The Selwyn Ryan Report, No time to quit: Engaging Youth at Risk–Executive Report of the Committee on Young Males and Crime in T&T, reinforces what is already known about how the crime situation in Laventille threatens the rest of the country. As stated in very graphic language in that report, the rampant criminal activity emanating from that district has made it a "dagger" pointed at the "soft underbelly" of Port-of-Spain.Therefore, the Government must act urgently to address crime, with special focus on that community. It would indeed be irresponsible and negligent if those responsible for strategic planning ignore the fact that Laventille has great potential to be the "weak link in the urban chain."
Acting on this report, which was laid in Parliament on Friday by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, a comprehensive and co-ordinated plan must be developed to deal with young African males in Laventille and other urban hot spots who are at high risk of being lured into the criminal underworld of drugs, guns and deadly violent crime.It is significant that the Ryan report also focused on white-collar crime and the propensity for its perpetrators seemingly to be able to operate under the radar of law enforcement. Clearly, the Government must now signal its intolerance of all crime and demonstrate a conviction to root it all out for the good of the country.
Too often in the past, when reports on crime have been compiled and put into the public domain, all kinds of promises are made to deal with the matters which are quickly broken.The problem has always been the apparent lack of sufficient conviction on the part of succeeding governments to act on it decisively and in a non-partisan manner. As the report noted, the situation in the community has a propensity to affect wider sectors of Port-of-Spain and eventually more of the entire country if allowed to blossom further.As Prof Ryan and his committee pointed out, political will is needed at all levels of government to break the stranglehold of criminality. Any attempt at political manipulation to score points will only make the situation worse, further deepening the political, ethnic, class and gender divisions which have contributed to the complexity of this problem.
That much is plain. To date the report, which is large and ambitious, and which addresses a multifaceted and complex problem, has met with some disagreement and dispute. It will need to be studied and digested.A point in its favour, however, is that it was not drawn up by the Government but by a non-partisan expert team. That should increase the chances that stakeholders on all sides will approach its recommendations on their actual merits and not dismissed simply because they come from one side of the political divide.
Not all the proposals of the Ryan report may be new, surprising or radical; they may have been suggested or even put into practice before. There is no quick fix for crime, and consistent, well-planned implementation of sound and sustainable approaches is essential.