CARNIVAL CRIME FREE, ABUSE GRATIS

“Dat?!” the squat soldier on duty at the corner of Calcutta Street and the Western Main Road bellowed, and he pointed his machine gun in the direction of the “dat”: a pink police permit affixed to the lower left hand corner of my car’s windscreen. “Dat eh worth nothing here this evening!” he shouted. “People want to wine and jam. Get off the so and so street!” Realising there was no reasoning with this camouflaged, cursing beast, and an animal moreover, that appeared to be “in its cups” while on the job, the driver of my car did as the soldier and his firearm had crudely ordered. Alcohol can transform anyone — including those who should know better — into unbelievable boors. I’ve even seen diplomats at cocktail parties in this country behave like utter churls while “under the influence”, giving true meaning to the title “High Commissioner.” How could I tell this seemingly inebriated “man” of obvious low rank that two corners down the road, the police had given us permission to proceed along the Western Main Road because a) the car bore a police permit and b) there were no bands on the street, it being the Carnival Monday lull hour, that time when the daylight merry makers are already at home and the revellers who prefer the hours of darkness for feteing are still getting ready to hit the road?

No one could talk to the soldier; he was bigger and badder than everyone, including a permit-bearing carload of security officers who were the next to receive a shot of his verbal abuse. After the soldier finished off his latest round of foul language, someone on the road wryly observed: “Dat man go kill somebody here tonight.” As for me, I thought, “Well, well. ACP Hosein in charge of Mobile has just been made a fool by a dipsomaniacal grunt,” and I wondered if someone had fired a few expletives back at the coarse warrior, whether he would have had them arrested or simply, really have shot them dead. Aloud I remarked to my driver: “So much for obscene language being an offence.”As far as I could tell, the permits Hosein had signed, clearly said that cars bearing these had permission to enter areas closed to vehicular traffic on Carnival Monday and Tuesday. Nowhere could I spot any fine print stating that Monday evening was an exception and I knew because I had carefully perused the pink piece of Bristol board before sticking it onto the car’s windscreen.

At any rate, had there been special regulations for Monday night, the soldier would still have been wrong to convey these via invective.Then another thought occurred to me. Perhaps, the army man wasn’t just intoxicated, but also thoroughly infuriated that he had been deployed to guard his fellow citizens when he could have been wining and jamming — as he put it — on at least half of them. It would not occur to him, for he was incapable of logic; that he was taking out his frustrations on people, who like him, were working over the Carnival weekend. I had never heard any journalists on the road cursing their brother men and women (their editors maybe); but then again, media workers were armed solely with notebooks and cameras. This army brute held a loaded automatic weapon in his hand and he was using it to ensure no one could deprive him of his ‘right’ to vent his anger.
He was not alone though, in his annoyance and his arbitrary and/or aggressive enforcement of the road rules last weekend. Many policemen (not the women) were obviously not at all pleased and they took their frustration out on ‘ordinary’ people by being verbally abusive. I got my share at several barriers for no rhyme or reason other than I had come to a halt before the steel obstacles so the officer on duty could see the pink police authorisation.

One policeman at the Harvard roundabout even encouraged a ‘civilian’ who was liming with him by the barrier to yell at people with permits. When I asked the policeman for his badge number and name, he covered the former, told me he was under no obligation to give the latter and then walked away. During the time he abandoned his post, cars without permits passed through. It also appeared that many policemen and soldiers had not been given the same brief, so at some blockades, cars with permits were told to proceed and at others a few metres down, these very vehicles were stopped and given contrary instructions. Permit-carriers were led a merry dance. Maybe law enforcement officers were confused by a line on the permit which bore the following special condition: “No parking on the roadway nor (sic) traversing band routes.” Several policemen and soldiers did not seem to be clear on what this rider meant, so it was arbitrarily interpreted and enforced. Thus, instead of the permit making people’s jobs easier, it became a frustratingly worthless piece of hard pink paper.

But what bothered me more than the inconvenience caused by some policemen’s and soldiers’ ignorance of, or confusion over the rules, were two other things. The first was the aggression of a few of Mr Snaggs’ men (not women). They should not have been allowed to intimidate the nation’s citizens, to break the laws they swore to uphold, or to enforce these capriciously. The second, more worrying aspect of Monday (and of other days) was the overwhelming presence of soldiers on our roads. At first glance, their company seemed comforting. But was it? A sergeant once told me that soldiers should never be used to do police work. A soldier was trained to kill, he explained, to fight in circumstances where constitutional rights were usually suspended. Such a man, or woman, was thus, a potential danger on the streets. Given the mindless, dangerous conduct of the soldier in St James on Carnival Monday evening and that of some others at road blocks, Government might either want to rethink the joint patrols or run psychological (and breathalyser) tests on its men in green before these were despatched to help “protect and serve” the public.

As for Mr Snaggs, he needed to caution his force that they did not have to become the new menace to society, in order to keep the criminal element at bay. He had to direct those in his command not to verbally or physically abuse anyone. He also might want to inform them that citizens’ rights only became suspended during a state of emergency. Until one of these was overtly declared in TT, our policemen and soldiers could and should not be permitted to abridge or confiscate, either by violent word or deed, the civil liberties of the people. Not on a Carnival Monday or on any other day.

Suzanne Mills is the Editor of Newsday