Wolf has reached their doors

THE EDITOR: Anyone paying attention will know that the crime situation has worsened in the past couple years. The endless theories suggested for the worsening situation range from the massive incompetence by Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds to Prime Minister Rowley, whom I choose to define as the “plantation manager.” Blaming the Police Service (TTPS) is an exercise in futility, as they too have always been incompetent.

The talking heads have skilfully managed to take a social issue such as crime and turn it into one of “race relations.” The political divide along ethnic lines makes reaching an objective analysis on the issue virtually impossible as red blames yellow and vice versa, while their supporters trump and follow suit.

One would have also noticed that the newest trend in the crime world is "home invasion." This came in for much discussion from the talking heads as one advocated “standing your ground and emptying the clip” while the other, as is expected in our adversarial political system, stood against it. Again, that was made out to be an issue in “race.”

Sadly, many of the victims of home invasion are of Indo heritage, while many of those caught are of Afro heritage. Whether the culprits choose their victims based on ethnicity, geography, or just vulnerability is another topic. I too, as a sociologist, have questioned the absence of home invasions in “PNM-controlled areas” like Arima, Arouca, Diego Martin, La Brea.

Then lo and behold we heard about a “home invasion” of a woman whose husband is in a powerful position in society. (In my professional analysis as someone who has studied criminology at the highest academic levels, it was really a “snatch-and-run” opportunity from the video in circulation.)

A couple days later the Bankers Association of TT (BATT) “is offering a $10,000 reward for information related to the recent robberies where people who had just withdrawn money from commercial banks were targeted.” And just so Gregory Aboud and DOMA are “inundated” with calls about the crime situation.

It is apparent that the wolf has finally reached their doors, as my colleague Phillip Edward Alexander and I have been predicting.

How things look are always important to the bigger picture. I recall the words of a law chief who once said, “Justice must not only be done but must manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done.” It is sad that it required the assault of a “person of means” to get the bank’s attention to act on something that the commoners have been clamouring about for the longest while.

Some of us might recall during the recent “exchange of currency” how many of our elderly citizens became victims to criminal elements. The mad rush of currency exchange was carried out under the pretence of “catching drug dealers.” Perhaps the Minister of Finance can tell this nation just how many “drug dealers” were caught, aside from the million-dollar barber, and the pastor. And how many citizens were victims of robberies exiting the banks after exchanging their hard-earned dollars.

BATT never blinked during that period. It never saw it necessary to put out a reward when the commoners were victims. How many people over the years have suggested that bank employees were providing information to their criminal colleagues? Yet BATT never batted an eye.

I have argued in several spaces, including on social media, that until and unless members of the bourgeoisie are as affected as the rest of society, not one damn thing is going to change. The overnight decision by BATT affirms my theory.

I cannot help but wonder what would it take for the TTPS to deal with the murders when there is never a motive in the “hotspots?”

RUDY CHATO PAUL, Sr

D'Abadie