There is great fear and unease in the country over the level of serious crime and in particular murders.
At the time of writing this column another four people had been shot to death, the number of murders has exceeded 500 and most people expect that in 2022 we will break the record for the most number of homicides in a single year.But it is not just about murders, it is the fear of crime, the reality that citizens and business owners recognise that the risk of getting killed is real in this country and there are enough people in T&T who see having blood on their hands as either a way of life or what has to be done
To be clear, no one is being alarmist here, you only have to look at the robberies that have taken place this year and the reality that when people are coming to hold up businesses they are armed and prepared to kill for what they have come for.No amount of hand wringing, or calling in the US Charge de Affairs will change the United States’ warning to their citizens not to travel to this country, and no amount of playing smart with foolishness by trying to make a nexus between the increase in the award of firearm users licences and the rise in murders will change the situation on the ground.
We have to be prepared to face our failures or else we will do like Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has opted to do and hide away so that we only hear crickets while he tries to change the topic by talking about cricket. I have at times been told that this column nails the challenges we face as a country, but we also need some suggestions of where we may move forward and some hope, because ‘the vibes heavy’ in T&T.
T&T’s crime problem is complicated. There is the national security challenge. Situated on the tip of the South American continent and with borders that remain relatively porous, this country is perfect for the transshipment of drugs. This transshipment of drugs is not new to T&T, the Scott drug report, which the country never acted upon, pointed to the level of corruption that was already present in the Police Service and how the need for protection of turf had led to murder.Since then a lot of water has flowed below the proverbial bridge.
T&T has not been able to fix its security apparatus, even though there have been attempts, perhaps the most sustained efforts were between 2007 and 2010 when among other things the Special Anti-Crime Unit began to bear fruit, there were improvements and training in gathering evidence and managing crime scenes, the police barracks became a training academy, the security services were outfitted with new equipment including radars, helicopters, nearshore, and offshore patrol vessels were on order. But then governments changed and the United National Congress government did away with the OPVs, they sold the airship, made structural changes to the security apparatus, and instituted a state of emergency that gave a false sense of security while costing the country millions in payments to young, mainly urban men who were illegally detained by the State.
The gains of the specialised unit of the police service, the reintegration of the specialised security services into their regular formation, and a reduction in salary in the process must have deflated the former SAUTT officers and could not have helped the security situation. But the answer we need to the crime problem is not just an improvement in the security services.
Of course, that will help in the short run, but as New York City and Chicago show us, even the most advanced and capable security services cannot on their own lead to a sustainable reduction in crime.T&T, the time has come for us to look ourselves in the mirror and be honest if we want to deal with this issue.We have to deal with the inequalities in society.
We have to ask ourselves why are most of the victims and perpetrators of violent crime young black males from urban areas. Yes, I know it is an inconvenient truth to face. We are afraid to deal with our own demons.
Whether it is true or not, there are communities in this country that feel they do not belong to a society that looks down on them, a society that brands them undesirable, one in which they feel to get a decent job they must change their home address. It is not just the challenge of getting jobs and being accepted in society, it extends to the notion of justice and the interaction between the police and these communities.
The police have a hard job dealing with communities in which the dynamic between political patronage, gangsterism and brutality is so interwoven that even the very officers must be concerned for their welfare.
Fear and the legacy of slavery, indentureship, and colonialism are intertwined in the way authority, power and the people intersect and create in the minds of the governed a sense that there is a lack of justice and fair play.It was Martin Luther King who once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”It is an important point because as a society it is easy to wind up one’s glass and ignore the inequalities, and the failures of a large group in society.
It is easy to say their lack of progress is in their hands, but we do so at our own peril and the chickens are coming home to roost.I want to be clear, I am not suggesting that there is an inherent flaw in the Afro-Trinidadian society.
This is not the case as we could see in areas like Point Fortin and even Tobago where crime and violence are extremely limited. It is the circumstances that have given rise to the urban underclass and the rise of the strongman, strong women, the mores and values that we have to deal with. These are very difficult problems to solve.We have to deal with an education system that is broken, one in which many leave primary schools ill-prepared for secondary education, where the renaming of schools does not fix the lack of community and family involvement.
Why do children from the same deprived communities act differently if they enter a ‘prestige school’ rather than another type of secondary school? It is in part the culture of that prestige school and accepted standards of behaviour, but it’s also the same deprived community urging the very student to succeed and do what is necessary for success.
Strangely, it is about the very community support so lacking in other areas of life.In facing our demons we cannot ignore the political system, caught as the country is between two major political parties whose focus on winning elections and scoring political points don’t allow them to see that action has to be taken to lift people up and that if T&T succeeds they too will be successful.
The PNM is afraid to speak the truth to its supporters and the UNC hopes they can govern despite the PNM supporters, hoping they could come to town and not be consumed by Port-of-Spain.While all of this is happening, crime remains a drag on business.
It does not allow for the kind of expansion and increase in productivity needed for an acceptable growth rate.The very crime and the warnings not to visit this country threaten the green sprouts in tourism we have seen.We can continue to bury our heads in the sand or face our failures and do the hard work of building a new society.