‘Right now Ralph have 30 security’

“Eleven countries in the Caribbean and all over the world, not only are ministers given vehicles, sometimes they are given houses to stay, they are given bodyguards and security.

“Right now Ralph have 30 security around he when he going anyway, not another minister have one,” said Cruickshank, stating that he considers this to be cowardly.{{more}}

“Sir James was Prime Minister in this country, walking around, driving his vehicle, going anywhere; not a man never touch him. As a man thinketh so is he,” said Cruickshank.

For several months, a period dating from May 2000 until his retirement in 2001 former Prime Minister Sir James was guarded by Special Service Unit officers.

On Tuesday, June 13, 2000 during a simultaneous broadcast on television and Radio 705 Sir James said: “Citizens may have noted the increased presence of the SSU around my movements… This is not of my doing, or my own fears. The police are responding to the threats on my life which have come to their attention.”

On Sunday, February 25, 2001, Sir James, who at the time held the post of Senior Minister, suffered a fractured bone above the right eye after he was cuffed during an altercation by Kerwest Cupid, a 32-year-old man from Clare Valley who had been living in the United Sates for 15 years.

Cupid, a security guard from Brooklyn who claimed that he wasn’t familiar with Sir James, was charged $1, 000.