Crime in Trinidad and Tobago.

Update: January 24th, 2006: If you are directed here by anything Michelle Malkin wrote, please read this.

----------------------

The time has come, I think, for me to talk a bit about the present crime situation in Trinidad and Tobago. In an odd way, I'm an outsider looking in yet an insider looking out. Perhaps this perspective will be useful; since I have returned I have felt remorse in unpacking myself and truly returning - those of you who have ever returned to a place where you grew up will understand. The rest of you won't.

First of all, there is presently a crime situation in Trinidad and Tobago. And I'm not talking about the cold black and white crime that litters reports, the facts and figures that sit there to impress or depress the would-be reader. If you want that, you can read these reports on Crime in Trinidad and Tobago. Of course, those interested in tourism have their own say for tourists - Things you need to know about - Crime. It sagely advises dialing 999, yet the response time for that could be a few hours, if the police have a vehicle.

Here it states:

...Though Trinidad has a reputation in the region for violent crime, much of this is exaggerated and crime rarely affects tourists...

Yet the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Commerce has this to say:

...We take no pleasure in warning the former Minister of National Security, now of Tourism, Howard Chin Lee, that with the increasing rate of crime in Tobago and now the attempted murder of Canadian professor and karateka, Robert McDonald, there is the likelihood of more negative travel advisories by foreign governments advising their citizens against travelling here. We trust that the Minister of Foreign Affairs will not simply go hurrying and scurrying to foreign capitals to manage damage and loss control, but that the Prime Minister and Cabinet will collectively, at lest, ensure that the law enforcement authorities in Tobago stop playing hide and seek with reported crime statistics and the level of fear in Tobagonians, while those in Trinidad, quickly bring to justice those who attacked Mr. McDonald...

I believe that it was Mr. McDonald who died, but it may have been another tourist. I do not know, I cannot recall - because the daily news is more of a depressant than the most popular drugs in Trinidad and Tobago. I don't read the daily news here. Instead, I listen to the radio, and catch television sometimes. Most of the time I hear the highlights through people around me. But if you really want to see what's going on, I'd suggest creeping through the archives of these two major newspapers:

Trinidad Express

Trinidad Guardian

But those are sort of generalities when it comes to crime. The children being kidnapped, the murders, what have you. Last year one of my Uncles was kidnapped; he still fears for his life - now there's bulletproof glass at his establishment, and he doesn't stay in the same spot long - and doesn't go to the same spots in the same ways. I know of 7 people - personally - who have encountered violent crime within the last year. I've twice encountered people who wanted what I had *almost* as much as I did. And when that happens, you begin to see a bit beyond the 2 dimensional crime that appears in the newspaper and the 4 dimensional crime that occurs everyday.

And the recent announcement of the FBI setting up office in Trinidad and Tobago because of high level al Quaeda members does tend to make one look back at this article by Scott Wheeler and rub one's chin. Last I checked, the FBI jurisdiction was the United States proper. Shouldn't it be a CIA office, or is this a new Homeland Security initiative?

And these are the reported crimes. What about those unreported? Consider this quote from the Trinidad Guardian (July 2nd, 2004 - written by Yvonne Web):

Acting Commissioner of Police Trevor Paul vowed yesterday to leave no stone unturned in investigating allegations that two police constables assigned to San

Fernando Police Station had robbed a man of marijuana. Paul said the matter would be investigated properly and firm action taken, if it was proven the officers had done wrong. He also promised transparency, in that the public would know all about the probe. However,

Paul is yet to receive a report on the matter, as senior Supt Dawson Victor is still compiling it.

According to reports, on June 15, two constables who were on duty at the station, on Harris Promenade, requested some time off from the senior officer on duty. One of the constables said he wanted to take his girlfriend home. The two men reportedly left the

station and went to a nearby bar, where they robbed a man of a quantity of marijuana, which was in a bag, and $2,400 in cash. The policemen returned later to their posts. Some time afterwards, the alleged victim came to the charge room to report the incident. He

later identified the two officers on duty as the men who had robbed him, and pointed that out to a senior officer on duty. A search was immediately conducted and the bag containing the marijuana was discovered in one of the constable�s lockers. In his alibi, the constable said he had picked up the bag in an earlier raid and forgot to hand it over.

According to reports, a similar incident occurred about a year ago, when an expatriate employed with Tucker went to the San Fernando CID to report he had been robbed while sitting in the car park at Gulf City. However, when he got to the station, he discovered the men who had robbed him were the ones there to take his report.

Seems to me that some people might be afraid to report a crime.

But I think Jacqueline Morris makes the points best here in her blog. That there have been pushes by the present government to give the government power over the police. Let's clarify: Pushes by the present elected government to have power over the police; politicians in control of police. This falls somewhere between idiocy and bad.

I was sitting down with my cousin, his wife and his father and we were talking about this situation this evening. My cousin told us that a lady called in to a talk programme on the radio, and that she had been driving her husband and son around when someone in another vehicle allegedly pointed a gun at her. In a panic, she drove to the nearest police station - and her husband and son were subsequently [allegedly] beaten. The other vehicle supposedly was driven by police officers, and the reasoning she stated was that 'a car of the same license number had been involved in a shooting'. So two allegedly innocent men (how often do you hear that?) got beaten, and are in nursing homes for their troubles. The advice received on the radio? 'Get a good lawyer'.

Lawyers don't make crime go away.

My cousin also made the point that a State of Emergency is probably being avoided because the Honourable Prime Minister has already had to call one in his last term in this position - and two would be political suicide. Oh my. Poor Prime Minister Patrick Manning.

There *is* a problem. I don't have any nice solutions, but it's apparent that a solution to this problem cannot be expected from the present officials - despite pay raises for policemen on one hand and lacklustre equipment on the other. And the new police recruits are told to be examples, and yet their senior officers are held in question.

There is a crime situation in Trinidad and Tobago, and nobody is truly safe. You don't see people wandering around after dark as much. Burglar proofing abounds, houses are locked - passerby watched suspiciously. After all, most of the kidnappings have happened at the front gates of the victims.

This country is not safe. And while it's easy to blame the government in it's lack of regard (which it undoubtedly has shown), there is the citizenry as well. In a country where everyone knows who is sleeping with everyone, nobody seems to be able to say who is responsible for the crime. Perhaps they fear for their lives, perhaps they fear to report. Anonymous reports offer rewards (and how does one collect an anonymous reward?). Yet it continues.

Maybe everyone should be given a gun. As it is, only the criminals and the police have guns - and the line between the two is blurred at times. It's unfair for the honest policemen to say that, perhaps, but it is apparent in public opinion.

Technorati Tags: Caribbean Cold Prickly Latin America and Caribbean People