Our laws must have teeth

THE EDITOR: When I stood in a school assembly line during the mid 1970s, I heard a policewoman who was invited to speak. I heard correctly when she clearly stated that riding bicycles on the pavement was an offence. The main culprits were children who were afraid of using the roads. I will not blame the present generation for this predicament. Non-implementation of certain laws is a major problem in this country and the calypsonian Short Pants performed what he had to about the law in De Big Yard” at the Queen’s Park Savannah, those who saw and heard can understand then in 1979.

Now twenty-three years later it is more deplorable to the point where drag-racing is taking place outside of Waller Field! But I want to stick to the danger posed to pedestrians on the pavement. On even-ings, walkers have to be more alert as cyclists, even adults, are approaching from behind as though it is no big thing. The Trinidad mentality comes into play when a crisis occurs. Last minute measures to rectify a long overdue situation usually become costly when prevention is not carried out. Who vex loses! We are told that police officers now work on an eight to four shift within the service after that the words “crapaud smoke your pipe!” come to mind. The need to ensure that laws have cutting edge (teeth) is very imperative at this time.

JEFFREY M JOSEPH
Fyzabad