“Girl, 10, among eight wounded in Barataria shootout,” “Two infants wounded in Sangre Grande mass shooting” and “Children, 9 & 11, shot in head, chest.”
These are just some of the headlines that have rocked T&T this year.
Fortunately, these children did not lose their lives. Nine-year-old Jomol Modeste and Nazim Owen, aged three, weren’t so lucky. They were both shot dead as gunmen targeted the adults around them.
According to police statistics, six children have been murdered for the year— one girl and five boys. At least half of them were shot dead.
In the last 10 years, 150 children were murdered.
Addressing this, criminologist Dr Wendell Wallace said since 2000, the mentality of criminals has changed.
“I think what’s happening now is that you have a different generation of lawbreakers. They have absolutely no care, no respect for authority figures, they have no respect, no care, empathy for anyone but themselves, so children in their minds are simply collateral damage,” he said.
Wallace said criminals used to have an unofficial code that protected women, children and the elderly. But today, they are much younger and are trying to prove a point, he said.
“If they are looking for someone and they find that person, they are going to eliminate that person no matter who is in the midst,” he said.
That’s exactly how one witness of a shooting that left two children wounded earlier this year explained what happened.
“A vehicle pull up and you see sudden fire like fireworks, no bacchanal, no quarrel, no confusion, people liming and drinking and socialising and this car just pull up and a guy came with a hoodie on and is fireworks,” he said.
The man said the criminals saw women and children among the crowd but that did not stop them.
“Long time when them gunmen going and do they thing and they see children and family, they will still wait and hold back but like they doh care again,” he said.
Wallace added that the lack of compassion and empathy came from what they mimic from crimes committed in Central and South America.
“That appears, in my estimation, to be modelling more so Mexico and Colombia,” he said.
The last three annual Strategic Services Agency (SSA) reports noted there was an emergence of younger, more violent leaders, as well as newer gangs anticipated to be more volatile as they try to establish themselves, resulting in an increase in murders, injuries, shootings and other violent crimes.
In 2009, after Tecia Henry, 10, was strangled amidst a warring gang feud in Laventille, a peace accord named after her was established. It started at the end of June 2009 and lasted until April 2010.
Wallace said as a parent and educator, it bothers him to know that a young child who has barely lived can be killed while going to school or at a social activity.
“It pains me very much,” he said.
He said the police need to do more to get the firearms off the street, firstly by securing the porous borders.
“There is no country in the Caribbean that produces firearms,” he said.
He said the weapons found in this country are manufactured in America and South America.
“I have always advocated for the return of the police marine branch, what we have in Trinidad is land policing,” he said.
A community activist, who asked to remain anonymous, agreed with Wallace. He said while the killing of children is not new, the criminals are younger.
“You give a 15-year-old, a 14-year-old, a 16-year-old a gun and let them know it have a man in a car I want you to fix that man and this gun bussing 10 shots at a time, 15 shots at a time, he can’t control that, all he know is that when you squeeze, plenty coming out,” he said.
The community activist blamed gang leaders for this and said he does not think children like Jomol and Nazim were killed on purpose.
“They out of control because of the people who in charge of them... you know you big and have more sense and have understanding on how to do things, you know it have children out there, you still sending them and giving them that gun to go… you is to be held accountable because this is youths with no mind… They using the... children to do everything... they sending out children,” he said.
He also lamented criminals who put their children’s innocent lives in danger.
“You can’t live in the light if you doing nasty hideous things in the dark,” he said.
He believes the police can stop all the killings because they know who the criminals are.
Former insurrectionist Lorris Ballack agreed but said it will take an all-hands-on-deck approach. He said the judicial system is slow and criminals know and take advantage of this. He added that some members of the TTPS and others in authority are corrupt and encourage criminality.
“Those people have failed badly. Lady, this is an ice-cream...it melting from the top and wetting up the cone,” he said.
As an elder in the Muslim community, Ballack admitted the criminals are young and out of control.
“They cyah shoot, they ain’t train to shoot, so they pass with a gun that repeating facts and they shoot down everything,” he said.
He said no one should have authority over the citizenry, adding peace must be kept by the people.
Ballack said they are starting an organisation to help the poor called Defenders of the Poor and the Depressed.
It’s something the founder of the St James Police Youth Club, acting Corporal Derrick Sharbodie, has been doing for the last 30 years.
He said over 10,000 children had passed through his club since then, where they participate in various courses like carpentry, dancing, football and basic computer skills.
It also offers programmes for children and their parents.
“We feel like the parents must be involved in order to network ... It will be a success if the parents are involved in this youth and parenting empowerment programmes,” he said.
But as someone who has dedicated his life to positively impacting the lives of children, he said it hurts to see the future snatched away from them because of crime.
“There is a new rule. These gangs are codeless, they have no respect for life… it’s already a sad day that men are shooting down men and to see now that there is no care for children and parents, especially mothers we really have to say it’s a dark day,” Sharbodie said.
He added, “It shows the changing of the guards. There is a new gang leader now that has no care for children anymore and for life.”
He said young people are being consumed into an atmosphere of gun violence and that cannot continue. He said there are many youths with potential despite the environment they come from.
He said they have to find a spark in young people that is often overshadowed by crime.
“We have to move them from hopeless to hopefulness,” he said.
