R.I.P.

Yesterday's Sunday Guardian had a most interesting editorial on crime. In it the editorial writer pointed out that some 4,525 people had been murdered since 2010. The statistic was not quoted as to how many of those murders have been solved with the perpetrators being brought to justice, but I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that the percentage is very small.

What a lot of people who have not suffered the misfortune of losing a loved one in this dastardly way (i.e., murder) is how badly a murder affects those left behind. First of all, when you get the news you feel absolutely numb. It's almost too much to digest and you don't know what to do. You feel lost and filled with a feeling that 'this can't be happening'.  Then, when the news eventually sinks in and you cry, the crying does not relieve that dreadful sense of loss that you feel.

A little later, you begin to make enquiries as to exactly how it happened. Did my loved one suffer? You will want to know. In this regard, it is probably a little easier (maybe about one percent) if your loved one was murdered accidentally, for example, if he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, than if, for example, she was kidnapped, raped and strangled. But quite honestly, whether it was an "accidental" murder or a deliberate one, death is still death and murder is so sudden and unexpected that it is still a serious shock to one's system.

Then you will begin to pester the police. What are they doing? Unfortunately, nine times out of ten the answer to that question will be sweet nothing ... either through sheer incompetence or corruption or a combination of both! This will infuriate you, especially when you have delved deep into the murder and you will have discovered exactly who the murderer is and why he committed the crime. But then you will have a problem: the first one will be that while you know exactly who did it and why, you can't prove it, i.e., you will not have any evidence that can stand up in a court. Let me put it to you like this: I was at your house at midnight last night. You know I was there. But I am going to lie and say that I wasn't. Now, you prove that I was there! Difficult, eh? It will be your word against mine!

In addition you might be scared out of your wits because you know that the police will not protect you if you 'rat' on the murderer.

So, he walks scot free! And you are left with nothing but the pain!

Everybody has a loved one ... even if it's 'only' a mother. Usually there will be at least two (if not more) persons who are adversly affected by the violent death. And, you know what? You never get over it! Twenty-three years ago today my cousin, whom I loved like a brother was brutally murdered by a drug lord. Everybody knows who did it, but the police covered it up and it has been lost and forgotten ... except by his family! And that is so sad!

DO WE REALLY WANT TO FIX CRIME?

Crime remains a huge problem in our little country. That there are solutions ... most of them unacceptable in any society that claims to adhere to democratic principles ... is almost beside the point. The point is that the present Government seems to be unable or unwilling (or both) to do anything about this horrible blight that we all have to live with. It was just a little more than four years ago when Keith Rowley, who was then the Leader of the Opposition, boasted that the PNM had a plan that would fix the problem. And the country bought into his claims and made him the Prime Minister.

Now, years later, crime has not decreased but the statistics show that it has done the opposite. Rumours abound that high level PNM Government Ministers are themselves associated with gangsters and although there have been attempts to paint leading opposition figures with the same brush, most of those accusations have fallen on the stony ground of public indifference; none of them have been proved and in any case, those opposition guys are not in power. (I suppose that this might become an issue when the elections are finally called but for now, it really is a non-issue.)

But what is alarming is that not only are the accusations against certain Government Ministers being completely ignored, but there seems to be a concerted effort by the powers-that-be to prevent any real discussion of same coming out. Last week's abrupt adjournment of the joint select committee (JSC) meeting being chaired by Minister Fitzgerald Hinds have led to many ugly and most unnecessary suspicions being directed against the erstwhile chairman that are probably better left unexpressed at this time. But (and it is a huge "but") that doesn't mean that people aren't talking about it and openly accusing the Government of protecting their own.  Put another way, people have formed their own opinions and what they are saying privately is awful.

It is not in the best interests of our society that rumours like this be allowed to flourish. They must be put to rest one way or the other, either by proving that they are absolutely not true or by proving that they are true and arresting and charging the perpetrators.

Let me put it this way by asking you some straight questions:
(1)  Do you believe that there are politicians involved with gangsters?
(2)  If so, do you believe that these politicians come from both parties or only one party?
(3)  If you believe that they come from both parties do you believe that the Government is trying to cover up the involvement of their people?

The questions do not require comment. They are straight 'yes' or 'no' questions. You realize that your answers to yourself will do several things. Firstly, your answers will show whether or not you really have the country's interests at heart or whether you are so hopelessly and helplessly biased that you cannot possibly be regarded as a fair-minded person. Secondly, your answers will show whether or not you are willing to close your eyes to criminal activities if those activities are being committed by the political party that you support.

So? Do you still believe that we can fix this crime problem?