An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Recog­nis­ing the ur­gent need to con­nect with the youths ear­ly on as part of the fight against crime, the Port-of-Spain Com­mu­ni­ty Ori­ent­ed Polic­ing Sec­tion host­ed a walk to in­crease pub­lic aware­ness on Sat­ur­day.

Lead­ing the march ti­tled, “All Hands on Deck, All Boots on the Ground, Walk­ing for a Brighter To­mor­row”, was WP/Cpl Giselle Thomas who said the theme was cho­sen, “Due to the crime sit­u­a­tion that is es­ca­lat­ing in T&T at present.”

Beam­ing as she looked at the 12 po­lice youth clubs that par­tic­i­pat­ed in the walk through the cap­i­tal, she said the ages of those present which ranged from sev­en years to 50-years-plus was a tes­ta­ment that peo­ple were ready to con­tin­ue part­ner­ing with the po­lice.

Ag In­sp Court & Process Branch Joel Braith­waite promised there would be sim­i­lar ini­tia­tives to come.

He said, “We are see­ing crime re­al­ly be­ing per­pe­trat­ed by the young per­sons and we have a se­ri­ous prob­lem with crime in the schools as well.”

He said it was time for the voic­es of all to be heard and that cit­i­zens were stand­ing up and recog­nis­ing the need to an­swer this call.

Al­so present was the Di­vi­sion of Gen­der and Child Af­fairs, Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter led by Di­rec­tor Shelly-Ann Hart who called on all to “Make the world safe from vi­o­lence for women and girls and for all.”

Ex­cit­ed to cel­e­brate the In­ter­na­tion­al Day for the Elim­i­na­tion of Vi­o­lence Against Women ob­served to­day, she spoke of their cal­en­dar of events kick­ing off the 16 days of ac­tivism against gen­der-based vi­o­lence.

With World Aids Day to be cel­e­brat­ed on De­cem­ber 1, and Hu­man Rights Day on De­cem­ber 10, As­sis­tant Di­rec­tor, Gen­der Af­fairs, Amil­car Sanatan ac­knowl­edged that young peo­ple play an im­por­tant role in mod­el­ling the be­hav­iours and prac­tices need­ed in so­ci­ety.

He said, “Chil­dren are very im­por­tant in so­ci­ety as they have a voice and vi­sion for de­vel­op­ment.”

Joshua Ja­groop, 15, of the South East Port-of-Spain Youth Club said, “I chose the youth club over the streets be­cause my par­ents nev­er want­ed me to be part of that stuff.”

Re­tired ACP Joanne James who now func­tions as a law en­force­ment con­sul­tant and crime and polic­ing spe­cial­ist for Project GRACE which has been im­ple­ment­ed via the Pan Amer­i­can De­vel­op­ment Foun­da­tion (PADF), ex­plained the ur­gent need to ad­dress the root caus­es of crime.