Antigua and Trinidad: Uncanny crime patterns

THE EDITOR: Within the last few weeks, the islands of Antigua and Barbuda have acknowledged that the escalating crime situation has reached boiling point. Fingers are now being pointed at the police and just about anyone who is supposed to act as an official agent of the state in terms of crime prevention. Calls have been made for the head of the current police commissioner. The government seems unable to quell the rise in violent crimes — murders, rapes and robberies.

While reading of Antigua’s dilemma over the past few months, it is only recently that I was struck by the ‘uncanny’ similarities between Antigua and Barbuda and the situation that currently exists in Trinidad and Tobago. Firstly, while Antigua has always had a crime rate (like everywhere else), the crime situation only appeared to get out of control after the Lester Bird administration lost the general election in March of this year. On March 24, Baldwin Spencer was sworn in as the new Prime Minister after what many regarded as the stunning, historic defeat of the 30-odd years of the Bird administration.

Since that time, the crime situation in Antigua has reached ridiculous proportions with murders, rapes (with tourists also being targetted), and robberies reaching unprecedented heights. If we turn our attention to what is happening in Trinidad and Tobago, one cannot help but wonder at the similar pattern of events. While the crime situation in Trinidad and Tobago did not occur overnight, a good look at the crime statistics would reveal that the installation of Prime Patrick Manning and the PNM in 2001 at the helm of the seat of government, seemed to be followed almost instantly by a marked increase in violent crimes in the country; an increase that cannot yet be abated.

Timing is a funny thing. It is often ignored, but detectives and police investigators pay particular attention to it because it often points them in the direction of the solution to a problem. What are the odds that in both countries the crime rates appeared to soar after a significant change in the political administrations? I guess what is happening in this country right now could safely constitute “making the country ungovernable.” Remember those words? They were once defiantly uttered by a politician who decided that Whitehall somehow belonged to him and his party, and not to the people of this dear country!

RAY WESTON
Tacarigua