 gran? That two thousand dollars is not worth risking your job, is it?Anyway, I'm not supporting bribery, so moving right along... Now after this alleged bribe Mr. TankWeld does not call his lawyer to make a case that the money was just in the envelope and it was not a bribery attempt (that's what I would've done...but its not about me) NO, he calls MP, perhaps friend Daryl Vaz, who allegedly spoke with the police officer asking him to let him off because if he get's a charge some visa or another will be revoked. Ok, you call a friend because you're scared or confused; after the friend speaks to the police officer and the man is not moved, you still don't call your lawyer? NO. You call an SSP... coincidentally (as word on the street would have it), the same SSP who this particular police officer, Sergeant Jubert Llewelyn (wah kinna name is Jubert tho), has some run in with before.All three men re out on bail in the sum of JMD $250,000 now look how much a five thousand dollar speeding ticket will cost not just Mr. Bicknell, but all three men. There is something more to this ... and we may never hear the rest of it, because it can't just be as we've heard it, because then it'd be ludicrous .
Stay tuned for more in the news, since they have set an October court hearing, because there are more charges and bigger, juicier details, like wire tapping and such....
He may just have bought himself and his two co-accused, a :
to a prison sentence.
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