Enforce existing laws for safer TT

THE EDITOR: We live our lives in fear, anxiety and desperation. We can no longer attend classes after dark, camp overnight in the outdoors and go jogging before sunrise. Criminals have taken over TT, and our response has been to pacify these lawless elements by courting them. This will not work. Once you walk with criminals, they will be forever at your side. “He who rides a tiger is afraid to dismount.”

Some believe that in order to regain control of our country, we need drastic laws with severe penalties. I disagree. I believe that our society has degenerated into this chaotic and lawless state because our existing laws have not been enforced and also because the justice system has failed us. In other words, there will be no order in TT until lawlessness brings undesirable consequences to the lawbreaker. We need to rigidly enforce all laws, even those laws deemed to be trivial and deal expeditiously with offenders if we are to redeem TT.

Remember, there are laws against littering, yet people can make a good living from collecting bottles thrown out of vehicles. At one time meat that was offered for sale must be inspected and stamped, now animals are slaughtered in back yards, and uninspected meat is offered for sale on the roadsides. Who are those paid to enforce these laws? Why are they not working?

I read a notice that fire permits are required before fires can be set in the dry season. Are the gardeners exempted? Are the CEPEP workers engaged in clearing and burning the roadsides in Balandra aware of this requirement? Or perhaps they were given permission, who knows? What about squatting? It seems to me that squatting is a case of stealing land, yet successive governments do so little to remove squatters, and exert so much effort in regularising them. If a government wishes to help the landless, steps should be taken to facilitate land acquisition by lawful means.

The laws against unlawful vending and the use of obscene language are rarely enforced, likewise the motor vehicle laws and regulations. Drivers stop in the middle of the road to pick up passengers, and PH cars outnumber taxis. Vehicles transporting children continue to play loud and obscene music and smoking exhaust pipes pollute the air. Speeding and drag racing takes place on public roads. I know that people are getting paid to deal with these offences, why are they not doing their work? We do not need more laws in this land. We need to motivate those entrusted with the task of enforcing the law, so that they will do their work to preserve peace in TT.

DAVID SUBRAN
Chaguanas