TT crime not on par with UK

Having just returned from meetings with British security officials, the first display Mr Joseph had were clippings from British tabloids shrieking about worsening crime in that country. Even if this were true, Mr Joseph’s argument would not be acceptable, for what he was trying to imply was that, because crime is a serious problem in a developed nation like Britain, the crime rate in this country is understandable. But, in any case, Mr Joseph’s claims have no basis in fact.

A 2002 BBC report shows that crime rates have remained stable. Indeed, in the five years previous to that, crime in Britain dropped by a whopping 39 percent. In 2001-2002, however, certain categories of crime increased there — assault, rape, and robberies. But this must be understood in a context where robberies account for a mere one percent of all recorded crimes in the UK. In Trinidad and Tobago, by contrast, robberies account for 25 percent of all crimes. Rapes make up 0.8 percent of total crimes in Britain, but 4.6 percent here. Significantly, murder in England is a trivial 0.6 per 100,000 persons. Compare this to our murder rate of 19 per 100,000 persons — a statistic which is set to increase by year’s end.

In addition to all this, the crime statistics between the two countries cannot be compared on any realistic basis. The British figures are based on interviews with the public, whereas local crime statistics are based solely on reported crimes. Since many crimes go unreported — especially in our situation where the public simply does not have faith in the police — our figures probably underestimate the actual crime rate.

So Mr Joseph’s waving around British tabloid newspapers turns out to be yet another pathetic attempt to excuse the Government’s utter incompetence in reducing the crime rate. And this again raises questions as to how serious the Manning administration is about fighting crime. Now that Minister Joseph has met with British officials, will we see a data-gathering exercise so the exact nature and scope of criminal activity in this country can be understood? Will we see the Government abandoning measures that have proven not to work and trying new things? Already, grumbles are being heard about the taxpayers’ dollars having been wasted on blind eye towers and limp blimps.

Mr Joseph must know that citizens are absolutely fed up. They are fed up with both the crime situation and of various officials making statements excusing it, whether such statements claim that the situation is temporary, will improve by year’s end, or is just as bad as other countries. Mr Joseph needs to understand that citizens quite rightly do not care if crime is just as bad in other places. They care that crime in Trinidad and Tobago must be contained. Mr Joseph is the National Security Minister. Can he handle the portfolio or not? If the answer is no, then he knows what he ought to do — and it doesn’t include making vacuous excuses.