Jan 05
This Report, prepared by Small Arms Survey of Switzerland, explores the rise of gangs and killings in Trinidad and Tobago and predicts that the country’s gun problems are not going to go away. Eastern Port of Spain, in particular, is described as ‘among the most dangerous places on the planet’.
Reading this very sobering report, it appears that T&T has now reached the stage that Jamaica reached as far back as the 1970s, with respect to the collusion between political parties and criminal gangs, with one important difference. In Jamaica, such collusion was a bipartisan affair, in which both the governing and opposition parties were actively involved whereas in Trinidad, if one is to go by this report, it is only the current governing party that is guilty of such criminal collusion, with a gangster chieftain even conferring with the Prime Minister who, most astonishingly, described the gangsters as “community leaders”! It is also most disturbing that T&T has overtaken Jamaica as the Caribbean country with the most gun-related murders, Jamaica having in the past established, and broken, records in that very respect. The need felt by the UNC leadership in the 2002 general elections to offer protection, in the form of a free door-to-door shuttle service, to would-be voters (doubtlessly from districts where the opposition is strong) who were too scared to go to the polling stations, sadly put T&T in the category of Afghanistan. The report even states that the murder rate for Port of Spain is comparable to that of Baghdad! T&T has certainly gone “big-time” with a huge bang.
Pumping 50 bullets into a single victim’s body is reminiscent of American and Sicilian Mafia killings, which are intended to send a clear message to others who might be tempted to betray or thwart the mafia gang. The leasing out of guns, by police and gangsters alike, with the charge for such leasing calculated on the size of the anticipated earnings, suggests a level of sophistication that may be a harbinger of even more sophisticated practices, like automatic computerized trading and, why not?, even a futures market in gun leasing. Crime-related weapons disappearing from police custody and put on the market the day after reminds one of the legendary corruption in the Los Angeles and New York city police departments, in their heyday.
Apart from Cascade, the high-murder areas are all “low-class” ones but Trinitobagians who imagine that by living in more up-scale residential areas, even gated-ones, they can escape the violence, should learn from the experience of other countries with a similar violent social trajectory. Violence in a society can neither be compartmentalized or quarantined; it is a hydra-headed monster which, once aroused, tends to end up devouring/engulfing the entire society. Alas, the middle and upper classes in most societies faced with the problem of acute social violence, invariably turn a blind eye to it apparently thinking that, if they do so, it will eventually go away. When they eventually wake up to their mistake, it is usually too late.
Mervyn
The Women”™s Institute for Alternative Development (WINAD) notes with interest the contents of the Small Arms Survey report on Guns, Gangs and Governance in Trinidad and Tobago. WINAD has had a long standing working relationship with the SAS but opted out of participating in this project.
In our view the timeline for completion of the project, as well as the methodology, required longer and deeper reflection and interrogation.
The content of the report reveals a need for several inaccuracies to be clarified. The fundamental argument of the report relied heavily on newspaper reports and consequently, regurgitated accusations which have fuelled public debate on the effectiveness of the state response to the challenge of armed violence. Throughout it all, there is the absence of clinical analysis.
This report would have been more useful had it focused more rigorously on the root elements of the challenge of guns, gangs and governance in Trinidad and Tobago by exploring the historical antecedents; structural violence; human rights violations; and the gendered nature of the challenge. Had it done so, it would have presented an opportunity for citizens, including policy makers, to reflect on the many and varied responses which have been designed to respond and counteract violent crime, especially armed violence, and evaluate the impact and usefulness.
Further, it is imperative that persons in the various sectors desist from making inflammatory statements in relation to armed violence since this serves only to exacerbate an already volatile situation and place barriers to non partisan dialogue on fact finding and solutions.
WINAD has worked to end gun violence in Trinidad and Tobago since 2001 and initiated the formation of a regional coalition of civil society organizations in fourteen Caribbean countries to engage in research and activism in relation to this issue.
Our most recent intervention in Trinidad and Tobago was the Women”™s Conversations on Armed Violence which engaged women of fourteen communities across the country. We subsequently hosted a regional conference of Caribbean women to discuss this issue and over 150 women participated.
Over time, WINAD has partnered with groups and individuals locally, regionally and internationally in our efforts to find solutions. One of the many lessons learnt is the centrality of respectful dialogue in solution focused interventions.
We urge all our leaders, in and out of government, to embrace this concept, as the challenge of armed violence is our challenge. The solutions reside within our collective genius.
Let”™s get to work.
Folade Mutota
Coordinator
2010.01.05
What is Patrick Manning doing to stem this type of violence? How did this escalation happen? What is, if anything is being done about it? It is scary to say the least.
food prices has to drop and more jobs for un educated people in needed for crime to stop children crying at night for some thing to eat is not a nice thing parents how are victims of these kind of situation will do any thing to feed their children