Still at mercy of 'savages' after 16 years

THE EDITOR: "Savages!" That is the only way to describe the people who attack helpless citizens in TT.

While the Government and opposition members continue to "kif kif" in Parliament, citizens are at the mercy of merciless thugs.

Not everything makes the news, including the two elderly sisters in Woodbrook, one with a heart condition, who were tied up and beaten in their home.

Compounding the issue is the fact that criminal lawyers line up by the dozens to defend these beasts in human form, who suddenly have all the human rights in the world when they are captured by the police.

But the citizens, who they terrorise in their homes, have absolutely no rights when these bandits are beating them to a pulp.

I once asked a police officer: "How do you feel after you have done your job, collected the evidence, arrested the perpetrator, only for the legal system to grant them bail and put them back out on the street?"

He said he takes a deep breath and continues to do his job. But that can be absolutely morale-shattering.

On February 9, 2007, Winston Dookeran, who was an opposition member, in discussing the Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) Bill, stated that "...crime and terror remain, by the admission of the government and by the feelings of the people of the country and by the experiences of those who have been directly and indirectly affected by crime, a real phenomenon and a real issue...

"Selwyn Ryan...wrote an article entitled 'Paradise Lost'...on February 4, 2007 [in which he stated that]...'there is a widespread view that the PNM government...is soft on crime, and that it has either surrendered to the criminals, or is itself aiding, abetting and funding criminality'" (Hansard, pages 179 and 184).

After 16 years, we have gone nowhere.

LINUS F DIDIER

Mt Hope