{"id":56530,"date":"2026-04-28T09:01:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=56530"},"modified":"2026-04-28T09:01:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:01:18","slug":"one-step-away-from-anarchy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=56530","title":{"rendered":"One step away from anarchy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Raffique Shah
\nApril 25, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Raffique Shah<\/a>A society, once ungoverned, lawless and without a leader, is painted as an anarchical one. What do you call a society governed by an elected government by the people, for the people and of the people that has allowed crime to run away so far that the criminals are now killing police officers in police stations, and stealing their arms and armaments from their armoury?<\/p>\n

Last Sunday\u2019s King\u2019s Wharf incident can only be described as anarchy. The fact that someone killed a woman police officer inside the police station and made off with the arms and ammunition is simply mind-boggling. Who is or are the brave or stupid\u2014depending on your point of view\u2014individual or persons who would have perpetrated this heinous crime? And, that, while the country is under a state of emergency which was instituted to help curb crime. Charges have been laid and we await confirmation of the accusations made against the deceased officer herself.
\n
\nFor effect, I think I must restate the salient points carried in newspaper reports on the murder and attack on the precinct and its lone officer present at the time. Surely, it must be impotence combined with shame that will haunt the officers who had some kind of \u00adresponsibility to ensure the security of personnel and property, and especially arms and \u00adammunition.<\/p>\n

This weakness in basic policing that comes as training for officers of all arms of the national security network has haunted the Police Service for as long as anyone cares to remember. This is not the first time \u201clone\u201d officers have been captured or harmed or, worst case, killed while on duty.<\/p>\n

Outspoken officers of the Service have repeatedly, and for far too long, pointed to the dangers of this act. Such lapses in rudimentary policing have cost many lives and untold arms and ammunition.<\/p>\n

Off my memory, I recall several instances in which lone officers in distant outposts have died because of the stupidity of some seniors who never valued their men. Further, if the exposure of the police at that station in particular was systemic, then many more heads should roll. I have deliberately steered clear of being critical of the Police Service and its undertrained and understaffed membership. How many times must we stoop in shame when faced with questions coming from the media and the public? To think that this tragedy was among the several that besiege widespread media coverage and that nothing is ever done to ensure there is no repeat is like spitting into a hurricane.<\/p>\n

I know when I hit the Police Service, as a columnist, it does no good for their morale and their stature. They could see me as an \u201cenemy\u201d to their personal security: I accept no responsibility or blame for such outcomes.<\/p>\n

For example, I cringe when I hear officers suffer death at the hands of the criminal element. Someday someone must have the balloons to say to his seniors: \u201cI cannot and will not comply with this order, Sir!\u201d Its far-reaching implications, only because an officer was killed while on duty, could result in a mutiny\u2014but I won\u2019t go there.<\/p>\n

It is time that we stop blaming one set of police officers with no hard evidence. Then, another incident erupts in another branch of the Service and we switch the accusatory finger in their direction. The blame game brings us nothing but shame.<\/p>\n

It would be remiss of me to talk about last Sunday\u2019s tragedy without mentioning the failure of the state of emergency meant to deliver us from the jaws of the criminals. But our politicians have brought this sorry pass and thrown it at us by punishing the populace for the crime feast. Perhaps if we stop worrying about Hamas, Hezbollah and the likes, which pose no imminent threat to us, we may well find a proper solution for the unholy mess, and now the criminals have taken control of the country.<\/p>\n

We are not a leaderless society. What we are is a lawless society without competent leadership. From captain to cook, we are disgraced by the leaders we chose. Make no mistake about it\u2014we chose them by either our action or inaction.<\/p>\n

Minding other people\u2019s business has put us in this sewage situation. Perhaps now that Trump has gotten his pound of flesh and Delcy is acting as if we don\u2019t exist, maybe, just maybe, the focus will be solely on us. Let\u2019s face it, with the arsenal they captured last Sunday, we are officially one step away from anarchy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Raffique Shah April 25, 2026 A society, once ungoverned, lawless and without a leader, is painted as an anarchical one. What do you call a society governed by an elected government by the people, for the people and of the people that has allowed crime to run away so far that the criminals are … Continue reading One step away from anarchy<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[169],"class_list":["post-56530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-tt","tag-raffique-shah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56531,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56530\/revisions\/56531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}