Spiritual Baptists march against crime in San Fernando

SAYING parents and, by extension, all adults have failed children, a religious leader is urging people to do better in nurturing children.

Archbishop Leon John said the failure to nurture children, which includes teaching them about God, has contributed to the alarming crime rate.

As of Sunday afternoon, the murder toll for this year was 576, according to police. There were four murders in south on Saturday and one man was gunned down in Diego Martin, also on Saturday.

"The people who are doing these things (committing crime) were once children. Some were in our homes, in the churches, primary, secondary, and even Sunday schools. We have failed in how we bring up the children," John said.

"Now that they are miserable, bad and doing all kinds of things, we want the police to deal with it. We have to do better. We cannot reach everyone, but we need to make a greater effort to deal with those little monsters in our homes to help them."

The chairman of the National Congress of Incorporated Spiritual Baptist Organisation of TT spoke to Newsday on Sunday during a march against crime in San Fernando.

John co-ordinated the event in response to the police's call for all hands to be on deck to fight crime.

John added, "We chose to do something to assist. We had meetings with the police chief and his team, and we told him about what we were going to do. We started with a day of prayer, and there would be other initiatives."

The march started at Carib Street at 9 am and ended on Harris Promenade.

The initiative coincided with the Prime Minister's inter-faith thanksgiving service also on Sunday at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann's.