RALPH BAN­WARIE

Pres­i­dent of the Va­len­cia Po­lice Sta­tion Coun­cil Mervyn Richard­son has pledged to take the com­mu­ni­ty back from the crim­i­nal el­e­ment.

Richard­son, a for­mer DCP, made the com­ment at an an­ti-crime pro­gramme host­ed by the coun­cil last week, which was themed Unit­ed in Faith to Vi­su­alise a new Va­len­cia.”

“We are go­ing to take back the space in Va­len­cia and re­store the peace the com­mu­ni­ty en­joyed,” Richard­son told the gath­er­ing.

He said he had been liv­ing in Va­len­cia for the last 40 years and from his knowl­edge, it was just a few who were bent on crime and giv­ing Va­len­cia a bad name.

He as­sured res­i­dents that the po­lice were go­ing to take back the space and re­store the com­mu­ni­ty to its right­ful place.

He em­pha­sised, how­ev­er, that the po­lice could not do it by them­selves and every­one—the church, peo­ple, the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty and even the schools—must come on board.

“Every­one must join hands to­geth­er in the fight against crime,” he stat­ed.

He re­mind­ed all that the po­lice were their friends and not their en­e­mies and it was time peo­ple from Va­len­cia who had knowl­edge speak out.

“It is time that peo­ple as­sist to erad­i­cate the crim­i­nal el­e­ments. For too long, peo­ple wit­ness crimes and keep their mouths shut. Open up now, as this is one of the ways crime can be pre­vent­ed and the crim­i­nal el­e­ments will stop their il­le­gal ac­tiv­i­ty and es­cape, as in the long term, crime will re­duce in Va­len­cia and our space will be re­stored once more.”

Pas­tor Pe­ter Reg­is, mean­while, said crime had been dev­as­tat­ing fam­i­ly and fam­i­ly life.

“Re­mem­ber that every pres­i­dent, prime min­is­ter, po­lice, killer, crim­i­nal comes from a place called home from a group called the fam­i­ly. They did not fall from tree or from the sky, every­one of us came from fa­ther and moth­er,” Reg­is said.

“So the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty falls right back to the par­ents and the up­bring­ing of their chil­dren. ... Re­mem­ber the dev­il came to steal and de­stroy and as par­ents it should be of con­cern to all of us.”

He added, “Peo­ple have be­come iso­lat­ed be­cause of the in­crease in crime. Crime has a dam­ag­ing ef­fect on chil­dren in what they see. It cre­ates anger, frus­tra­tion and psy­cho­log­i­cal ef­fects.

“The so­lu­tion is show­ing and liv­ing in love by par­ents. Par­ents should be role mod­els to their chil­dren, have reg­u­lar com­mu­ni­ca­tion and pray­ing to­geth­er, can make chil­dren dis­ci­pline and stay fo­cused and be bet­ter in­di­vid­u­als to so­ci­ety and coun­try.”

Al­so speak­ing, Pas­tor Rev Dr Bonafa­cio Vial­va said to solve crime cit­i­zens must work along­side the po­lice.

“It is time we change the hearts and minds of peo­ple and the an­swer is Je­sus.”

He plead­ed for Va­len­cia to be­come a hub as peo­ple tra­verse the area to get to To­co, Ma­yaro and San­gre Grande.

“The busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty should be safe and there should be growth. More busi­ness­es in Va­len­cia means more work to the peo­ple of Va­len­cia and less time for crime,” he said.

He too called on par­ents to take charge of their chil­dren and be ex­em­plars.

Rev Mervyn Men­doza al­so ap­pealed for par­ents to take their chil­dren back to Sun­day School, not­ing it plays a very im­por­tant part in the de­vel­op­ment of chil­dren.

He urged those in au­thor­i­ty to come to Va­len­cia and of­fer some form of work for the com­mu­ni­ty.

This event was the brain­child of In­sp Harp­er, Sgt Glodon, Cpl Hope, PC Dex­ter and WPC Moore of the Va­len­cia Po­lice Post, who be­lieve crime can be re­duced through such ini­tia­tives.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice Choir and Mt Ararat Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Choir en­ter­tained the crowd. Mu­sic was sup­plied by TTPS Band.