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“The area is dominated by gangs. Thus far, the police have had only limited success in eradicating the gangs.
“It can be done, but it requires a multipronged approach, including all aspects of the state’s possible response; most of all, a genuine desire (my emphasis) on the part of the non-gang residents and business owners in these communities.”
National Security Minister and Member of Parliament for Laventille West, Fitzgerald Hinds, on the occasion of five murders at Harpe Place, East Port of Spain.
Even while Minister Hinds acknowledges the gang domination problem, is he questioning whether there is a genuine desire to live in a community free from the ills of gang infestation?
Which resident or business owner wants to live ducking bullets or as the prey for some hotheaded youth? Why would they choose to live in a community plagued with brutish and uncertain life?
Unprovoked, Minister Hinds continued: “…the consciousness and sincerity, the understanding of the danger that we all face, at the madness of the gangsters, is simply not present and is a long way off in coming.”
He asked: “Will Harpe Place/Techier Terrace, Charford Court, Bath Street, Basilon Street and environs go through the rituals as we always do and go back to life and business as normal by tomorrow?”
Such breathtaking arrogance in a time of enormous grief is unimaginable. What makes this Minister believe that residents do not understand the danger of this existence?
Where is the understanding of community life that Minister Hinds displayed at the Rose Hill RC School shooting?
Photo: Ministry of National Security
Then, he said: “Within recent weeks, they had this unfortunate experience on a couple of occasions. So often, actually, that the Board taught and their schools practice a routine of getting down, whenever gunshots are heard.
“Chances are that depending on where they live, very unfortunately, they may have experienced this at home as well.”
Which parent wants to raise a child where they have to duck below a bed when the bullets start to fly? Is that the life any sane resident of the East Port of Spain communities desires?
When a community loses five members, the pain and immense suffering do not disappear into thin air. The community and the families live a lifetime of horror and sustained trauma effects.
Rudolph James, one of the Harpe Place victims and the sole breadwinner of his home, has left five children, four under 18, and a wife who has multiple sclerosis. Will life return to normal, Minister Hinds?
The broad-brush stigmatisation of the entire community is unbelievable. Is it that the “we” who face the madness of the gangsters do not include the residents?
Are they not more traumatised daily than any other group? Or does MP Hinds believe all these communities are dens of iniquity filled with incurable criminals?
Believing this lie means he does not understand East Port of Spain. This also means he does not accept the crime statistics that show that a minority of residents commit crimes. MP Hinds appears to be oblivious to the fear that stalks these communities and the pain they bear.
Could it be possible that MP Hinds have never read the Community Recovery Committee’s report? Or was it a pure mamaguy thing to quieten down the protests over the police killings?
(via Stabroeknews)
Is this National Security Minister and his predecessor, the sitting MP for Harpe Place, blind to the police excesses inflicted upon these communities?
Has MP Hinds forgotten the disdain that former Police Commissioner Gary Griffith had for a grieving Trou Macaque grandmother, whom he dubbed ‘Super Granny’?
Sunity Maharaj, then an Express columnist, horrified at those five deaths, wrote: “As much as we may wish it to be otherwise, Gary Griffith is not the answer to our prayers but the symptom of our failure.
(via TTPS)
“[…] Randolph Burroughs and his Flying Squad taught us well what police can do. This time, let us not clothe ourselves in pretensions of democracy…”
The residents have not forgotten. They cannot afford to forget that they are at risk from predatory police officers.
Their experience is: “Just recently real van loads of police come in here…Almost every day, the police coming in here and jacking up the boys and pointing guns at them. The boys fed up. That is not the way to deal with us inside here.”
(via TTPS)
Has Minister Hinds forgotten a full-page advertisement in the Express newspaper supporting a candidate for the position of deputy commissioner of police? Within a month, the individual was charged with misbehaviour in public office.
The Express asked “under which rock was the Police Service Commission living?” as they detailed the suspect activities the gentleman led.
Why does Minister Hinds believe that the residents in East Port of Spain should trust and collaborate? They are prey to both gangs and truant police officers.
Hernandez, who was charged for misbehaviour in office.
(Copyright Abraham Diaz / Trinidad Guardian)
Remember Nicole Clement? She, the reluctant State witness for the ‘Moruga three’ killings, claimed that her fellow officers “held several clandestine meetings during which they tried to ensure that their reports on the shooting were consistent”.
She made an unforgettable statement: “That is the normal police culture when things like this happen … Everyone sticks together and writes the same report … One squad. One song.”
Do these lyrics not resemble what reportedly happened with the five killings that grieved Super Granny? If this is ‘normal police culture’, why should the community cooperate? They are caught between two competing gangs.
Copyright: Ezra Bartholomew
Do we have a functioning Witness Protection programme? Minister Hinds, State witnesses get killed or are disappeared! Will the trials be speedy?
Will there be scientific evidence to support cases? Last week, Justice Geoffrey Henderson chided two lawyers from the Director of Public Prosecutions for weak evidence. He explained: “If you have lime, you can only make lime juice.”
Conviction rates have been stubbornly low since 2006. Of the 2,087 murders reported to the police between 1996 and 2006, convictions were secured in only 23 cases. The solvency rate in 2023 was 16%, and for 2024 it now stands at 9%.
Photo: TTPS
How does a resident weigh that support to testify? This low rate enables the gangs to gain control over the communities.
A report in the hands of the National Security Ministry said: “Low clearance and conviction rates are among a number of reasons for the failure of formal social control, thus opening the door for criminal gangs and other antisocial entities to exert their own breed of informal social control.” (Maguire et al, 2008)
Witnesses and communities sit in silent pain, waiting for you, as a cabinet minister, to act.
The ground no longer hosts competitive football.
(Courtesy Sean Morrison/ Wired868)
Minister Hinds, do you remember the late Hal Greaves from the Citizens’ Security Programme? He interrupted crime and bridged the gap between warring gangs.
In a eulogy, the Guardian newspaper editorialised: “[…] It was the honesty, respect and enthusiasm of the man that resonated with them. Mr Greaves would eventually establish a mutually beneficial relationship with the T&T Police Service, but […] carefully treading a crumbling line in communities […] unforgiving of untrustworthiness and double-dealing.”
via LoopTT
Who or what has replaced Hal and the Citizens’ Security Programme? Why is there no more Project REASON? Who or what builds trust between community members and between the community and the police?
In the face of guns and a casual disregard for the value of life, residents remain silent since they are left hopeless by all. Beaten down by social injustices, they can now add the insults of Minister Hinds.
Minister and Member of Parliament for Laventille West, Mr Hinds, you can no longer claim ignorance. As Notorious BIG rapped: “If you don’t know, now you know.”
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