Commissioner of Police Erla Harewood-Christopher is defending her controversial statement that divine intervention is needed in the fight against crime.
“The last time I spoke at a forum like this, what was subsequently reported and widely commented upon was not the efficacy of the very detailed and comprehensive plan addressing several areas of policing to address the crime situation in T&T, but instead references to a single statement I made in relation to divine intervention, which I maintain is relevant to the discourse and I say it again, we know God is in control of everything, so we need his intervention,” she said.
Harewood-Christopher made the comment during a forum hosted by the Confederation of Regional Business Chambers and the Trade and Development Unit of the University of the West Indies (UWI) at the Trade and Learning Complex at The University of the West Indies’ St Augustine campus yesterday.
Harewood-Christopher was referring to the comment she made during a forum hosted by the Chaguanas Chamber of Industry and Commerce (CCIC) two weeks ago.
During that event, the CoP told the gathering, “An evil has spread over the land and we must recognise, those of you who are spiritually inclined, you must recognise that this is beyond the physical and unless we seek the intervention of that greater spirit, whatever we may call him, we know we have different religions, so who will call him God, who will call him Allah, or Krishna, all of us, if not all of us, 99 per cent of us believe in a superior being and we need to invoke the help of that being, if we need to really bring Trinidad and Tobago back to that place where we want it to be. Because the police can come up with whatever strategy, but unless we enlist the help of God, we will be working in vain.”
Addressing the forum at UWI yesterday, Harewood-Christopher said while the T&T Police Service (TTPS) has made important strides in reducing the crime rate, the population is still unhappy because the homicide rate is still high. She said, unfortunately, it is the murder rate that is used by the public to determine how successful the fight against crime is.
“The barometer for crime in T&T has for quite some time been the homicide rate,” the CoP said.
“The TTPS is working hard and achieving creditable results in many of its anti-crime initiatives, including the seizure of high-powered weapons. Those achievements are eclipsed and subordinated to discussions about the homicide rate. So unless the public experiences a reduction in the homicide rate, the public perception of crime will be negative.”
She added, however, that the TTPS has had success in the retrieval of firearms, which will ultimately save lives.
“For 2022, 87 per cent of our murders were committed by firearms. It is important to note that for 2023, we have already recovered 185 firearms and over 6,384 rounds of ammunition. Think of the number of lives saved.”
Meanwhile, Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds, who also spoke at the forum after Harewood-Christopher, accused some sections of the national community of “bacchanal” for taking what the Commissioner of Police said on “divine intervention” out of context.
“Madam Commissioner, in her closing remarks a while ago, reminded us that we spent three weeks criticising her because she summoned the greatness of almighty God. I define that as bacchanal. We do so in a country where bacchanal is very and ever-present. A lot of important things get lost in bacchanal,” Hinds said.
He also said corruption is a major problem in T&T that is even affecting the proper functioning of the state.
“There are very serious and long-standing problems in T&T to be resolved. Corruption is endemic and it is affecting a lot that we do. It is a constant fight.”
He also blamed movies with violence and pornography for having an adverse influence on youths, leading them down a negative path.
“I heard the Archbishop of Port-of-Spain...yesterday, he went on to say that he did research and that T&T was third in the world in terms of consuming pornography and our children have access to that on a daily basis.”