Begging for criminal blood

In recent news, if one were to believe the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, many of these dead people were wanted criminals.

For example, when Adalle Gilbert was murdered in cold blood by a police officer a couple Fridays ago in San Fernando and then dragged away like a dead dog, police officers said he was a murderous drug-dealer. Then we saw a man in street clothes wearing a thick gold chain and huge earrings hanging from his earlobes (thug or police officer?) beating up the murdered man’s wife. The police justified all of this by stating that Adalle was a wanted man, which is code for ‘he deserved it’. We all saw the video and saw no gun in the man’s possession, but of course, I heard from viewers of the police propaganda and cover-up machine, Beyond the Tape (which I have never and will never watch) that a gun materialised inside the victim’s house, ‘evidence’ of which was shown during an episode of this televised claptrap.

For years though, whenever a ‘suspect’ is killed, social media praises the “good work” of police officers, with some encouraging the police to murder more people because they believe that it is the only way to reduce crime; and then there were those who believe criminals should be caught and hung in Woodford Square. Interestingly, these comments were not isolated, nor were they in the minority.

Seemingly, the vast majority of our society believes in and supports police extrajudicial executions to “clean up de place”.

I know that our society is frustrated with the crime epidemic, but upon reading the views of my compatriots, I realise that our society has devolved into barbarism and savagery. In addition to this, in situations where the police are not involved, many people also fully condone regular murders as long as the person is posthumously proven to be ‘a pest’.

Some of us may sit here and frown upon the sadistic actions of the President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, but the mentality of many Trinbagonians is the same. Many people want to see blood spill. They want to hear about killings, but only if criminals are involved. They like seeing the images of bloodied bodies sprawled across the front pages.

Ian Alleyne’s Crime Watch became famous for chronicling autopsies and showing uncensored corpses.

Gore is the Trinbagonian fetish.

Rejoicing over the news that a crime suspect was murdered by police or another citizen moves us further away from civilisation and the rule of law. What people tend to forget is that every suspect does not automatically become a criminal because the police said so. Yes, we know that even some hardcore criminals are “good boys” to their families, but there is something called a justice system, and constitutionally, every citizen is guaranteed this most basic right. Have we forgotten about the corruption that is pervasive throughout the police service? We don’t think of the implications of this kind of thinking because it has not hit home.

But only when an innocent family member is toted away on some trumped-up charge, will we understand the dangerous precedent that is being set. If a person is a suspect known to police, their role is to gather evidence towards making an arrest. The police cannot be allowed to murder people to conceal their incompetence or nefarious activities. If you are unaware of police officers controlling drug blocks and running gangs, then you are living under a rock.

This thing isn’t new; Randolph Burroughs was Commissioner of Police from 1978 to 1987 and he was widely regarded for his no-nonsense approach to crime, but he was simply taking out the competition. Before he was arrested and charged with conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to traffic cocaine, he controlled a team of officers who murdered and framed alleged criminals as well as innocent people.

Nowadays, according to the US Department of State, our police and immigration officers are complicit in sex trafficking on a large scale. The police service is corrupt, which means that anyone (including you and me) can be a ‘suspect’ for anything if the police decide; and based on precedent, that ‘suspect’ can just as easily end up dead. It is very easy to ‘find’ a firearm or drugs in anyone’s house after they’re dead and can’t speak for themselves. Peace cannot survive without justice, yet we wonder why Trinidad and Tobago is in turmoil.

As we are seeing now, society’s appalling calls for criminal blood has actually resulted in the reverse – more innocent blood is flowing than ever before. Be careful what you wish for.