“[…] The crime situation is very terrible. Being a parent, I do not believe in condoning wrong things. It’s really sad that these things happening in Mayaro now. Mayaro is coming like a little Laventille…” Mayaro resident. Express, 24 January 2023. The resident was referencing the slaying of three youths …
Read More »Dear Editor: Police work is a “wicked problem”; Dr Rowley should change tack to address crime
“[…] Dr Keith Rowley, police work is what is known as a “wicked problem”. Rittel & Webber (1973) identified the following characteristics of a wicked problem: “[…] The problem has no end point where you can say it is ‘solved’; solutions are not true or false, but better or worse; …
Read More »Dear Editor: We are sitting ducks for burglars; enough is enough!
“[…] To what extent are those of us who abide by certain values and even endorse restorative justice and mediation required to continue to suffer in silence? “We are being exploited, demeaned, robbed, attacked and taken advantage of by persons whose main objective is to separate us from our property—so …
Read More »Dear Editor: Don’t condone law-breaking, Fazeer! TTPS have to enforce law in Barrackpore
“[…] Based on the video images provided by the local news media, it would appear that the actions of some of the protesters were illegal… The police officers have a duty to enforce the law. “[…] Mr Fazeer Mohammed unleashed a tirade of abuse against the police… The police officers …
Read More »T&T wants First World policing from Third World model: Griffith, data and decolonising the TTPS
“[…] It is well documented that the history of policing in Trinidad and Tobago has been characterised as bearing the undesirable feature of paramilitarism… Joan Mars, Guyanese sociologist and policing scholar, when commenting on policing during the colonial times argued that this model of policing was characterised by: “An emphasis …
Read More »Vaneisa: When does evil begin? The making and breaking of Joel Balcon
The revelation that Joel Balcon had been charged with 70 criminal counts remains a scandalous indictment of this country. But where in the system is the blame to fall? In the Express of 4 February, Anna Ramdass reported an interview with an unidentified attorney who said he had previously represented …
Read More »Noble: Will Trinidad and Tobago’s lambs remain silent—satisfied by the ‘appearance’ of crime fighting?
‘The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance.’ — John Philpot Curran (1790). As a nation, we are sliding into a place of great sadness. The economy’s growth engines are shutting down, and there is a collapse of law and order. Daily, it becomes more …
Read More »Noble: Will the TTPS save us? Or is T&T leaning on a false messiah?
Distressingly amid the national uproar over our women’s ill-treatment and murders, we gravitate to accepting a ‘macho’ solution that wreaks violence upon those who threaten us. We should reflect on how likely this path would take us to our desired goal of safety for all, particularly our women. Will we …
Read More »Dear Editor: Only justice can solve war between ‘haves’ and have-nots’, not ‘one shot, one kill’
“The police and the police commissioner are not supposed to declare war on the citizens of the country. They are supposed to bridge the gaps and develop and maintain good relationships with the people in the communities. “[…] The youths in our communities are not criminals by nature; it is …
Read More »Noble: A nation, moral leadership, short-sightedness; standing at the gates of Hell
“Hatred is corrosive of a person’s wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation’s spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and block a nation’s progress to freedom and democracy.” Liu Xiaobo, 2010 Nobel Prize Laureate. The spectacle of a former …
Read More »Daly Bread: Trying endless bramble on we; on narco ‘big fish’ and medium steel bands
We now have belated confirmation—we knew it already—that, in addition to private capital, the source of which might be swanky neighbourhoods, funds for criminal enterprise are also drawn from linkages with public officials and the largesse of Government contracts. These funds are tools used to put or keep competing political …
Read More »Dear Editor: Has T&T reverted from Police Service to Police Force? And at what price our liberty?
“When police are militarised, they are more likely to be attacked (Carriere, 2016). The militarisation of police does not reduce crime. Elite teams neither reduce crime nor enhance public safety and become used routinely in low-income communities. “There is no evidence that this practice enhances officer safety nor lowers crime …
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