By Raffique Shah
June 13, 2026

I had hoped then, as I still hope today, that by the time a new commissioner of police had firmly taken command, criminals would find themselves under sustained pressure from law enforcement, making it increasingly difficult to continue their activities.

Faced with that reality, they would either abandon their criminal lifestyles or persist in making life a misery for law-abiding citizens, risking deadly confrontations with police officers in the process. They appear determined to enrich themselves by any means necessary, regardless of the consequences. For many, it is a reckless pursuit of wealth—either getting rich quickly or dying in the attempt.

I wanted to bear witness to the first systematic reduction in crime in which our highly trained armed forces would attack the growing army of bloodthirsty criminals. With full force and sensible planning, in other words, I hope to be there to see our citizens return to enjoying a better standard of secure living comparable to what we had long ago. Our criminals, however, had other plans. They not only recruit them from schools now, but they have started breeding them and inducting them at an early age into the network of crime. In other words, Boboy saw daddy pilfer a hundred, so he in turn pilfers a ten, he starts smaller in both age and amount. Children mimic adult behaviour.

As a journalist, a trade unionist and a politician, I was a stageside witness to many of the activities surrounding the looting of the Trinidad and Tobago economy. I watched as the people who we voted into office—because at the time we thought they were exemplary citizens—plundered the treasury mercilessly, filling their pockets and those of their families and their friends. Later I would write about it extensively, in the hope that it would stop the actions and perhaps guilt-trip the perpetrators into doing better by their constituents—who, mind you, at the time were very poor people looking for reprieve from their representatives. It is almost as good as saying corruption and criminality are in our DNA, we are bound to get involved with it in some way or the other: a right of passage.

Oh, I was not the only person actively fighting corruption; there were hundreds, maybe even thousands of good citizens doing their civic duties and pushing for those we elect to office to do the right thing by themselves, and by the people who put them there. Much harder to manage and be cognisant of are those hired by the State to hold senior administrative positions—those privy to the big contracts and the large sums of money transfers. I am not suggesting that everyone in public life is a thief or is complicit with thieves, but for the average man or woman out there, I suppose the temptation is real. It takes strength, good character, and perhaps a bit of fear of what will happen once caught to deter the most honest of men from committing crimes. As a close friend who was arrested during a state of emergency once said to me, “Raf, ah cyah make jail again.”

The rate at which criminals are intercepted, killed, brought to trial, jailed, just brought to justice in general is so low, it is no wonder our crime rate is high. In this cursed country, criminals fear death at the hands of other criminals more than they fear interaction with the police.

For me the most bothersome element is the grooming of children of school age for crimes that appear “acceptable” because parents no longer discipline or even know about their children’s exploits. It starts with fleecing Mommy and Daddy of their small change, which later grows into bigger bills at home; and at school, they bully weaker children into giving them their lunch and cash. These errant children grow into big-time criminals, sometimes even running their own empires.

Then there is the other side of bullying: the one where several students—usually of lower intellect and moral standing—make the life of their victims sheer hell by maligning their character with lies, and alienating them from their peers; the kind of behaviour we usually associate with non-prestigious schools, but which would in fact be an erroneous judgment on our parts. All schools throughout Trinidad and Tobago have their fair share of bullying in all its nasty forms. Some schools are just better at hiding it than others.

Whatever the form, bullying is toxic and can be deadly, especially on weaker children and even adults. The fact that schools do not treat this as a crime, and the Ministry of Education hasn’t put measures in place to deal with these bullies, makes it appear to the perpetrators all the more acceptable.

Back in my day, we dealt with bullies the only way they understood. We had them scampering for their safety. It was the only thing that worked.

Nuff said.