By now, the authorities should realise that achieving the objectives of this State of Emergency (SoE) is a complex undertaking given the many gaps in their anti-gang strategies.
Although dozens of alleged gang members have been detained, including suspected gang leaders who are currently under house arrest, many of their underworld associates remain at large to continue the killings, violent robberies and other criminal acts.
Just yesterday, killers breached those SoE gaps to gun down Port-of-Spain City Corporation employee Onella Parks.
Last week, the murders of attorney Kunari Baksh and her husband Nasheed at their Cumuto home, just days after state prosecutor Randall Hector was gunned down outside a church in Port-of-Spain, added to concerns for the safety of members of the legal fraternity.
The reality is that killers intent on carrying out hits are still managing to slip through cracks in law enforcement even in the heightened state of alert in the country.
It will, however, take a Herculean effort to completely eradicate the criminal scourge that has infested T&T.
At present, efforts are focused on the approximately 1,269 members of the 95 gangs who have been spreading terror and death across this country. However, there has not been as much focus on the critical area of prevention — a key aspect of any gang suppression effort.
In other jurisdictions, multi-faceted early prevention programmes have proven to be effective, providing significantly more benefits than other anti-gang interventions.
Prevention initiatives tailored to suit T&T’s unique cultural and social conditions require collaboration between the Ministries of National Security, Health, Education, Social Services and Youth Development, targeted at the growing number of marginalised, disaffected young people who are joining gangs.
Criminal gangs have been attracting young men — and some young women — who feel they have been rejected by their families and communities, so they turn to those involved in criminal enterprise for a sense of belonging.
They are also being drawn in by friends or family members already in gangs or may join as a way to get respect, freedom and independence.
This country is already facing a significant threat from the thousand gangsters who have become entrenched in communities and can adapt quickly to enforcement tactics, staying several steps ahead of local law enforcement. Gang suppression must include measures to prevent them from adding to their numbers in those communities.
Before the upsurge in gang violence that drove the country’s murder count to record levels in 2022 and last year, the authorities had received intelligence about criminal groups splintering into more brutal entities.
Failure to adequately respond resulted in the mass shootings and bloody reprisals of the past several months, bringing the nation to this point where an SoE had to be enforced to prevent criminal reprisals that were imminent.
The focus needs to be on disrupting the mechanisms that sustain criminal gangs, as well as tackling the issues of poverty, corruption, and lack of opportunity that make it so easy for them to recruit new members.
Special efforts should be extended in the crime hotspots where distrust of law enforcement is so high that victims and witnesses are discouraged, or intimidated, from coming forward.
This will be a major undertaking that must be sustained long after the crime crisis is brought under control but it will be well worth it in the long run.
