Stake­hold­ers across the coun­try are will­ing to be in­con­ve­nienced as law en­force­ment agen­cies move to bring down the crim­i­nal el­e­ments.

On Wednes­day, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young and Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith warned the pub­lic to ex­pect some lev­el of in­con­ve­nience as law­men launch an in­tel­li­gence-dri­ven op­er­a­tion tar­get­ed at crim­i­nals in cer­tain com­mu­ni­ties. The Po­lice Ser­vice al­so raised the polic­ing alert from “Am­ber” to “Red” as a re­sult of on­go­ing gang ac­tiv­i­ties.

With­in the last few weeks, Sea Lots, East Port-of-Spain, Care­nage and En­ter­prise have been plagued by gang and gun vi­o­lence. Yes­ter­day, stake­hold­ers shared their views on the new crime-fight­ing ini­tia­tive, stat­ing that they are pre­pared to be in­con­ve­nienced to put the crim­i­nals be­hind bars.

Pres­i­dent of the San Fer­nan­do Busi­ness As­so­ci­a­tion, Daphne Bartlett:

“There has been a spate of killings with­in re­cent times and it con­cerns all of us. The talk we are hear­ing is that the killings are be­ing trig­gered by gang ri­val­ry. All we want is peace in the na­tion again and if it means we are go­ing to be in­con­ve­nienced we will have to work with that. The busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty in San Fer­nan­do sup­ports this ini­tia­tive 100 per cent. We al­so want to rec­om­mend a lim­it­ed state of emer­gency in those com­mu­ni­ties that are cre­at­ing great con­cern.”

Pres­i­dent of the Down­town Own­ers and Mer­chants As­so­ci­a­tion, Gre­go­ry Aboud:

“Like al­most all oth­er cit­i­zens, mem­bers of our as­so­ci­a­tion are in full sup­port of ef­forts by T&T Po­lice Ser­vice to con­front the hor­ri­ble and in­ex­cus­able loss of life that is tak­ing place. We are mov­ing up the ranks as one of the mur­der­ous na­tions in the world and any ef­fort by the po­lice ser­vice to save lives and pre­vent mur­ders will be sup­port­ed by all cit­i­zens. We, how­ev­er, have the view that lock­downs, lock-ups and raids have been tried many times be­fore. What has not been tried is a mech­a­nism by which we can solve the crimes, make ar­rests and get the con­vic­tions against those who feel that they shoot and kill as they please.”

For­mer prime min­is­ter, Bas­deo Pan­day:

“I think the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice should be per­mit­ted to do his job. He has promised to do it with­in the law. He has all the facts about the crim­i­nal sit­u­a­tion in Trinidad and To­ba­go and sure­ly he is the best per­son to de­cide what to do. If the lock­downs, road­blocks and search­es will deal with the crime sit­u­a­tion I am will­ing to be in­con­ve­nienced. There is a price we would have to pay for any­thing we want to achieve. We just can’t wish things will hap­pen. There must be ac­tion.”

Pres­i­dent of Route Two Maxi Taxi As­so­ci­a­tion, Li­nus Phillip:

“The as­so­ci­a­tion would have no prob­lem with the in­con­ve­nience caused. For years dri­vers and pas­sen­gers have been re­peat­ed­ly robbed while in maxi taxis. Some peo­ple even lost their lives. As a mat­ter of fact, the pub­lic should have no is­sue with the po­lice con­duct­ing their work be­cause we have all been af­fect­ed by crime in one way or the oth­er. If the po­lice in­tend to do search­es, raids and road­blocks to crack down on crim­i­nals it should be done on an on­go­ing ba­sis. A one-off thing will not work.

En­ter­prise Com­mu­ni­ty Masjid Imam, Taulib Sear­les:

“Any ac­tions that would lend some lev­el of com­fort or ease to the cit­i­zen­ry we should wel­come. So fac­ing some in­con­ve­nience.The re­al­i­ty, is that, the crime sta­tis­tics are not com­fort­ing. Rais­ing the alert lev­el to red is a step in the right di­rec­tion. So I too may have to go through the in­con­ve­nience the com­mis­sion­er spoke, but that is a price we have to pay if we want to bring back our na­tion to what it was. I am in full sup­port of our com­mu­ni­ty, as with all oth­er com­mu­ni­ties that are sim­i­lar­ly brand­ed to search­es and lock­downs. At the end of the day, law-abid­ing cit­i­zens will be the ben­e­fi­cia­ries.”

Hu­man rights ac­tivist and for­mer sen­a­tor, Di­ana Ma­habir-Wy­att:

“If it has to be done, it has to be done. This (crack­down) is done all over the world. You just have to put up with it. I have a great deal of re­spect for Gary Grif­fith and what he is try­ing to do. I think for the first time we are see­ing a large ma­jor­i­ty of the po­lice force sup­port­ing him. We all have no­ticed the lev­el of mis­be­hav­iour on the part of the rogue el­e­ments in the Po­lice Ser­vice which has gone down con­sid­er­ably. I took this as a sign that peo­ple in the ser­vice are re­spect­ing Grif­fith and at least they are walk­ing more care­ful­ly.”