SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Fac­ing an up­surge in mur­ders, gang war­fare, and gun vi­o­lence in the last year, res­i­dents of two hot spot com­mu­ni­ties along the East-West cor­ri­dor–Tu­na­puna and Mor­vant–are call­ing on politi­cians in Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion, po­lice and those in au­thor­i­ty to come to­geth­er to find a so­lu­tion quick­ly to fight crime.

Cit­i­zens are plead­ing for re­lief as the coun­try has been un­der at­tack by the crim­i­nal el­e­ments. It’s time for less talk and more ac­tion, they in­sist­ed, as they can no longer live un­der the gun.

Call­ing for all hands on deck to bring the ris­ing mur­ders and crime scourge un­der con­trol, the res­i­dents urged the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) to get their act to­geth­er, point­ing out that some mem­bers have not been squeaky clean in car­ry­ing out their du­ties.

The res­i­dents aired their con­cerns days af­ter Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher hand­ed over a Vi­o­lent Crime Re­duc­tion Plan to Na­tion­al  Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds. The plan, ac­cord­ing to Hinds, has 15 an­ti-crime-fight­ing mea­sures built on the pil­lars of in­tel­li­gence-pre­ven­tion, proac­tiv­i­ty, and pros­e­cu­tion that would pay par­tic­u­lar at­ten­tion to all crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties through­out T&T with the aim of iden­ti­fy­ing all hot spots.

The an­ti-crime ini­tia­tives in­clude dis­man­tling of crim­i­nal gangs, seiz­ing il­le­gal firearms, erad­i­ca­tion of drug blocks, pre­ci­sion polic­ing, en­hanc­ing po­lice in­tel­li­gence ca­pa­bil­i­ty, and fo­cus­ing on transna­tion­al or­gan­ised crime.

These mea­sures are ex­pect­ed to re­duce mur­der and vi­o­lent crimes by 20 per cent by the end of this year, a re­port stat­ed. Hare­wood-Christo­pher al­so in­tends to adopt a ze­ro tol­er­ance on po­lice ill-dis­ci­pline and cor­rup­tion.

Ricardo Cambridge in Morvant on Friday.

SHIRLEY BAHADUR

Mor­vant res­i­dent Ri­car­do Cam­bridge said they are in sup­port of the po­lice “but we are not go­ing to trust them.”

He asked, “What as­sur­ance do we have in the im­ple­men­ta­tion of this crime plan? What we want is peo­ple, and that in­cludes the Gov­ern­ment and the po­lice, who are ded­i­cat­ed and trust­wor­thy in car­ry­ing out their du­ties.”

Cam­bridge said the po­lice are known for leak­ing in­for­ma­tion to gang lead­ers and mem­bers.

“They have be­come in­form­ers. Who will guard the guard? How will you dis­man­tle the gangs when some of these of­fi­cers are work­ing for the crim­i­nals?”

As the mur­der rate draws clos­er to 200 for this year so far and cit­i­zens have been seek­ing ad­di­tion­al mea­sures to pro­tect them­selves, the Op­po­si­tion in Par­lia­ment on Fri­day called a no-con­fi­dence mo­tion against Hinds to step down as Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty.

Shar­ing his thoughts on the an­ti-crime fight­ing ini­tia­tives, Cam­bridge said win­ning the war on crime would be a hard task for the TTPS, giv­en that some of­fi­cers have been rub­bing shoul­ders with gang lead­ers and are even on their pay­roll.

Cam­bridge was one of sev­er­al res­i­dents in Mor­vant vent­ing their feel­ings on Fri­day about their lack of con­fi­dence and trust in the TTPS and won­dered if the CoP’s an­ti-crime plan will bear fruit or make a dif­fer­ence.

Since gain­ing in­de­pen­dence, Cam­bridge said, past and present gov­ern­ments have pre­sent­ed crime plans many of which have failed.

“We nev­er got it right when crime was not that bad. Do you think we will get it right when it is worse? What will we do dif­fer­ent­ly that we have not done be­fore?” Cam­bridge asked Sun­day Guardian as he stood on St Fran­cois Val­ley Road, Mor­vant.

St Francois Valley Road resident Mark Stewart.

SHIRLEY BAHADUR

The pen­sion­er said for the TTPS to dis­man­tle gangs, the men and women at the top have to come to the ground.

“Crime could lessen but you have to start in the com­mu­ni­ties and re­gain the trust of the peo­ple. We need ac­tion ... swift ac­tion.”

He said one of the ways for these mea­sures to work is that the TTPS must purge the cor­rupt and crooked cops.

