Mickela Panday
Last Thursday after weeks of news reports of an unprecedented number of killings in our beloved country, national turmoil, anxiety and anger, reached a high with the heartbreaking news that young Shannon Banfield's body was found in a warehouse at Charlotte Street, Port-of-Spain, after having gone missing four days earlier.
The grief, pain and suffering of her family, friends, loved ones and co-workers is unimaginable. How many more innocent, law-abiding people have to have their lives senselessly snuffed out before those in authority wake up and do something about it.
During the 1995-2000 period, when the then UNC was in government, an alleged drug trafficker was on the run and in hiding. The government with the assistance of the United States Attorney General was able, with the use of American satellite systems, to ascertain with laser-like precision where the suspect was the moment he activated his cell phone and he was immediately apprehended and later extradited. That was more than 15 years ago, which in technological terms was the Dark Ages. Although this is one example, it illustrates, with political will, sheer determination and ingenuity, the criminal justice system could work and deliver results.
How can we explain the inability in 2016, a time where every act of a person creates a permanent digital footprint, the inability to solve crime with a population of 1.3 million people in T&T? The era of Big Brother is supposed to be with us. Certainly, it is elsewhere. In the case of the infamous London Tube and bus bombings some years ago, the British police through CCTV footage were able to ascertain who the bombers were within days. With billions of taxpayers dollars being spent year after year, government after government with no results, why has CCTV, a national criminal intelligence DNA database, computerised police stations to say the least, not been set up?
Cynics in England have suggested that the oyster card which users swipe on buses and trains instead of paying fares in cash is another surveillance device used by Big Brother to keep a watchful eye on them. Whether that is so or whether privacy rights are being adversely affected is debatable, but the fact is that it is nigh impossible in developed countries to do anything criminal and not be found out.
Where is our vision? Why has our country regressed to a place before the "Dark Ages" of over 15 years ago, where on a daily basis innocent people are murdered or disappear forever without a trace and no one is brought to justice to account for their evil. This is unacceptable in an era of high-tech cell phones, Facebook, CCTVs, and expensive surveillance equipment purchased from Israel and elsewhere. When a dear friend went missing almost two years ago, surely his cell phone records, Linx card (which was used by his abductors), CCTV footage at the bank, etc, provided clues which, if properly considered and acted on in a timely manner, should have found and saved him or at least explained his fate to his loved ones and brought the evil perpetrators to justice.
Instead, what we witnessed as many other families of missing people have, is no set procedure in place to locate someone when they go missing. To begin with, the process of knowing which station the report has to be made is like pulling teeth, with families sent running from one police station to the next. Not to mention, sadly and unfortunately, the police often appear to be jaded and overwhelmed. This is unacceptable in a country battered daily by death and mayhem and people gone missing, disappearing without a trace in a modern world where everything leaves a trace.
Paradoxically even when Big Brother awakens nothing happens. So recently, even where a video surfaced in which two men killed a man in plain view of the public, brazenly and openly, nothing has come of that. The system needs fixing urgently. A country that cannot appoint a Commissioner of Police but has someone acting in that position for more than five years is a failed or at least a failing State.
Without a permanent leader with absolute command and superintendence of this critical institution the Police Service is rudderless and in a state of inertia. That sense of uncertainty and instability must filter down the ranks. The expected synergy between the Government and the people intended to protect and serve us all cannot happen. All that is left is either the blame game, hence the Prime Minister's incessant criticism of the poor detection rates of the police without helping them improve, which only he as the leader of the country can do, or citing statistics in defence of a failed system. In the meantime, public confidence in the police and the criminal justice system is eroded to the extent that it has disappeared, so people "settle" disputes violently and in plain sight.
Our people are unhappy, feel unsafe and uncertain about their future and that of our country. This is our reality today. Absent a government with a plan or a viable opposition, we are likely to fall into the abyss. And that feeling of helplessness is something even the Christmas festivities and Carnival season, joyous as they will appear to be, cannot abate.