Handcuffed to Criminals

I am amazed at the shameless, bold faced attempt by Minister of National Security Martin Joseph to manipulate crime statistics for 2006 in an effort to prove that the government is serious about crime. Imaging Vindra Naipaul remain in the hands of abductors but the government is busy playing games, insulting our intelligence, trying to convince us that crime is down.

Joseph claimed there were 22 kidnappings for ransom in 2006. I don’t know if the government understands the terror, fear and panic on the ground. People feel exposed and vulnerable, as though they are easy targets, another statistic just waiting to happen. What’s more, there is the undeniable perception that one ethnic group is disproportionately under attack. Friday’s Express editorial alluded to this when it stated that ‘Mr Panday's re-ascension comes at a time when criminal attacks suffered by Trinidad and Tobago's Indo half - perceived as being more so than its Afro half - have resulted in Indo-Trinidad believing that it is under attack in a way that it has never been before.’

What is the Indian community to think when kidnappers are able to abduct them with such ease? The reaction of the government to the death of PNM councilor Bertram Allette has been decisive and swift. Minister Joseph met with the Mayor and Councillors of the City Corporation for almost two hours. Army and police officers were immediately deployed in Laventille and special attention has been given to the family. Contrast this with the attitude towards kidnap victims: Joseph is yet to visit the Naipaul family and he can afford to spare police officers to search Panday’s home instead of search for Naipaul and Harricharan.

 In the face of the government’s inability to protect society Joseph pleads ignorance to the well-known fact that central businessmen have been forced to pay ‘protection money’ to thugs that threaten to kidnap them. Men in long Muslim wear are making a living on and trading off the notorious reputation of the Jamaat and frequently show up at people’s doors to claim their pound of flesh. The clever strategy is to tell the businessman the movements of his wife and children for the past week so that he would know that they were being followed and that this is serious business.

The terror of someone reciting the precise movements of your young children or wife coupled with the ominous warning that ‘and doh even bother about the police because dem cyar do nothing’ or ‘dey done know what we about and have dey own cut to get’ is enough to persuade frightened businessmen to cough up the dough. Joseph is a coward to condemn them as he should be man enough to admit defeat and bow out of office.

 Lest we forget the brutal murder of kidnap victims, on May 27 Reshma Boodoo and Anil Singh, both 19, abducted by three men in Marabella, thrown out of the kidnap car while fighting back, and Boodhoo killed. On October 2 Riaz Khan, 19, was snatched outside his father's business at Jerry Junction, Carapichaima, and $2 million ransom demanded. His body was found near the Caroni Cremation site, with a bullet to the head. On August 4 Christopher Taylor, an accountant at Shell Pt Lisas, kidnapped and murdered, his body left at Claxton Bay. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Thus far all we have had is ole talk. The blimps were supposed to be able to identify number plates whilst up in the air and the high-tech spy equipment trace calls within seconds. What a waste of resources! The uncompromising all-out attack against crime has just not happened. The criminals have no fear or respect for the police and law and order is fast becoming a thing of the past. In a housing settlement at Lady Hailes Avenue in San Fernando a soldier was injured and two unmarked police jeeps damaged when police and army men were openly attacked by residents when they went to execute a search warrant on an NHA apartment. Open warfare.

The officers called for back up and officers from the Guard and Emergency Branch responded coupled with a joint army patrol. Despite the heavy presence of law enforcement, open warfare erupted and a soldier was injured. Imagine the police arrested one man and handcuffed him but he actually managed to escape with the handcuffs on!  The sight of this man with a handcuff on escaping in the full view of heavily armed and trained police and army officers captures the sad state of the government’s attempts to bring crime under control. The police couldn’t catch a kidnapper or murderer, not even if they were handcuffed to him!