Res­i­dent Sal­isha Dass (not her re­al name) agreed with Cam­bridge, stat­ing that the TTPS needs a com­plete over­haul if they want to ef­fec­tive­ly ad­dress crime.

“Cleans­ing the po­lice ser­vice is a must,” Dass in­sist­ed.

Res­i­dent Fred­er­ick Melville said it was no se­cret that some of­fi­cers pass “in­tel­li­gence” to gangs.

“Every­body try­ing to act but most of the bad ap­ples come with­in the po­lice ser­vice. If the po­lice were straight we would have had con­trol of the gangs a long time ago. The Gov­ern­ment has to take the bull by its horns to deal with the gangs, drugs, and guns that are caus­ing our so­ci­ety to de­cay.”

An emotional James Danglade

SHIRLEY BAHADUR

On­go­ing gang war in Mon Re­pos, St Fran­cois Val­ley Road

For months, the res­i­dents said, there has been an on­go­ing war be­tween gang mem­bers in Mon Re­pos and St Fran­cois Val­ley Road which led to nu­mer­ous killings be­tween late 2022 and ear­ly this year.

The killings, Dass said, have left them ter­ri­fied. “We were un­der the gun,” Dass added.

“St Fran­cois Val­ley Road was the best place in Mor­vant. It was bru­tal in the back here re­cent­ly. Peo­ple couldn’t even come out of their homes with all the shoot­ings and mur­ders tak­ing place.”

In the hail of gun­fire, Dass, a food ser­vice work­er, lost her broth­er-in-law last Oc­to­ber.

Dass’ child­hood friends At­i­ba Ro­driquez, Oma­lie Buntin, Nicholas Thomas, and Ak­ile Ro­driquez were all sprayed with bul­lets dur­ing what she de­scribed as an on­go­ing “gang war” trig­gered by the killing of an in­no­cent man.

“Our street turned in­to a blood bath and may­hem,” she re­called.

James Danglad said he was one of the for­tu­nate res­i­dents to es­cape a shoot­ing spree ear­li­er this year. Danglad was walk­ing up a flight of stairs when three men with AR-15 guns alight­ed from a car and be­gan fir­ing wild­ly at a man who was near­by. One of the bul­lets pierced Danglad’s right leg while the in­tend­ed tar­get was al­so shot.

Show­ing a bul­let hole in the door and walls of his busi­ness place, Danglad said “Them fel­las had big pow­er­ful guns. They were armed to the teeth. How the po­lice are go­ing to re­trieve these weapons is any­one’s guess. If I didn’t make a dive to the ground I would have been dead just like my lit­tle broth­er Kevin.”

In 2021, Kevin was shot mul­ti­ple times by gun­men.

As he spoke about his broth­er’s mur­der, Danglad be­gan to cry un­con­trol­lably.

“I still think about him. His death was so sense­less.”

Wip­ing away tears, Danglad said if Kevin had lis­tened to him he would have been alive to­day. “I talked to him all how. He used to show off in a kind of a way. He get rich and switch.”

Danglad said his broth­er earned his wealth through hard work but was en­vied in the com­mu­ni­ty.

Mark Stew­art be­lieves the on­ly crime plan that would work is the re­sump­tion of hang­ings.

“These crim­i­nals tak­ing peo­ple’s lives and feel it’s a big joke. They have to bring back the death penal­ty. To me, that is the on­ly so­lu­tion to this crime prob­lem. Noth­ing else will work.”

Dass said she tried to bro­ker peace among the gangs but failed, stat­ing if the men did not lis­ten to her as a com­mu­ni­ty ac­tivist, she won­dered if they would lis­ten to the po­lice or politi­cians.

“I find like it was a fail­ure for the com­mu­ni­ty. I tried to deal with the youths and keep them oc­cu­pied by hav­ing events, but it didn’t work.”

Entrance to the Tunapuna town centre.

SHIRLEY BAHADUR

PM must put aside dif­fer­ences with Kam­la, Gary

Al­though the mur­ders in Mor­vant have sim­mered, the res­i­dents called on Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley to put aside his dif­fer­ences with Op­po­si­tion Leader Per­sad-Bisses­sar and for­mer com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith to tack­le the ris­ing mur­der rate.

“Prime Min­is­ter, we beg you to put aside your dif­fer­ences and work with the Op­po­si­tion and Grif­fith,” Dass said.

Re­cent­ly Row­ley re­ject­ed a pro­pos­al by Grif­fith to let him help in the fight against crime. The PM al­so blanked Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

“We have to see how best we could solve this crime is­sue. It’s over­bear­ing now. Peo­ple are suf­fer­ing. We need ac­tion, swift ac­tion. We can’t let crim­i­nals have us liv­ing un­easy, some­thing has to be done,” Cam­bridge in­ter­ject­ed.

