Citizens for a Better Trinidad and Tobago (CBTT) believes that much more has to be done to bring all types of crime under control. While murder is a very serious crime and must be controlled, there are other serious crimes such as robbery, rape, incest and corruption which must also be seriously addressed.
We believe that fighting crime has not been well-served by scholarship or by research. It's easy to be an expert in this field. There are too many pretenders who pander to the populace with promises of swift cures. It's popular for almost everyone to declare war on crime but it's just high, overblown rhetoric. What we need to do instead is to take the problem of all crimes seriously and try to reduce it.
Many of the heinous and horrendous murders in the country are drug related. My CBTT colleagues and I make another impassioned plea for justice to be served upon all those who show total disrespect for human life. We believe that many young men and women have become criminals because their parents failed them in one way or the other.
Some law enforcement officers are poor investigators and as a result many perpetrators are never held and brought to justice. There are other police officers who turn a blind eye to many crimes because they are paid to do so. We feel sorry for junior officers who are forced to carry out the dirty work of their seniors. There must be a section headed by decent police administrators to listen to complaints from officers who wish to expose their seniors and other crooked cops.
While there are many decent and patriotic cops, there are also too many rogue officers who are still in the police service. That's why so many citizens have lost confidence and faith in police officers.
HARRACK BALRAMSINGH
CBTT, La Romaine