New York City's newest boast is that it is the safest big City in the US and many are saying by extension the world. Trinidad on the other hand most recent claim to fame (although disputed) is that it has the second highest kidnapping rate in the world. That mind you is only part of the bigger crime problem in the country of which one of the cultural icons Len "Boogsie" Sharpe has become a victim. I refuse to think that other celebs like Lara, Shadow, Saprrow, Stalin and others can be the next target. No wonder why calypsonian David Rudder had to take his family and run. However my concern is what is it that New York (where in the early 1990's people were dying while watching TV in their living rooms, victims of stray bullets as drive bys ruled)is doing that Trinidad isn't? And I asked this question with the full knowledge that one of New Yorks former Mayor Rudy Giuliani is due to visit Trinidad to talk crime. Giuliani mind you is not the reason why crime dropped in New York and here is where Trinidad should take its cue.
First, it was Lee Brown the last of the black police Commissioners who decided to institute a policy that put the police back on the beat. That is when New York's crime rate started to go down. Brown with the support of the then Mayor David Dinkins believed that the mere presence of policemen in the communities would bring about change. It turned out to be right. Giuliani continued this practice to an extent and inroduced a few measures of his own . The first of which was to target those who were previously arrested. He too recorded some successes and had career criminals on the run if not in jail. He also developed a sense of unprecedented arrogance and stamped out the nuisances in the society under the quality of life rubric. Again crime continued to go down. Now we all feel very safe in New York at least safer than in TnT.
Now we have had a large amount of talk in TnT. Top of which is the government is being sabotaged by an opposition that does not want to support legislation that bring changes to the police service. That is a lot of bull. What we need first of all is a larger police presence not for Christmas or Carnival but through the year. The fight needs to be taken to the criminals not to the UNC. Forget them, inject the money and the human resource you don't need legislation for that. Among other things it would create more employment. There is no excuse now as the economy is doing good. Money I am sure is the least of the problems. Then Boogsie would feel safe to create sweet music for us and Rudder like so many more Trini would no loger have to roam and truly be Trinis to the bone, at least from home.