TWENTY FOUR YEARS

   TWENTY-FOUR years ago yesterday my cousin Monty was kidnapped. His skeleton (that's right: his skeleton!) was found two days later in his burnt out car. The police told me at the time that the burning of the car was done using "an accelerant more flammable than gasoline". 

It took me two years to find out what exactly had happened to my cousin, how it happened and why it happened. Frankly, the story reads like something out of a crime novel. It involves a local as well as a foreign drug lord and police corruption going from the bottom of the Police Service all the way up to the top. I know everything, but, unfortunately, can't prove a damned thing! I know who kidnapped my cousin and I know who pulled the trigger of the gun that ended his life. But, I can't prove it.

At one time when we had the Canadian CoP and his Canadian Deputy I went to see the deputy who knew why and what I was coming about. The deputy met with me and a lawyer friend of mine whom I had brought as a witness. He (the deputy) was surprised that I had somebody with me but hadn't bothered (by his own admission) to read the file. Instead he seemed more interested in finding out what I knew. I told him that I knew a lot but that it didn't make sense having any kind of discussion with him unless and until he had read the file. He promised to do so and also promised that he would call me ... very soon! He never did. Frankly, his attitude raised very ugly and most unnecessary suspicions in my mind that are probably better left unexpressed.

I an very close to a girl that was raped more than 10 years ago and saw for myself up close and personal how devastating that experience was for her. I followed up with the police every day for 6 months after the deed and then on a weekly basis for another additional 10 months, but it was to no avail. The rapist was never caught.

Why am I raising all this now? Because, like most Trinis I have been appalled by the brutal murders (especially of our women) that seem to be climbing almost daily. I felt it when Ashanti, for example, was murdered and I was most upset about Andrea's terrible ordeal. But I also feel for their loved ones who are left with the terrible scars of knowing how absolutely horrible their last hours on the planet must have been.

It is a truism that there is no grief which a length of time will not heal. But it is also very true that when a tragedy (such as the brutal murders of these girls) takes place that no matter that you have no more tears to shed you never forget the injustice meted out to your loved one and you thirst for revenge, i.e., you want their killers to be caught and found guilty and punished. When this doesn't happen you are left with a huge void in your psyche that you fall into again and again ... even after 24 years! The tears go, but the pain never does.

We can pass all the laws we want. We can bring back the death penalty and castrate the rapists. But if we don't catch the criminals everything that we say and do is just so much dust and doesn't mean a thing.

FIX THE SYSTEM AND CATCH THE CROOKS

What is the point of passing all kinds of laws that are designed to secure convictions if you are not catching the criminals in the first place? Criminals don't fear draconian laws; they fear getting caught! Let me put it this way: everybody who has a driver's licence has at one time or another broken the speed limit laws - especially on the highway. But if you put police on the highway with a timer or radar gun you will see people slowing down. Nobody wants to get caught and have to pay a fine.

It is the same thing with violent crime. If the criminal believes that his chances of getting caught are almost zero, and his chances of being convicted are even slimmer, then he simply ain't gonna hesitate to do the crime. And this includes everything from murder to speeding and everything in between.

That is why I am so fed up with the posturing of politicians who claim that this latest Parliamentary Bill (whatever "it" is) will definitely bring down crime and is a vital piece in the State's fight against crime.  And nobody takes them out on these claims. Our erstwhile Attorney General is now bringing to Parliament legislation to amend the Evidence Act which he claims is absolutely vital and most important in the fight against crime. I suppose that he wants to pretend that he is doing something about the crime epidemic.

I'm sorry, but I've heard this song before. Remember the Anti-Gang Act? There were NO prosecutions (let alone convictions) under the Act when it was law, but the Attorney General didn't hesitate to castigate the Opposition for their lack of support when the law came up for renewal, and the mainstream media agreed with him. It was irresponsible not to support this legislation the AG thundered.

But nobody ever went back to the basic question: how many criminals are being caught? How many crimes are committed without being "solved"?

Does this mean that we should be like the Pharisee who gets rid of his sins by crying "Korban" at the gates of the Temple? No.  But we should start at the beginning which is catching the criminals - and quickly. The fear of getting caught is the ONLY effective deterrent against crime. Everything else is just fluff. And we should let the politicians (like the Attorney General) know that we are not impressed with their 'holier than thou' pronouncements. Fix the system by catching the crooks. Don't catch the crooks and we will all have to continue to deal with tragedies like the dreadful story of Andrea Barrath.

And yes, catching the criminals means also convicting them. This means that as part of fixing the problem the Court system has to be fixed as well.