DA­REECE PO­LO

Se­nior Re­porter

da­reece.po­lo@guardian.co.tt

Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds says the news of a teenag­er be­ing killed by an­oth­er teen yes­ter­day made him cringe.

Re­spond­ing to the killing of 15-year-old Chris­t­ian Lash­ley, al­leged­ly by an­oth­er 15-year-old child, how­ev­er, Hinds took the com­mu­ni­ty to task.

He said while he did not have the of­fi­cial po­lice re­port, he be­lieved on­look­ers may have been able to pre­vent the fa­tal­i­ty.

“Chances are in that fight or play fight, big peo­ple might have been around and ei­ther afraid or un­will­ing to get in­volved. The com­mu­ni­ty has a role to play, par­ents have a role to play,” Hinds said.

Not­ing the sense­less­ness of the homi­cide, he urged young peo­ple to make bet­ter de­ci­sions, though he said bad par­ent­ing may have been the cat­a­lyst be­hind the un­for­tu­nate in­ci­dent.

“There are adults in the so­ci­ety who chain up these young­sters. But apart from that, I’m hop­ing that the young­sters will ex­er­cise bet­ter judge­ment on their own ac­cord, de­sist from drugs and al­co­hol and the things that could get you ir­ra­tional and in­flame the vi­o­lence.

“Take it down. There are op­por­tu­ni­ties in this coun­try. Walk care­ful­ly, walk cau­tious­ly my chil­dren, and your fu­ture will be bet­ter se­cured,” he said.

Hinds said vi­o­lence among T&T’s young peo­ple, both in­side and out­side of school, was very trou­bling. He said when he sees videos of stu­dents stomp­ing on each oth­er’s faces and punch­ing each oth­er, he is of­ten wor­ried that it could re­sult in death.

He sought to re­mind young peo­ple that vi­o­lence can on­ly re­sult in hos­pi­tal­i­sa­tion, death or prison.