Will there be march for two-year-old Aniya? Griffith slams ‘selected outrage’ by public

“[…] When will I expect to obtain the requests for marches, and protests against such acts of barbarous brutality against our children?”

In the following press statement, Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith claims that there is ‘selected outcry’ against wrongdoings, after the murder of Tunapuna resident Stefhon Mc Cloud and his two-year-old daughter Aniya Mc Cloud:

As Commissioner of Police, I have never toed the line expected of, or from those with agendas. I call a spade a spade, and though I continue to be dragged over the coals for speaking the unpopular truths, I have continued so to do.

As you know, I have and will continue to guard both the Office and the men and women of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service jealously. At the same time, I will not hesitate to remove those within the Service who operate outside of the bounds of what is expected and required.

I have said it before, and I shall reiterate, this calling presents challenges that only those who walk in our shoes can and will appreciate. We see and treat with more than most, and are always expected to operate with a measured approach.

That being said, when we are met with news of an innocent two-year-old baby being caught in the crossfire of a murderous onslaught, perpetuated by those who cared nothing about curtailing the life of this innocent, many questions immediately come to mind, such as:

• When will I expect to obtain the requests for marches, and protests against such acts of barbarous brutality against our children?

• I expect our various lines of outreach to communities including the 555, TTPS App, and 482-GARY, to be overrun with credible information to be transformed into intelligence to support the swift capture of these monsters, and I say monsters, because I dare not refer to someone who killed an innocent child as a cockroach, because the defense for such cold-blooded criminals, is alarming when they are referred to as such.

• I expect to have mass outcry on social media and the many platforms for justice for this baby, and the many children we have lost to senseless gang violence.

• I await the sound and fury by activists, politicians, and newspaper editorials, calling on communities to work with the Police to bring these perpetrators to immediate justice, along with demands for justice and to ‘call their names’—or is this outburst, hurt and pain, conveniently felt only when the Police are involved?

• I trust I will be tagged by social media bloggers (paid and otherwise), who will use their time to post everything I say, wear and do, to utilize their energies in encouraging persons, if they saw something to say something; very much in the same vein when a ‘Police-involved’ shooting takes place, when everyone sees and knows.

Every life lost is one life too many, and is and should be treated as heinous. However, when murderous gangsters, intentionally point their illegal weapons at their target, and proceed to pull that trigger regardless of who their target may be, and takes the life of an innocent, a baby no less, demands equal outcry. If this doesn’t move us to work together, I am not certain what can.

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