Crime so bad, old lady keeps ‘bandit money’

It’s a sad day indeed, but I do believe that the citizens of T&T have become totally numbed by, or I should say inured to, the crime situation. We now seem to accept the news of four or five murders in one day with a nonchalance that is frightening. Now appalling a crime as murder is, I want to relate a (true) story that breaks my heart. It concerns a sweet old lady I know who lives alone and of something she confessed to me. For obvious reasons, I cannot reveal her name or location.

This dear old soul, who just wants to live out her days in peace, told me that she keeps $500 cash in her home in the event that she is the victim of a break-in. She says that she would be scared to have to tell the bandits that there’s no money in the house. She refers to it as her “bandit money.” That confession brought tears to my eyes, and if it doesn’t make you cringe then we are really in a bad way. What a sad indictment that story is to where we are as a country.

And while our citizens sit in their homes in fear, even behind their burglar bars, the crime-fighting initiative has passed from a very reticent CoP to an extremely voluble Minister of National Security whose crime plan seems to consist of hosting a press conference every five minutes for the purpose of informing the criminals that he is going to spank their behinds. Model nation? Sweet sweet T&T? Heaven help us.

Tyrone Evans
Belmont, PoS