Ryan Hadeed
Five hours. That's the amount of time that passed between the kidnapping of Maria Dass-Supersad, a 26-year-old University of the West Indies employee, and her rescue by a joint operation conducted by several agencies of the TTPS. That has to be a record for local law enforcement. The last time they were that expeditious in solving a crime was the recovery of Adrian Imbert's mobile phone. Truth be told, I wasn't the least bit surprised at the brazenness of the kidnappers—acting in broad daylight and in a public place—but I was absolutely shocked to hear that the victim had been rescued so quickly.
Hell…I didn't even get around to posting a condescending remark on social media as to whether the Police Commissioner was going to mount another “clinical extraction”. But as it turned out, the G-man's success meant I would have had to eat those words. And you know what...I would have gladly done so.
In the aftermath of the rescue of Natalie Pollonais, I wrote a column (September 18, 2018) raising the issue of whether the police service was showing bias in how it responded to certain crimes; going above and beyond for some special cases, especially if it involved “special” citizens, while being generally lackadaisical with everything and everyone else. I even summed up that contribution by making the assertion that the Pollonais rescue could turn out to be a double-edged sword in eliciting both praise and condemnation—showing that the police service is capable of doing their job, and, at the same time, begging the question as to why they haven't been doing so for the past 20 years.
To his credit, Commissioner Griffith is not shirking from the criticism and is instead facing it with the same no-nonsense, straight-talking, “who vex lorse” attitude that he has become known for since his appointment. Speaking to the T&T Guardian following last week's rescue, he voiced his disappointment that some people, “… seemed to be 'gunning' for something to go wrong in Dass-Supersad's case”. In having to defend his actions, he said that the same efforts and resources that were brought to bear in resolving the Pollonais kidnapping were also deployed in this occurrence as well. And with an indignant tone, he added that “…it was rather tasteless that people would try to use social media to try to give the impression that the police would be biased in how they deal with citizens of this country”.
I suppose I could be counted as one of those people. But in all honesty, I don't believe the negative reaction was because some Trinbagonians wanted Commissioner Griffith to fail. On the contrary, I think it's because they dare not hope that things just might be getting better…and it's easy to understand why.
Unfortunately, we've become accustomed to the high crime rates and the empty promises; year after year and administration after administration. It has gotten to the point where both the TTPS and the National Security Ministry are regarded as being lazy, corrupt, and inept, with previous commissioners and ministers being the most ridiculed and despised office holders in the entire public administration apparatus. Indeed, even I openly expressed the opinion that the war on crime couldn't be won.
So what then has changed? It isn't that the police service is getting more money, or has access to better equipment, or has had an increase in manpower. It is the same as it was three months ago before Gary Griffith, the citizen-turned-soldier-turned-politician, would add the title of CoP to his ever-extending career repertoire. Does it really come down to a matter of leadership? Looking back on the previous commissioners, when one considers that two of them were “acting” and the other was a foreigner, it didn't exactly send the message that our country, which is to say—our government—was serious about dealing with the crime problem. Ironically, it probably had the dual effect of demotivating the police service and motivating the criminal elements.
The rest, as they say, is history and the numbers speak for themselves: low detection and prevention rates, a steadily increasing murder count, and a lengthening list of missing people. Ours is a country whose morale and sense of safety and justice has been broken. Nothing short of bringing back Randolph Burroughs from the grave could restore our faith in those forlorn ideals. Such is the climate that Gary Griffith knowingly stepped into. No one is saying that he should be hailed as a super crime-fighting hero who has the criminals on the run…or that his recent successes mark a turnaround in the war on crime. But at the very least, he is showing us that it is not the insurmountable problem we think it is. There does exist the possibility that things can get better. Perhaps that is the greatest challenge that the citizens of T&T now face—to believe.
So to Commissioner Griffith, I say ignore the picong, your job is hard enough and it's one stress that you don't need to concern yourself with. Some citizens can't help but be pessimistic, but hopefully, they will come around. There's a saying that, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” Just keep doing what you're doing and they'll all have to end up eating their own words.