After spending my Christmas holidays in Grenada and New Jersey respectively, I was greeted with a very interesting comment by the TSA officer at JFK. "Are you sure you want to go back to Trinidad, I hear that they are killing people left, right and center?" I responded by saying, "Boss that ain't nothing new." It might sound like a crass statement to make, but it's the truth.
The crime situation and by extent the murder situation in Trinidad is nothing new. Its been going on for years. Successive governments and foreign experts have failed to solve the problem and due to "Yellow Journalism" by the press, now every Tom, Dick and Harry is in an uproar and has their two cents to give. I'm no different though I feel my two cents is worth a hell of a lot more.
You see in my eyes the crime situation in Trinidad is inevitable for a number of reasons and it starts from the top of society and trickles right down to the bottom. The politicians themselves are sincerely out of touch with what's going on on the ground level due to the sheltered lives that they live. The country has an inept Police Force which is under manned and quite frankly ill equipped to do their job. The population don't trust the police and the court system is an absolute mess.
Lets start at the top with our politicians. During election time they spew all types of promises about what they will do to decrease the crime rate just to get your vote. You elect them to office and they quickly forget all about the promises they have made to the public. They are often to busy either arguing with each other about trivial matters or simply enjoying the perks of their position. The only time they become concerned about such matters is when it is sensationalized by the press or when it hits close to home.
Then we have the Police Force. One way to combat this crime phenomena is to have significant consequences for ones actions. No I'm not necessarily talking about corporal punishment and hangings etc. This is where the Police force should come in. In order for consequences to be handed out, perpetrators need to be caught. At the moment the police can't seem to catch a bloody cold. At the time of this writing their have been 20 odd murders and no arrests! So of course the criminals laugh at this ineptitude as they don't have to worry about being apprehended.
Now God forbid the police actually catch a criminal and charge them with a crime. We now have to deal with the ineptitude of the legal system. Due to the back log in the courts most cases take years to come before the judge and be completed. More often than not the accused is granted bail and continues to wreak havoc on society. I can't count the amount of times I have opened the newspaper to read about someone who is in in court answering a charge only to find out that they have two or three other pending matters in court.
Now it might seem as if I'm just bashing the powers that be for their lack of a action, but truth be told we as citizens are playing a rather important role in the crap that is happening in the country. Trinidadians always describe themselves as people who are always involved in the business of others. Therefore we know who the criminals are, more often than not we simply turn a blind eye to their actions until it truly actually concerns our well being. Also the mores and values of society have changed so much that now it's all about "getting it" by any means necessary. If we need to get something done and done quickly we often circumvent protocol or rules. What we don't realize is that we are inadvertently teaching the youth to do the same. Society is actually breeding criminals in an attempt to get the things that we need to live a normal and comfortable life. Why should I go to school and get an education and get a job when I can just do something illegal and make money in a quick and easy way. Why should I sit down and try and solve differences in an amicable way when I can just pull out my gun and kill you.
You see the only way to solve this crime problem is for everyone one on the ship to row in the same direction. Governments and by extension politicians need to held accountable for their actions and promises. The police service needs a severe overhaul, rogue officers need to be dismissed, more officers need to be recruited and extensive training in preventing and solving crime needs to be administered. The court system needs to be revamped as well, the back log of cases at the moment are simply prohibiting the wheels of justice at the moment. We the people also need to do our part and uphold our end of the bargain. We need to start to instill the old school mores and norms back into society starting with the youth.
These changes won't be easy, but they are far from impossible. But if they are not made the population might as well get used to living in fear. The sad thing is many of us are so accustomed to this life we fear the change more than we fear for our own safety.
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