“[…] Communities are diverse, and their needs and challenges can vary significantly. Addressing complex social issues such as poverty, drug abuse, mental health, or gang violence requires a holistic approach involving multiple agencies, organizations, and resources beyond the scope of traditional policing. “[…] Monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of community …
Read More »Noble: Reclaiming the dream—reconceptualised housing and family planning can lift T&T
As a people, we have dreamed that our lives would be better than those of our parents—and that our children would live even better lives. The harsh reality was exposed with the 2017 MFO Economic Sentiment Report. It showed a decline from three-quarters of our people who felt that life …
Read More »Daly Bread: Another flight from reality; Govt should do more for Junior Panorama
The small band semi-finals at Victoria Square, driven by youthful players as described in last week’s column, was a tasty appetizer for Panorama 2023. What is disappointing is the Government’s failure to use pan music and other performing arts as a year round component of youth development. This disappointment is …
Read More »Daly Bread: Crime scourge requires more than retreat and bewilderment
The Prime Minister last Sunday, in a speech before the PNM Women’s League, expressly acknowledged that Trinidad and Tobago is in “a situation of unacceptably high levels of crime”. This is an important acknowledgement after all the years of dismissive responses to the high levels of violent crime pioneered and …
Read More »Dear Editor: What would be cost in blood of Dr Deyalsingh’s plea to arm “the citizenry”?
“Dr Varma Deyalsingh has suggested ‘arming the citizenry’ with guns when he addressed the 3rd Sitting of the Senate […] on 13 October 2022… He was cursorily cautious to include with ‘proper checks and balances’. Knowing what those proper checks and balances would be and how to keep them ‘proper’ …
Read More »Daly Bread: “Stay safe”—T&T’s collective vulnerability to violent crime; and the need for national archiving
For the last two weeks I have focused on how successive governments—PNM and UNC, or UNC-led—miserably failed us in providing the equipment and specially trained personnel capable of detecting and interdicting illegal firearms importation through the legal ports. We now have an unqualified acknowledgment from McDonald Jacob, the acting commissioner …
Read More »Noble: The pipeline from school to prison; the drivers of school violence—and the cure
In the recent uproar about the viral videos of school fights, the November 2018 prophecy by then Police Commissioner Gary Griffith is forgotten. “It is really important for us… to look at secondary school crime prevention… If we do not deal with this situation now, in years to come, we …
Read More »B&B (trailer): Michael Holding: ‘Use cricket and sport to take gunmen off the street!’
Legendary West Indies cricket fast bowler and inimitable analyst Michael Holding suggests how regional administrators can breathe new life into youth sport—by marrying it to crime prevention measures. Look out for our full interview with Holding on the Burdie and Barney Show this Sunday, as we discuss cricket and the …
Read More »‘Strange fruit’ in Heights of Aripo; time to address our women’s pandemic of pain and powerlessness
“[…] The Heights of Aripo has long been used by criminals to dispose of bodies and evidence. In a bid to turn their neighbourhood into an unsafe haven for the criminals, the poor, frightened residents are requesting assistance and basic amenities. Nothing fancy, just streetlights, a police post and, maybe, …
Read More »Noble: Who really cares? How shallow protests ignore chance for real change
‘Poor children are victims of circumstance/ In life they never really get a chance/Or have opportunities as privileged children do/ The road from the poor suburb to prison leads them/ From broken homes they are condemned to fail/ Their abusive and drug-addicted parents serving time in jail/ Their parents too …
Read More »Dear Editor: The death penalty won’t make our women or girls safe
Once again, the Catholic Commission for Social Justice (CCSJ) and the Greater Caribbean for Life (GCL) urge T&T’s government to focus on human development and crime prevention rather than expend time and energy in seeking to resume hanging. CCSJ and GCL are aware that passions are running high in T&T …
Read More »Noble: Tackling poverty: the slower (vital) route to shutting down T&T crime factory
With the two shootings in East Port of Spain and the mystery of the San Fernando ‘kidnappings’, the uncertainty of life in our country is writ large. Fear stalks. These circumstances have the potential to paralyse the commercial life of Port of Spain on one hand and to drive deeper …
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