Shane Su­perville

Se­nior Re­porter

shane.su­perville@guardian.co.tt

Busi­ness­man and com­mu­ni­ty ac­tivist In­shan Ish­mael says res­i­dents of Bam­boo No 2, Val­sayn, are pre­pared to keep re­build­ing a se­cu­ri­ty guard booth at the en­trance to the com­mu­ni­ty if it is de­stroyed by the au­thor­i­ties.

Ish­mael says res­i­dents and busi­ness­peo­ple were “firm in their re­solve” to have the se­cu­ri­ty guard booth at the en­trance to Bam­boo No 2, as they are frus­trat­ed over a spate of rob­beries and ex­tor­tion at­tempts in re­cent months.

The Bam­bo Main Road is the on­ly means of en­ter­ing Bam­boo No 2 and the guard booth is in­tend­ed to act as a de­ter­rent to crim­i­nals en­ter­ing or leav­ing the com­mu­ni­ty, he said.

Last week, it was re­port­ed that Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan would “con­sult with” the Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion (TPRC) on the con­struc­tion of the booth, which has been put up on the road re­serve.

It was al­so re­port­ed that of­fi­cials from the min­istry vis­it­ed the scene and placed a ‘No vend­ing’ sign at the booth.

Sources said no per­mis­sion was grant­ed for the res­i­dents to con­struct a booth on the road.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia on Mon­day, Ish­mael said his last cor­re­spon­dence with the au­thor­i­ties was on Fri­day, when Min­istry of Works and Trans­port of­fi­cials vis­it­ed his busi­ness­place and gave him a no­tice in­struct­ing him to de­stroy the booth.

He said the guard booth was the vil­lage’s re­sponse to what he de­scribed as an “up­surge” in crime in Bam­boo No 2, not­ing that vil­lagers were pre­pared to re­build it as fast as it is de­mol­ished, should the au­thor­i­ties de­cide to do so.

“At the end of the day, we (the vil­lage) are go­ing to do what is nec­es­sary to safe­guard our­selves from crim­i­nals. The vil­lagers are go­ing to go out there and we are go­ing to re­build again and they will have to break again and we will re­build again and we will keep go­ing. At the end of the day, we are get­ting do­na­tions to build and re­build. This is not a coun­try where there is a Gestapo gov­ern­ment that can come and do what the hell they want,” Ish­mael said.

Ish­mael al­so called on the au­thor­i­ties to ad­dress the vil­lage coun­cil over any con­cerns they had, not­ing that while he may be the most vo­cal of the res­i­dents, he was not sole­ly re­spon­si­ble for the con­struc­tion of the booth.

He added that the booth was lo­cat­ed about four feet away from the road it­self.

Re­spond­ing to Guardian Me­dia via What­sApp, TPRC chair­man Josi­ah Austin, said while the coun­cil un­der­stood the con­cern over crime, it is will­ing to work with com­mu­ni­ties to find “work­able” so­lu­tions.

He al­so urged res­i­dents to work with­in the law to find so­lu­tions.

He said, “Our CEO has com­mu­ni­cat­ed with per­sons in­volved in the con­struc­tion of the se­cu­ri­ty booth and has pro­vid­ed the nec­es­sary guid­ance. It is left to the res­i­dents to com­ply with these guide­lines to en­sure that a well-in­tend­ed ini­tia­tive isn’t mired in a pro­tract­ed le­gal process.”

Po­lice in the North-Cen­tral Di­vi­sion said while they ap­pre­ci­at­ed Ish­mael’s en­thu­si­asm and will­ing­ness to bet­ter se­cure the com­mu­ni­ty, he should seek the nec­es­sary ap­proval be­fore go­ing ahead with such plans.

One of­fi­cer said Bam­boo No 2 falls un­der the ju­ris­dic­tion of the St Joseph Po­lice Sta­tion dis­trict and urged Ish­mael to at­tend sta­tion coun­cil meet­ings and speak with of­fi­cers to seek guid­ance on what could be done.

The of­fi­cer sug­gest­ed the es­tab­lish­ment of com­mu­ni­ty watch groups and What­sApp groups, which would bet­ter con­nect res­i­dents and pro­vide quick no­ti­fi­ca­tions in the event of emer­gen­cies.