Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

“Indeed, everyone to whom much was given, much will be demanded of him” – The Bible (Luke 12:48 – New World Translation)

When it comes to police officers, we (the community) do give them a lot (guns, authority to detain and punish), and we demand much in return (“serve and protect”). When that formula gets distorted, it is bad for the community and difficult to make progress.

The book Go Lean … Caribbean asserts that to elevate Caribbean society – to make progress – there must be a focus on the region’s economic, security and governing engines. While the book primarily targets strategies, tactics and implementations for economic empowerment (jobs, investments, education, entrepreneurship, etc.), it posits that security remediation must be front-and-center along with these other empowerment efforts.

The book directly relates (Page 23) that with the emergence of new economic drivers that “bad actors” – even within law enforcement – will also emerge thereafter to exploit the opportunities, with good, bad and evil intent. This is a historical fact, and is bound to repeat again and again. The below news article and VIDEO concurs this point.

The following news article reports on corruption by police officials that have undermined Puerto Rico’s justice institutions; a surprising discovery as Puerto Rico is expected to already be an elevated society due to their US territorial status. This is far from the reality, as the stories here relate:

Title: Ten Puerto Rico police accused of criminal network activity –
Retrieved October 13, 2015 from: http://news.yahoo.com/ten-puerto-rico-police-accused-criminal-network-activity-193240325.html

Miami (AFP) September 29, 2015 – Ten Puerto Rico officers have been charged with belonging to a criminal network within the police force, abusing their power to commit a long list of crimes, authorities said Tuesday.

The police used “their affiliation with law enforcement to make money through robbery, extortion, manipulating court records and selling illegal narcotics,” Rosa Emilia Rodriguez-Velez, a US attorney for the American territory, said in a statement.

The agents collaborated to conduct traffic stops and enter the homes of suspected criminals to steal money, property and drugs, according to the statement.

The officers also allegedly planted evidence and extorted weapons and drugs from individuals in exchange for their release.

In addition, they are accused of having manipulated court records and selling drugs outright.

“The criminal action today dismantles a network of officers who, we allege, used their badges and their guns not to uphold the law, but to break it,” said Rodriguez-Velez.

———-

This story represents a perennial threat in Puerto Rico. This has happened before, again and again; see here:

VIDEO – 1,700 Cops arrested in Puerto Rico! – https://youtu.be/aOVF8oy9PZ0

Published on Jul 11, 2012 – Read the New York Times article in the link below. Be sure to pay extra attention to paragraphs 3, 4 and 5. I urge all police officers to ask yourselves if you really believe Raymond Kelly and Michael Bloomberg are going to defend you when the FBI comes to arrest you for Constitutional rights violations and discrimination.

This Puerto Rico experience is not an exception to American historicity, but rather this is “par for the course”. There have always been threats to US law-and-order (homeland security) from foreign and domestic “actors”; think the Old West. This is the reality in the United States mainland and in the Caribbean territories (Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands). These threats are also expected to materialize more in the Caribbean, as a direct product of success in elevating the region’s societal engines.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to elevate the region’s economic, securing and governing engines. The roadmap expects to raise the region to a $800 Billion Single Market economy after a 5 year period; (from $278 Billion according to 2010 assessments). This roadmap fully expects the eventual corruption activities from those in power. The roadmap thusly embeds checks-and-balances from the outset of the plan.

This point is pronounced early in the book with the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12) that claims:

x.   Whereas we are surrounded and allied to nations of larger proportions in land mass, populations, and treasuries, elements in their societies may have ill-intent in their pursuits, at the expense of the safety and security of our citizens. We must therefore appoint “new guards” to ensure our public safety and threats against our society, both domestic and foreign. The Federation must employ the latest advances and best practices … to assuage continuous threats against public safety.

xii.  Whereas the legacy in recent times in individual states may be that of ineffectual governance with no redress to higher authority, the accedence of this Federation will ensure accountability and escalation of the human and civil rights of the people for good governance, justice assurances, due process and the rule of law. As such, any threats of a “failed state” status for any member state must enact emergency measures on behalf of the Federation to protect the human, civil and property rights of the citizens, residents, allies, trading partners, and visitors of the affected member state and the Federation as a whole.

xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes, including piracy and other forms of terrorism, can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

Why is the report of police corruption in Puerto Rico such a concern for the CU/Go Lean planners? The book asserts that with the close proximity of the islands, a security threat in any one island will be a threat to all islands.

But the US is the most powerful and richest Single Market economy in the world, surely they have the means by which to mitigate these threats on their own? This is true! And yet, the US does cooperate with other multilateral law enforcement agencies; think Interpol.

Despite the access to American justice institutions, this Go Lean book posits that Puerto Rico and the Caribbean region must prepare its own security apparatus for its own security needs. So the request is that all Caribbean member-states form and empower a security force and related justice institutions – CariPol – to execute a limited scope on these sovereign territories. Under US law, this arrangement will be instituted with an Interstate Compact, enacted in Congress. These compacts require an administering agency. This allows for the employment of the CU Trade Federation with  scope for Puerto Rico (and the US Virgin Islands).

Puerto Rico needs a societal turn-around. They are even open to radical economic fixes.

The goal of the CU/Go Lean roadmap is to confederate all of the Caribbean – all 30 member-states – under a unified entity to provide homeland security to the local region. But Homeland Security for the Caribbean has a different meaning than for our American counterparts. Yes, we must be on defense against military intrusions like terrorism and piracy, we mostly have to contend with threats that may imperil the region’s economic engines, and crime remediation and mitigation; this includes organized crime. The CU security goal is for public safety! The goal of the CU is set to optimize Caribbean society through economic empowerment, and also the security dynamics of the region, since these are inextricably linked to this same endeavor. Therefore the Go Lean roadmap has 3 prime directives:

• Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
• Establishment of a Security Apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines from economic crimes and cross-border threats.
• Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers with member-states to mitigate regional threats and allowing for anti-corruption measures.

The Caribbean appointing “new guards”, or a security pact to ensure justice and public safety will include many strategies, tactics and implementations deemed “best-practice” over the years, including an advanced Intelligence Gathering & Analysis effort to draw out and interdict corruption that might emerge in the region. This Security Apparatus is “Step One, Day One” in the Go Lean roadmap, covering the approach for adequate funding, accountability and control. The Go Lean book details the series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to provide increased public safety & security in the Caribbean region:

Other subjects related to justice and security empowerments for the region have been blogged in other Go Lean…Caribbean commentaries, as sampled here:

The vision of the Go Lean roadmap is to make the Caribbean homeland, a better place to live, work and play. One of many missions, is to lower the “push” factors (from “push-and-pull” reference) so that our citizens are not led to flee their homeland for foreign (North American and European) shores. Among the many reasons people emigrate, are fear of corruption from police and political authority figures; these ones may be able to abuse power with impunity. There may be no sense of justice; “No Justice”, so “No Peace”.

Puerto Rico is an American tragedy, as it is near-Failed State status.

We must provide a roadmap to do better!

We know that “bad actors” will emerge, from internal and external origins. We must be prepared and on-guard to defend our homeland against all threats, foreign and domestic. Yet we must maintain transparency, accountability, and constant commitment to due-process and the rule-of-law.

Everyone in the Caribbean, the people and institutions, are hereby urged to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap for elevation of Caribbean society. The roadmap calls for the heavy-lifting so that the justice institutions of the CU can execute their role in a just manner, thus impacting the Greater Good. This produces the output of a technocratic system bent on efficiency and effectiveness. In practice, this would mean accountability, transparency, and checks-and-balances in the execution of the rule-of-law.

This roadmap allows us to truly do better. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!