Senior Reporter
shaliza.hassanali@guardian.co.tt
Brazen daylight robberies in the city of Port-of-Spain on Friday have left vendors, shoppers and business owners uneasy as they carry out their daily activities.
President of the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association Gregory Aboud has pointed to a well-organised group of criminals who have been instilling fear in people as they come in groups to pounce on them.
The thieves, who are known by scores of business owners and vendors, he said, have been networking to avoid being caught by members of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.
Some of these criminals also involve schoolchildren as young as 14. A distraught vendor said she was attacked by a boy in a school uniform on Friday. His mother, she said, later returned to apologise for his actions.
“The word has spread that anyone could do this (rob) on the streets ... and it would not surprise me if the school children also get this sort of information,” Aboud said.
His comments came on the heels of Friday’s robbery of 62-year-old Maralyn Callender-Morrison—the holder of dual citizenship for T&T and America—who was relieved of $170,000 in cash on Queen Janelle Commissiong Street after being beaten by the bandits.
The video of Callender-Morrison being attacked by the robbers went viral and created outrage among the public.
Still visibly shaken yesterday when the Sunday Guardian visited her at a relative’s home in Arima, Callender-Morrison said she was followed by a gang of men from a bank on Independence Square after withdrawing $65,000 in cash to repair her home in Toco.
She also had US$15,000 in cash, two chequebooks, bank cards, a driver’s licence, a cell phone valued at US$1,000 and a passport in her handbag.
Callender-Morrison, a T&T national who migrated to New York more than 40 years ago and became an American citizen, said T&T, which was once a paradise, had now become a haven for murders, crime and criminality.
She said after leaving the bank she got a strange feeling that she was being followed.
As she walked along Queen Street, she said three men came from behind and started yanking her handbag off her shoulder.
“I tried to put up a fight but they kept telling me to let go of the bag.”
A struggle ensued and Callender-Morrison was thrown on the pavement where she struck her head and almost passed out.
Her attackers then dragged her for several feet on the pavement as she continued to grip her handbag.
“I eventually let go of the handbag after being kicked multiple times in the face, chest and back by one of the robbers.”
Callender-Morrison said no member of the public tried to intervene during the robbery.
“When you look at it, is your own Black people doing these kinds of things to each other. For me to come here and for this thing to happen it’s a shame.”
Callender-Morrison said the incident had left a sour taste in her mouth, and she promised not to return to T&T.
“Since the incident, my children back home have been crying non-stop. I didn’t sleep last night because I was so scared.
“People are living in fear ... you are scared to even go outside. This is no life for people to live.”
Callender-Morrison said the situation could have turned out differently.
“I could have met my death yesterday. I am a praying soul. I always ask God to shield and protect me. But thank God I am alive. Money could always be replaced but my life cannot. I am just happy that I am alive today.”
Hours before Callender-Morrison’s robbery, a Woman Police Constable attached to the Victim Support Unit in Tobago was also attacked by bandits in the city.
The 40-year-old police officer told investigators that she was walking east along Independence Square around 9.50 am when on reaching the vicinity of Lucky Bakery she was approached by a man who snatched a gold heart-shaped chain worth $8,000 that she was wearing.
The robber then ran towards Charlotte Street and escaped.
Acting on intelligence, officers recovered the chain but no one was arrested.
Aboud: There is anger, disappointment
Aboud told the Sunday Guardian yesterday the video of Callender-Morrison’s robbery evoked anger.
“There has been a groundswell of anger and disappointment at the way we have been abandoned. We can all agree that the situation that exists in our country is completely out of control. I am not in a state of panic ... I am in a state of anger because we are being left defenceless. You are handcuffing the citizens of the country and you are allowing the criminals to be free. This is wrong.”
Insisting that the situation had to be reversed, Aboud said, “It cannot be that a society can descend into anarchy like this.”
Aboud said he was left to wonder how the robbers knew the woman had withdrawn money from the bank.
He called for emergency action by the banks for the protection and safety of their customers.
“The banks have to realise that they are failing us on the question of protecting their clients.
“You can’t have this number of repetitive cases of persons being robbed when they come from the banks and all we can get via a response is to offer a reward through Crime Stoppers. Surely you must be joking if that is the only response that you have.”
In light of the chain of daring muggings and vicious robberies, Aboud proposed that Finance Minister Colm Imbert “go to Parliament and immediately request passage of some sort of amendment to the tax act that would give businesses and homeowners a reduction in their tax bill for personal protection”.
“Give us a tax credit,” Aboud appealed. “Give the communities and neighbourhoods a tax credit and allow them to use that money, by way of proof, of course, to use that money to protect themselves. Allow us to put patrols on the street to protect the shoppers who are keeping us alive in the city of Port-of-Spain.”
He said the city was “under siege” and called for an undercover police operation to catch the culprits.
“We know who they are. We have provided photo and video evidence of the perpetrators ... some of whom are well known to us.”
In the last four months, he said, there had been an upsurge of snatch-and-grab incidents in the city.
Insisting that the crime wave has gone too far, Aboud said what is taking place now is “damn nonsense”.
Yesterday, several downtown vendors and shoppers admitted that crime was on an upsurge in the city and called for a higher police presence.
Frederick Street vendor Mary Cassie said on Friday a schoolboy snatched a watch from her stall and after being caught, he admitted that he was pressured into stealing by his classmates.
“It’s really sad and unfortunate that crime has been on the upswing,” Cassie lamented.
A Queen Street business owner said that the police would always show up after a crime had been committed.
“This band of thieves is mashing up town. We need more police protection. We need help.”
Police: One man held for brutal robbery, more boots on the ground soon
Oswain Subero, Assistant Commissioner of Police North East, told the Sunday Guardian yesterday that the Inter-Agency Task Force arrested one person on Friday for Callender-Morrison’s robbery.
“The police are continuing their exercises. We have been looking over the footage and have some identity of the persons involved. I am certain we will solve that crime.”
He promised that the TTPS would put more boots on the ground in Port-of-Spain soon.
“So, we should see some changes.”