Politics and fear of crime

Alfred Hitchcock’s series of suspense movies relied heavily on the anticipation of a crime. That is, creating the fear that a crime is likely to happen. He used shadows, fake suspects, misleading alibis and “cloak and dagger images” to keep his audience in suspense long before the crime is committed. My favourites are Strangers on a Train and Dial M for Murder.

Fear also dominates real life, especially with people fearing that they too might be a victim, never mind that it is a minority of the population who commits the crimes. Fear has created industries. There is the fear of getting sick, fear of getting old, of going to the hospital, fear of looking ugly, of the dark, and equally so, the continuous political fear of “the other race,” the latter being the foundation of our politics. The US vs Russia crisis over Ukraine is about that too – fear of the other.

This country’s murder rate, now going over 75 for the year and twice as last year’s, is hair-raising. And while the public was duly worried, up came Wednesday’s fearsome islandwide electricity blackout. This newspaper headlined the “blackout crimes” this way: “Siblings of murdered Tunapuna man traumatised after blackout killing,” “Bandits steal safe, groceries, motor oil from Laventille gas station during blackout,” etc.

Also reported was the Chinese community being “incensed that gangs of young men carrying guns were robbing and ransacking their businesses.” Supermarket manager Dexter Emmanuel added: “It’s a lot of young fellas who are robbing groceries and businesses. Something has to be done to make people feel safe.” Note the prevailing concerns about “young men” and “young fellas” in crime. This is a disaster-in-waiting. We can no longer remain indifferent or numbed.

This trend of youth crime will likely increase given the continued fallouts from our secondary schools – the largely unattended production side of crime. How many times this deficiency has been pointed out. Of course, National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds is busy trying to convince the public that he is doing something. But his apparent disconnect with the criminogenic education system would likely make his law-enforcement plans continuously fractured, and also making his job and that of acting Commissioner McDonald Jacob even more difficult.

No society can stop all crimes. But it helps build public confidence when thoughtful and well-prepared policies are implemented effectively. We cannot be saying and doing the same things over and over. We have seen how headlined expectations evaporate rather quickly.

How long would it take for PM Dr Rowley and his Cabinet to realise this? We must not be just about announcing policies. The population looks forward to results by comparing data before and after these “policies” are announced and reasons for their measured success or failures. Let’s follow the science too and help reduce crime and the public fear of crime. If not, prepare for the consequences.

Our history of crime and politics in this country shows that crime and the public fear of crime were used or abused as political tools by both government and opposition. And as such, they made the job of the police quite challenging. That is why the policy-making of the government, in particular the attorney general and minister of national security, should be less provocative and confrontational, and more partnership-building and consensual. If not, prepare for the consequences.

The extent to which the government and opposition cannot agree on anti-crime policies, so would police work become unduly difficult. It is time to reset the button. If this cannot be properly done, then the public should be prepared to accept the obvious consequences.

In a recent book, Crime, Politics and Justice, I outlined eight reasons for people’s fear of crime. Among these are the randomness of reported crimes, the suddenness and increase rate of the crimes, the reported brutality of the crimes, proximity to crime scene, the general state of anxiety in the population. While the fear of crime is largely psychological, the economics of crime carries certain security costs (eg closure of business) as well as gains (eg burglar-proof industry). However, I concluded: “At the end, no amount of money can really compensate for the grief, family loss and fears that crime brings upon a population.”