LIVING IN FEAR

Despite the introduction by the Ministry of National Security of the anti-crime elevated platform, Sky Watch, regular Police helicopter patrols of Port-of-Spain and its suburbs and much talk of increased Police foot and mobile patrols for the Christmas season the nation’s murder toll has climbed to a depressing 250 and is expected to reach 268 by year end. Meanwhile, you can drive the length and breadth of the Diego Martin Main Road, on almost any time of the day and night, and the Uriah Butler and Solomon Hochoy highways, for good measure, without the welcome sight of a Police officer or a Police patrol car on duty. In turn, the Sky Watch, positioned in downtown Port-of-Spain, while it may be excellent for sightseeing, has not made the dent in the City’s crime wave it was publicised as being able to achieve.

We hate to say this,  but with the country’s murder toll rising and no hope of its being contained in the near future, there is a mounting feeling of unease.  People continue to be stopped by armed bandits and shot, and sometimes killed, should they protest being deprived of their hard earned money. Drug related wars have left many dead and even some innocent bystanders wounded. Kidnapping, which had tapered off, is suddenly once more making the headlines, and while we cannot comment on individual cases, inasmuch as they are or may be sub judice, nonetheless there is a feeling of discomfort. You cannot drive or be driven along the nation’s main roads and highways without the uncomfortable feeling that the marked absence of Police patrols has encouraged many motorists hustling to make a living, to speed and/or drive dangerously.

You wonder, with the road death toll at 180 to date for the year what will it be like at the end of the year, or more frightening, at the end of the day. We take no pleasure in writing this, but with the murder rate on the rise, road deaths and dangerous driving still a problem, and the need to be on a constant alert against armed bandits, pickpockets, car thieves and drug crazed petty robbers many citizens, young and old are living in fear. In turn, the recent storming out of an an awards dinner by some Police officers, objecting to the singling out for praise by acting Deputy Commissioner of Police, Oswyn Allard, of a certain section of the Poilice Service, the Inter-Agency Task Force and not their group has added to the understandable ill ease of many. 

Their dismissive treatment of a Deputy Commissioner of Police (Ag) was  instructive, and the question arises:  If they can treat one of the officers at the summit of the Police Service with such group disrespect, are they likely to take their disaffection and protest any further? Will  they, for example, take industrial action to seek to right what they apparently considered to be a grievance? And what form will the action, if any, take. But whether or not industrial action is taken the Police officers, who walked out on Mr Allard should have realised the negative impact their protest would have had on the minds of many in the civilian public. Meanwhile, in spite of the advertised pounding of the chest by the organisers of the 800-TIPS programme, the rising rate of serious crimes, including murder, robbery at gunpoint, kidnapping and general lawlessness, many in the country are, collectively, like  the little boy “who stood in his shoes and he wondered.” They must wonder if they will be next.