Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, in leading the charge in the fight against crime, is looking at a way to target the nation’s youth in the hope that the State can get a handle on the problem.
Reiterating that crime is a public health issue, he revealed that Permanent Secretaries in key ministries will be charged with developing a national plan that involves defining the problem and identifying causes and risk factors. The objective is to target the youth population and steer them away or desensitize them to crime and criminal activity.
By this means, Dr Rowley hopes to chart a course that will "squeeze criminal conduct out of the lives of people."
At a media briefing yesterday, Dr Rowley stated something that we all are aware of - that the upsurge in criminal conduct and the ability of persons to arm themselves is supported by "shortcomings on the part of the State with respect to the availability of sustained funding for the criminal element through the use of State resources not the least of which is illegal quarrying." He promised to take the necessary steps to ensure that these actions are curtailed and eliminated.
This newspaper reported exclusively just a few days ago on the link between illegal quarrying and murders in Sangre Grande. It is good that Dr Rowley recognizes the problem and intends to deal with it.
What he did not address, however, is how easily so many young people can obtain guns, which is worrying.
It is fine to target young people in the hope they can be steered to other avenues and turn away from crime, but the sad reality is that young people see crime as a lucrative enterprise, a means of getting easy cash.
Dr Rowley admitted that "we have a serious criminal element in the country very well armed." Therefore, a priority should be to find the sources of the arms and who is responsible for bringing them in. The head of the beast must be cut off if any inroads are to be made.
There is much that needs to be done to fight crime. The plan Prime Minister Rowley revealed yesterday could be a start. Young people are a good target group. But there is a missing element.
Why not engage young people in a national conversation and hear their ideas on what should be done to address this problem? They are the ones who can give some insight into why some of them choose the path of lawlessness and violence rather than stay in school and pursue qualifications for gainful employment.
They may provide much of the information needed by the team assigned to delve into the problem and produce solutions.
But even as Dr Rowley and his administration look for novel approaches to a long-standing and rapidly worsening problem, they should not completely disregard past measures. Not all the previous crime-fighting initiatives were total failures and elements that were yielding results should not be discarded.
That is why this new thrust should include reviews and assessments.
It would be useful to identify the things that worked and those that did not, so that past mistakes can be corrected.