In Tu­na­puna, res­i­dents al­so called for im­me­di­ate ac­tion by the Gov­ern­ment and law en­force­ment agen­cies, stat­ing the area has turned in­to a ter­ror zone with gangs run­ning amok in the com­mu­ni­ty as they fight for con­trol of drug and gun turf.

Along Au­zonville Road, Micheal Chavez (not his re­al name) said the on­ly way to dis­man­tle the gangs and go af­ter the drugs and guns was to start clean­ing from the top. “You can’t go af­ter the men at the bot­tom, which is the gang leader and their mem­bers. You have to tar­get the big fish, the men be­hind the im­por­ta­tion of drugs and guns.”

Don O'Neil speaks to the Sunday Guardian in Tunapuna on Friday.

Shirley Bahadur

A year ago, Chavez said, gun­men en­tered his premis­es and killed ten­ant Corey Ben­jamin in an apart­ment build­ing be­cause he re­fused to join a gang.

Chavez said for too long the TTPS and Hinds have buried their heads in the sand by fail­ing to con­front the crime is­sue head-on.

“Hinds is try­ing. But what has he done since as­sum­ing the post of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter? He did noth­ing and now that the whole coun­try falling apart be­cause of these crim­i­nals you want to do some­thing, you boast­ing about a crime plan. I just hope that things can turn around.”

On St Vin­cent Street, Tu­na­puna Road, Main­got Road, Wa­ter Lane, Fair­ley Street, and First and Sec­ond Traces, Chavez said gangs have been op­er­at­ing with im­puni­ty.

“Every­body war­ring with each oth­er while the res­i­dents are trapped in the mid­dle of the gun bat­tle.”

Chavez said he was un­sure how the TTPS would flush out the guns from Tu­na­puna.

At the end of Tou­s­saint Lane #1, Claudette Downey said she has no con­fi­dence in Hinds or the TTPS’s crime plan.

“Any­thing Hinds say it doh work. Hinds not do­ing any­thing to help any­body. Hinds don’t have what it takes to dis­man­tle the gangs,” Downey, 72, said when asked if the new crime plan could bring some re­lief to cit­i­zens.

Downey said she feels un­com­fort­able leav­ing her home be­cause the gang mem­bers al­ways have eyes on them.

“You dri­ve up there and these gang mem­bers don’t know you they shoot­ing af­ter you. It’s a scary thing. These fel­las on­ly pick­ing up guns. How you go­ing to get them to put it down? They so il­lit­er­ate you can’t talk to them.”

Like the res­i­dents in Mor­vant, Downey said she too had no trust and faith in the TTPS, stat­ing that some of­fi­cers are in­volved in cor­rupt ac­tiv­i­ties in the area.

“They like to take bribes. I ain’t say­ing it doh have good po­lice. But these cor­rupt ones does cor­rupt the oth­ers. They have to clean up the po­lice ser­vice be­fore they clean up the gangs be­cause the po­lice ser­vice up here with them gangs ... giv­ing them the drugs to sell.

“Every­body does talk about Gary Grif­fith. Yes, he might be a lit­tle ar­ro­gant at times, but he de­liv­ered. The crime sit­u­a­tion was not so bad. For this coun­try to come back I think Row­ley should sit down and talk to Grif­fith and the Op­po­si­tion.”

Downey said her broth­er got hooked on drugs and she blamed the youth on the block for in­flu­enc­ing him.

Mean­while, Tu­na­puna Street res­i­dent Amani Sen­house said he lives in a hot spot zone and has grown ac­cus­tomed to gun­shots ring­ing out.

Com­ment­ing on the crime plan, Sen­house said lit­tle can be done to bring back the coun­try in a peace­ful way. He be­lieves there is lit­tle hope of crime and mur­ders re­duc­ing soon.

“If the po­lice don’t go af­ter those at the top they will not solve crime. You have to dis­man­tle the top to flush out those at the bot­tom.”

He be­lieves they could make a dif­fer­ence “on­ly if Gary Grif­fith comes back. Gary had a plan which was work­ing.”

Sit­ting me­tres from the bustling Main Road in Tu­na­puna, Don O’Neil said if the Gov­ern­ment was re­al­ly se­ri­ous about crime Hinds should ven­ture in­to crime-rid­dled com­mu­ni­ties and reach out to the peo­ple.

“The po­lice alone can’t fight crime. What the po­lice and Hinds need to do is come in­to these hot-spot com­mu­ni­ties and find out what is caus­ing these young men to turn to guns, drugs, and killings. No­body is ad­dress­ing this. We have to start some­where ... and fast.”