Tag Archives: Crime in T&T

A Quest for Truth

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 20, 2024

“A Quest for Truth” was delivered on Monday Night February 19, 2024, at the UNC’s forum on crime.

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThe Hon. Kamla Persad-Bissessar, leader of the UNC, other members of the panel, distinguished members of the UNC, ladies and gentlemen and those who are present at the Chaguanas Borough Council and those who are following on radio or television.

“Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target that no one else can see.”

—Arthur Schopenhauer

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Rowley cannot solve our crime problem

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 23, 2024

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeKeith Rowley and his Government will not solve our growing crime problem for the simple reason that Rowley has become a part of the problem rather than part of a solution. He is much too arrogant, indecisive, ill-disciplined and un-inspirational to lead such a vital national effort.

First. He says that Trinidad and Tobago is a violent society, but exempts himself from that national condition. If his description is true, we are all infected with that virus. However, Rowley is mistaken in one regard. He feels that only physical violence matters. He does not realise that verbal violence—a product of the same society of which he is a part—is as bad as physical violence and may be the precursor to physical violence. Rowley practises verbal violence against the nation each day.
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Return to good manners

By Raffique Shah
December 04, 2023

Raffique ShahIf the crime situation were worse than it is today—and that is hard to imagine—one can easily see the bulk of the population reduced to spasms of laughter as we watch politicians, police and public officers offer lame excuses for us being in a virtual stage of siege, imposed by the criminals in the country who are the only people who seem to have some control over their turf.

For example, the daily dosage of murders appears to be under the total control of gangsters, with the police incapable of doing anything to decrease the numbers. The wider population, held spellbound by the ease with which crime has become almost an industry, offer a mishmash of solutions every Monday morning on media shows. Before the week is over their prognoses become irrelevant. They must once again dip into their magic boxes to churn out some new tricks for the next week.
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Crime and rewards

By Raffique Shah
November 21, 2023

Raffique ShahI thought, not hard and for long, I need add, but for long enough to determine, well, if Police Commissioner Erla Christopher could fire the first round of heavy artillery that had the effect of jolting her audience into full alert, which is not normally associated with this “Commish”, or most of her predecessors, coming to think of it, and even better for the sake of argument or a bout of Trini “bacchanal” one Sandhurst-trained Gary Griffith, who responded with a “spray” of machine gun fire that rivalled the ongoing attacks on The Gaza…
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Acting in bad faith

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 06, 2023

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI want to congratulate the Government for voting affirmatively on the UN General Assembly’s resolution on October 27 that called for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce” between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in Gaza. The resolution also called for “continuous, sufficient and unhindered” provision of lifesaving supplies and services for civilians trapped in the enclave.
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The Blood of Our Children

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 25, 2023

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeAnd so the monstrous, mindless, criminal madness continued on Wednesday with the “execution-style killings of three children and a 19-year-old in the crime hotspot of Heights of Guanapo”. This massacre also left five people wounded, two of whom are children. Yet the Government keeps calling for talks with the Opposition as if there were some magical elixir in that encounter.
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Power in the barrel of a gun

By Raffique Shah
September 19, 2023

Raffique ShahLike most people who live in this country, many of whom, like me, will never leave the twin-island republic to live any­where else in the world, I am not only concerned but I am disturbed by what seems to be a deteriorating crime situation, especially crime that involves violence. At a recent news conference, I heard Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, not for the first time say, “We have become a very violent society.” Judging from the reports of criminal activities that we get in the media, that perception seems to be the truth.
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Our ‘lumpen intelligentsia’

By Raffique Shah
August 28, 2023

Raffique ShahIf Karl Marx were alive and still fighting to establish his elusive dream of a pure communist country, he might have been amused by a 21st-century phenomenon that he would have uproariously branded “the lumpen intelligentsia”. Of course, just about everyone so branded, and most who are not, will be equally lost. You see, the vocabulary nowadays has excised such words and terms as if their mere mention would leave a stain on them.

If you or I walked up to one-time die-hard communists such as Wade Mark, who was among a small band of Marxists who fought elections in 1981 but won hardly any votes, they’d likely tell you, “No, boy, ah doh do dat again.” So it’s left to a handful of us revolutionaries to at least keep the memories of another day alive, if not kicking.
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Messrs Big grow bigger

By Raffique Shah
July 24, 2023

Raffique ShahIf, over the past 50 years, we, meaning citizens, police and other law enforcement agencies were to have captured, charged, tried and convicted one Mr Big for every hundred named, Trini­dad and Tobago today will have been a crime-free society.

I make this bold statement not to look or sound funny, but to illustrate how stupid it is for law officers and politicians, ­especially senior officials—what they do to impress their bosses and the masses. Every so often when there is nothing positive to report, we hear utterances about “Mr Big”.
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Cradle of corruption

By Raffique Shah
June 20, 2023

Raffique ShahI haven’t given much thought to the local government election due to be held in August, nor have I paid much attention to the ongoing debate on reforming local government, a cornerstone of PNM’s vision for new governments.

In the first instance, besides creating three new boroughs, the Government is seeking to instil the decentralisation of governance, the precise details of which I have not studied. However, I am aware that the contentious issue of property tax which the PNM sees as not only a source of revenue, but more importantly a source of power to the local government bodies, remains a gap between the Government and the Opposition UNC, which is totally against property tax.
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