La Horquetta/Talparo residents urged, 'Don't turn a blind eye to crime'

La Horquetta/Talparo MP Foster Cummings has urged his constituents not to turn a blind eye to crime.

Cummings was speaking at a community meeting at the La Horquetta Community Centre hosted by the Commissioner of Police on Wednesday night.

He said over the last year, young people in the area have gone into profitable agricultural entrepreneurial activity, which has reduced gun violence and violent crimes drastically. But praedial larceny and illegal quarrying remain major concerns.

“This has always raised a significant hindrance to further development. In fact, the distressing nature of these occurrences, and the increase in the boldness of the perpetrators have the effect of turning persons who are interested in agriculture and caused them to move away from this profession.”

He said one of his visions for the constituency is to make it the breadbasket of TT. He asked the commissioner to deal with praedial larceny so that young farmers wouldn’t be discouraged by the dangers associated with it.

Cummings pledged to partner with the police and told residents, "When crimes continue unpunished, criminals get bolder and before you know it, there’s criminality in all different forms and it takes over a community."

Griffith said while a drop in crime is a positive sign, La Horquetta/Talparo still has a long way to go.

“It’s very unfortunate we have reached the situation we are in, because sometimes we will make knee-jerk decisions, and we feel the domino effect. As I looked into this constituency and environs, it reminds me of probably about ten or 12 years ago, we did not have this problem.

"What caused the problem? Bad decisions. I recall when I was in another place –and I’ll use two words: ‘Life Sport’ – and that became a domino effect towards what we have seen throughout this area and the environments or the constituencies.”

The Life Sport programme was established under former sport minister Anil Roberts in 2012 under the People's Partnership administration. It was shut down in July 2014 by former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar after an audit revealed procurement breaches, criminal activities, fraud, theft of equipment and poor control and monitoring.

Griffith told the residents it will take more than night vigils, marching and protests to take criminals down. He said, “What I’m asking you all is to do what is important. I just need assistance.”

Griffith said gang-related activity has been the catalyst for the spike in murders throughout TT. He asked the residents to confide in the police and not to be afraid to say something if they see something.

During the open forum, residents complained of transport issues, praedial larceny and reduced police patrols in and around areas in the constituency.

Though dealing with praedial larceny isn't solely the responsibility of the police, Griffith committed that he will work towards bringing redress to affected residents.