TT — A highly unregulated society of dead laws

The Attorney-General and other legal luminaries in the Government know full well that there is no evidence to link capital punishment to reducing murder. This is just a case of leaders treating those whom they lead with scant respect — giving the sheep a fallacy to hold, when you don’t believe a word of it yourself. It is a common political practice. (PNM, UNC, same khaki pants. Witness the wild assertions that UNC leaders fed to the UNC masses as the party line when Mr Panday checked himself into Hotel Golden Grove.)

And a whole new package of legislation to dazzle us, the sheep, when so many of the laws already on the books are of little use to us because they are never enforced.

One obvious measure for immediate implementation would seem to be the disarming of those who hold guns illegally. Do we need new laws to do that? Aren’t there laws right now that say you can’t own a gun if you don’t have a licence? And will hangings persuade the shooters to turn in their guns?

I recommend that the Government consult with WINAD (The Women’s Institute for Alternative Development), an NGO that has been addressing the issue of small arms control. They might have some ideas to share with you — if at all you are open to ideas from civil society.

Neither making new laws nor offering up the blood of Death Row inmates will change the general culture of lawlessness that has become entrenched in our country today, the culture of lawlessness that emboldens more people to commit more and more daring crimes.

Weak law enforcement in supposedly "minor" matters has bred in all of us an attitude of near contempt for the law. With so much evidence all around us, every day, that in our country laws and rules and regulations are just a joke, why wouldn’t some of us take our chances with hard-core criminal activity? Clearly, you can get away with anything.

A person may drive from Toco to Icacos and back, committing any or all of the following offences all along the way, with no fear of prosecution, even if here and there a cruising police car is sighted:

A muffler that shoots out dark and foul-smelling clouds of poison.

Dangerous overtaking and changing lanes.

Breaking traffic lights.

Driving at such horrific speeds that in the wake of this vehicle the faint of heart have to pull aside and recover from the thought of what would have been their fate had they been hit.

Consider the modern problem of electronically amplified noise intruding into people’s homes and their consciousness, with a host of detrimental impacts on the human person, ranging from malaise, tiredness and poor concentration, to raw rage. In civilised countries this problem is minimised by law enforcement.

In the Wild West, TnT, people may freely play their radios, TVs and stereos at any volume they please — imposing your noise of choice on your whole neighbourhood is a human right, not to be challenged.

You may also drive through any neighbourhood, at any time of day or night, using your vehicle as a pounding music machine to create earthquakes in people’s homes.

People may even set up their boom boxes and pump out noise on the beach, so that families who have come out to enjoy a day in the beauty and serenity of nature might as well pack up and go back home.

Places of entertainment springing up in previously quiet neighbourhoods are free to destroy the quality of life of residents who must now live with ear-splitting or even just distracting noise day and night.

There are laws which address the issue of disturbing the peace, but calling the police is futile, and it is becoming downright dangerous to actually ask anyone to turn down their noise.

Everybody can add something to this list of everyday contraventions of the law: trucks belonging to identifiable contractors that are allowed to completely mash up the public road and make life hell for residents and other users of the road, day in, day out; the flaunting of building codes; the careless disposal of garbage ... We live in a largely unregulated society.

What is the cumulative effect of all this disregard for the law? Certainly there are more of us that have a hand in fostering crime than we like to think. Improving law enforcement at the low end of law-breaking is a necessary condition for the reduction of crime.

The "new" crime plan offers no probing analysis of the sources of the problem, so that we shall be forever reacting to symptoms without getting any nearer to the eradication of this growing menace.

What will be put in place, for example, to rescue children who are seen to be at risk of becoming criminal offenders, rather than waiting for them to grow up and make it to Death Row, then simply exterminating them?

What are the long-term measures proposed by the Government for crime reduction that will set the tone for a civilised, humanitarian society, rather than one in which criminals, the general population and the government are united in an equal thirst for blood?