Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher’s recent statements on the need for divine intervention in T&T’s anti-crime fight makes it appear that she’s “thrown in the towel” already and it doesn’t inspire confidence that she’ll make the necessary changes, says UNC executive member Sean Sobers.
“This country is a praying country—yes, we know that. But God helps those who help themselves,” Sobers said at yesterday’s UNC media conference in Port-of-Spain, noting that divine intervention alone is woefully insufficient to eradicate the crime scourge.
Also slamming the CoP’s statements was UNC Chaguanas West MP Dinesh Rambally, who said, “If the CoP’s seriously telling the nation that her major anti-crime initiative is to essentially ‘pray murders and robberies away’, then she’s unfit to manage the TTPS.”
Sobers and Rambally were commenting on Harewood-Christopher’s statements at Wednesday’s Chaguanas Chamber of Industry breakfast function, where she said T&T is a country dealing with an “unnatural evil and without divine intervention, her anti-crime strategies, including reducing murders, will be doomed to fail.” She also admitted that suppressing the murder rate is still “a bit beyond” the TTPS’ capabilities and as such, she “called for backup” from “above.”
Sobers said the CoP was new to the job and very early on had indicated that her plan was to reduce crime and murders by June, “...Which by many standards most persons thought was quite unrealistic.”
“However, because she was new in the position, people wished her well. But from that comment she made on Wednesday—plastered all over the media—to my mind, it appears you’ve thrown in the towel,” Sobers said.
“We need somebody with a plan heading the TTPS, with the proper resources from the Government to truly tackle crime and criminality in T&T and this hope that divine intervention only will save us from the very real criminals and gangsters that we have plaguing T&T is woefully insufficient and it can’t be the solution only.”
Sobers said T&T has so many churches, temples and mosques where the issue of crime is discussed in T&T, which has bad economic issues and job losses.
“We pray for it daily—that things turn around. I pray for it on a daily basis. But at some point in time, you need people to put their shoulder to the wheel and actually get the job done—people to develop policy and implement it accordingly and people to have the will to actually make a change.”
He added, “What was offered yesterday by the CoP does not give me any confidence this particular individual is capable of doing it and clearly, the Government isn’t minded to resource the TTPS. We’ve been calling for them to do so since they entered office.
“And what we’d have heard (on Wednesday) is an admission that the person who is actually in need of divine intervention and help ... may very well be the Commissioner of Police.”
Rambally meanwhile said the CoP’s remarks were an insult to all citizens and victims of crime.
“Is the Commissioner saying that the record number of murders for 2022 was as a result of a lack of prayer? Just this morning a family in my constituency were the victims of a horrific home invasion. Another constituent is currently in the hospital having been critically wounded when the bandits crashed into her. Is the Commissioner saying that these victims were not praying enough?”
Saying he was looking forward to hearing CoP’s plans when he heard she was scheduled to speak at the forum, Rambally said, “It’s therefore disappointing that instead of providing the public with plans, the Commissioner chose instead to deliver a sermon where she stated the TTPS is relying on divine intervention to assist them in dealing with crime.
“... Citizens don’t need a sermon on the importance of prayer from the Commissioner, what they need is modern, data-driven anti-crime plans, coupled with public officials who do not deflect their responsibility on to others, including the Almighty.”