The cold, cal­cu­lat­ed mur­ders of eight peo­ple in Ari­ma and St Au­gus­tine on Wednes­day, prove that gang ac­tiv­i­ty and vi­o­lence in this coun­try is far from over and is be­com­ing worse each pass­ing year.

Two women, two teenagers and four men met their deaths in hor­rif­ic and heinous man­ners in three sep­a­ra­tor at­tacks all con­nect­ed to each oth­er, ac­cord­ing to the po­lice. In one in­ci­dent, the killer chased a vic­tim from a ve­hi­cle, over a wall in­to bush­es, where the vic­tim was seek­ing refuge, and con­tin­ued shoot­ing.

There is no doubt that some of the vic­tims may have been in­no­cent ca­su­al­ties and were killed be­cause they were in close prox­im­i­ty to the in­tend­ed tar­gets. But that it was the re­sult of gang vi­o­lence is ir­refutable.

Un­for­tu­nate­ly, cit­i­zens have been wit­ness to such brazen and ghast­ly vi­o­lence time and time again.

Many can re­count scam­per­ing for safe­ty as war­ring gangs ex­changed gun­fire at mid-day in the heart of Port-of-Spain, in full view of passers-by, or re­called in­ci­dents where in­no­cent by­standers were killed as gang­sters shot in­dis­crim­i­nate­ly with no care for whom they hurt or in­jured.

Wednes­day’s vi­o­lence was yet an­oth­er in­di­ca­tion of this, as the at­tack­ers showed no re­gard for the State of Emer­gency the coun­try is cur­rent­ly un­der and op­er­at­ed un­der the ex­pectan­cy that there would be no con­se­quences for their ac­tions.

Not even be­ing close to one of the holi­est places - Mount St Bene­dict - stopped the gang­sters’ ram­page.

Over the years, gangs have mush­roomed in this coun­try. From 2005-2006, there were 95 re­port­ed gangs with just over 1,000 mem­bers. In 2019, that fig­ure bal­looned to 211 gangs op­er­at­ing with over 2,400 mem­bers.

But ear­li­er this year, the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al claimed there was a re­duc­tion in gang mem­ber­ship, say­ing last year there were 129 gangs in op­er­a­tion with a lit­tle over 1,000 mem­bers. This, the AG said, was proof the An­ti-Gang Bill and oth­er mea­sures were work­ing.

While that may be the case, even with the po­lice mak­ing gains in ar­rest­ing and charg­ing gang lead­ers and their fol­low­ers, lives are still be­ing sav­age­ly tak­en away. And charges do not equate to con­vic­tions.

Com­mu­ni­ties con­tin­ue to live un­der the thumb or, more fit­ting­ly in this in­stance, the gun of gang­sters who have rid­dled every­day life with fear.

Ar­eas like St John’s Road, St Au­gus­tine, which were large­ly free from such ne­far­i­ous ac­tiv­i­ty, are now re­gard­ed as “hotspots” with young men and women drawn to a life of crime.

Aside from re­cent leg­is­la­tion, in­clud­ing the Pro­ceeds of Crime Act, suc­ces­sive gov­ern­ments have at­tempt­ed sev­er­al ini­tia­tives to guide young­sters away from gang and crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty.

De­spite these ef­forts, some are still lured to a life of crim­i­nal­i­ty and are of­ten pro­tect­ed by rel­a­tives and even com­mu­ni­ties, which on­ly serve to fu­el and per­pet­u­ate the cy­cle of vi­o­lence.

The blood­shed on Wednes­day should pro­vide a wake-up call to cit­i­zens that we can no longer sim­ply shrug our shoul­ders and al­low gang vi­o­lence to be wo­ven in­to the fab­ric of our lives.

We can ill-af­ford at this time, es­pe­cial­ly while we are bat­tling COVID-19, to al­low gang­sters to turn the na­tion in­to their killing fields...once again.