Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cials and the TTPS of­ten boast that they have car­ried out ex­er­cis­es, dri­ven by in­tel­li­gence, that have led to the dis­cov­ery and con­fis­ca­tion of arms, am­mu­ni­tion, and var­i­ous se­cu­ri­ty para­pher­na­lia. In­vari­ably, no one has been ar­rest­ed and charged, nor have these long-term sur­veil­lance ex­er­cis­es led to the ar­rest of the mas­ter­minds be­hind these “im­port­ed” weapons.

So much mush for “in­tel­li­gence-dri­ven field­work.” Giv­en this sce­nario, it must have been quite galling and an­noy­ing to see how a vis­it­ing Cana­di­an blog­ger found it so easy to ac­cess gang mem­bers and in­ter­view them in their hang­outs. What is wrong with na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cials if it is so easy for a short-term vis­i­tor to ac­cess and in­ter­view gang mem­bers in their haunts? Christo­pher Hugh­es and his Chris Must List videos have giv­en a vis­cer­al sense of a dif­fer­ent T&T, which cit­i­zens ei­ther do not know or are not pre­pared to ac­knowl­edge.

The eco­nom­ic ad­vance­ment of the gas boom did not trick­le down in the man­ner hoped for. And var­i­ous make-work pro­grammes haven’t made any last­ing dif­fer­ence.

There have been stud­ies, no­tably Dr Sel­wyn Ryan’s “No Time to Quit”, which warned of the dan­ger posed by dis­en­chant­ed youth from hotspots. A more re­cent re­port by the Watkins Com­mit­tee ap­point­ed by the Prime Min­is­ter fol­low­ing an up­surge in gang ac­tiv­i­ty has not been made pub­lic. Re­ports notwith­stand­ing, it does not ap­pear that the im­pli­ca­tions of these stud­ies were ever trans­lat­ed in­to a holis­tic plan to en­gage at-risk com­mu­ni­ties.

As a re­sult, the in­sti­tu­tions that should be ad­dress­ing these is­sues seem nei­ther to un­der­stand the phe­nom­e­non nor have the so­lu­tions. Nei­ther the Ed­u­ca­tion, So­cial De­vel­op­ment, nor Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty min­istries. In­stead, the pub­lic looks to the TTPS, which looks to the par­ents who do not un­der­stand their role.

Ju­ve­nile vi­o­lence in schools is a symp­tom and a pre­cur­sor to more vi­o­lent ac­tions out­side of school. Mak­ing the TTPS a para­mil­i­tary force has en­sured a com­pen­sat­ing re­sponse from gangs. The coun­try is fac­ing an­oth­er so­cial lay­er, main­ly oc­cu­pied by an­gry youth who see them­selves as dis­en­fran­chised. This lay­er has been ma­tur­ing and is af­fect­ing, if not desta­bil­is­ing, the rest of so­ci­ety. It en­com­pass­es a dif­fer­ent world of be­ing, be­long­ing, and know­ing, with a val­ue sys­tem very dif­fer­ent from that of mid­dle-class as­pi­rants.

They do not en­dorse or ac­cept the op­por­tu­ni­ty struc­tures that or­di­nary, schooled in­di­vid­u­als see as re­quired to climb the lad­der of eco­nom­ic op­por­tu­ni­ty. Even if they have the ed­u­ca­tion­al tools, they do not pos­sess the out­look and mind­set to ac­cess YTEPP, MUST, HYPE, or even Cepep. They need mon­ey and will take quick ac­tion to get it.

Cur­rent so­cial and ed­u­ca­tion­al poli­cies are not geared to­wards them. Gangs have an or­gan­i­sa­tion­al struc­ture and can be­come a tool for oth­ers when the op­por­tu­ni­ty al­lows. These gangs rep­re­sent an in­ter­nal ex­is­ten­tial threat to so­ci­ety that must be ad­dressed. This re­quires a new en­gage­ment par­a­digm, which we have yet to de­vise. When the PNM took of­fice in 2016, it talked vague­ly of an im­prove­ment pro­gramme, an af­fir­ma­tive ac­tion pro­gramme, which nev­er emerged. We had the failed Life Sport, Colour Me Or­ange, and oth­er de­vices that were ill-con­ceived and be­dev­illed by cor­rup­tion.

Christo­pher Huges has ex­posed our ig­no­rance and sim­plis­tic ap­proach by al­low­ing these dis­af­fect­ed mem­bers to speak and iden­ti­fy trou­bling is­sues. There are lessons to be learned from the Chris Must List videos. Charg­ing the video blog­ger with sedi­tion high­lights the TTPS as re­ac­tionary and back­ward.