Minority Leader: Tobago must fight against gangs

THA Minority Leader and electoral representative for Darrel Spring/Whim Kelvon Morris is calling for a collective approach in the fight against gang violence on the island.

Speaking on the Tobago Updates morning show on August 7, Morris said one murder is one too many. He said crime has left people in his electoral district deeply concerned and “literally afraid.”

Up to press time on August 7, Tobago had recorded 19 murders. The latest murder was on August 5 when Victoria Guerra, also known as “Dolly Boss,” was shot multiple times at Lammy Road, Argyle. She died at the Roxborough Hospital.

“This is unprecedented in the Tobago space,” Morris said. We’ve always been known, as we branded Tobago – clean, green, safe and serene. Therefore, Tobago, whereas you had a number of murders and high crimes in Trinidad, was always seen as that safe space and unfortunately, if we are to be quite honest, we are quite not that safe space as we used to be.”

He said one of the greatest concerns for him was that there is a proliferation of guns on the island.

“We need to find a way to get these guns out of the hands of some of these young men – especially these gangs, and then we have to break up these gangs as well.

“In Tobago, if we have to be honest, in different pockets of the community, a number of our young persons are getting involved in this gang warfare and they’re being influenced perhaps by people outside – but they’re allowing them to come in, they’re harbouring them and then they too are getting involved in the activities.”

The THA, he said, also has a responsibility to treat with the areas where they can impact.

“So the social areas, the community areas, the sporting areas, the educational areas. We ought to take control of those and ensure that the young people that we are conditioning are like-minded persons, so we reduce the opportunities for them engaging in gang violence and engaging in things that are just not good for the island.”

He added: “This fight has to be a Tobago fight; it has to be all of us in this fight because we are such a small community and everybody in some way we are all connected. At times, we know – some of us – the people who are involved, but because it might be a cousin, neighbour or friend we become afraid to give the information, and more and more when we hold back eventually it comes right to our doorstep.

“In going forward, if we want to change this culture of violence, we have got to all become partners in this fight against the criminal elements, whether it be friend or foe.”