PE­TER CHRISTO­PHER

pe­ter.christo­pher@guardian.co.tt

In the first month of 2021, 25 peo­ple were mur­dered in T&T ac­cord­ing to of­fi­cial sta­tis­tics pro­vid­ed by the Po­lice Ser­vice.

This num­ber rep­re­sents a grim re­al­i­ty for the fam­i­lies and friends of the vic­tims of the mur­der vic­tims but it al­so rep­re­sents the low­est num­ber of mur­ders record­ed in the first month of the year for over 15 years.

To put this in con­text, the last time the mur­der toll dropped be­low 30 for the month of Jan­u­ary was 2007, when 28 mur­ders were record­ed. The on­ly oth­er time there were less peo­ple killed than days had passed in the year when Jan­u­ary end­ed, was 2015 when 30 peo­ple be­came mur­der vic­tims by Jan­u­ary 31 of that year.

Jan­u­ary has typ­i­cal­ly, over the last 15 years, been among the blood­i­est if not the blood­i­est month of the year (as seen in 2011 and 2018) in terms of mur­ders com­mit­ted. On av­er­age from 2006 to 2020, 43 peo­ple would be­come mur­der vic­tims in the open­ing month of the year. Since 2009, with the ex­cep­tions of 2013 and 2015, Jan­u­ary ac­counts ap­prox­i­mate­ly 10% of the an­nu­al mur­der count. Jan­u­ary 2013 how­ev­er ac­count­ed for 9.4 per cent of that year’s mur­der toll.

If that barom­e­ter holds, Trinidad and To­ba­go could see a mur­der count which falls be­low 300 for the first time since 2004 when we record­ed 260 mur­ders. In 2005, Trinidad and To­ba­go saw a then record 386 mur­ders but since that year on­ly 2011 and 2012 have record­ed low­er mur­der counts at the end of year.

The open­ing month of the year usu­al­ly sees a se­ries of do­mes­tic killings re­lat­ed to soured ro­man­tic re­la­tion­ships and or fam­i­ly land dis­putes fol­lowed by the more com­mon re­ports of gang re­lat­ed killings.

This year, while the year fol­lowed that tra­di­tion­al pat­tern with do­mes­tic in­ci­dents lead­ing to mur­der, the spate of gang re­lat­ed killings usu­al­ly seen has not fol­lowed.

No­tably on Jan­u­ary 19, Port- of- Spain gang mem­bers is­sued a state­ment via an at­tor­ney, that a truce they had agreed to Ju­ly 2020 was still in ef­fect de­spite the cir­cu­la­tion of What­sApp mes­sage to the con­trary. That truce came to be in the wake of protests against the Po­lice in­volved killings of Joel Ja­cob, Noel Di­a­mond and Is­rael Clin­ton in Mor­vant on June 27.

The low Jan­u­ary count has al­so been con­sis­tent with the re­duc­tion in month­ly mur­ders seen in this coun­try since the ini­tial lock­down and var­i­ous re­stric­tions have been im­posed on the pub­lic as a re­sult of the COVID-19 Pan­dem­ic

Both No­vem­ber and De­cem­ber, al­so saw counts of less than 30 with 24 and 27 re­spec­tive­ly.

Trinidad and To­ba­go had been placed on re­stric­tions due to Covid-19 start­ing with a stay at home or­der to non-es­sen­tial work­ers is­sued on March 16 of last year.

Since that ini­tial lock­down, there has not been a month where the coun­try’s mur­der toll has crossed 40. June, the month in which the most re­stric­tions were ini­tial­ly lift­ed, record­ed the high­est toll of 39. It was fol­lowed by March with 35. Five months in 2020 saw less than 30 mur­ders be­ing record­ed.

How­ev­er, the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice had re­peat­ed stat­ed in his 2020 re­view that mur­ders had dropped by 25 per cent, and when asked about the re­stric­tions’ im­pact on crime, Com­mis­sion­er Grif­fith has re­peat­ed­ly said the re­duc­tions were not sole­ly down to the re­stric­tions, but the ef­forts of his of­fi­cers as well.

Guardian Me­dia at­tempt­ed to call Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Gary Grif­fith con­cern­ing the marked­ly low fig­ure, but he did not an­swer.

In box:

Jan­u­ary 2021 - 25

Jan­u­ary 2020 - 46

Jan­u­ary 2019 - 41

Jan­u­ary 2018 - 60

Jan­u­ary 2017 - 52

Jan­u­ary 2016 - 49

Jan­u­ary 2015 - 30

Jan­u­ary 2014 - 48

Jan­u­ary 2013 - 38

Jan­u­ary 2012 - 37

Jan­u­ary 2011 - 46

Jan­u­ary 2010 - 49

Jan­u­ary 2009 - 49

Jan­u­ary 2008 - 40

Jan­u­ary 2007 - 28

Jan­u­ary 2006 - 38