Sorry saga of too many murders Originally printed at trinidadexpress/commentaries/Sorry-saga-of-too-many-murders-287379841.html January 2, 2015 Five murders right at the start of 2015 does not bode well for a reduction in homicides this year. Last year saw a statistically meaningless reduction to 403 homicides, as compared to 407 in 2013. This, however, marks an increase over the 2011 figure of 343, which was itself an all-time low since 2004, when the number of homicides totalled 261. That 2011 dip proved to be a mere blip, and the annual murder figure has been rising steadily since. It is not, however, at an “all-time high”, as some people with conveniently short memories have been claiming – that record remains in 2008 and 2009, when murders crossed 500. Even so, it is reasonable to say that the National Security Ministry and the Police Service have made no progress in reducing murders. For the past decade, Trinidad and Tobago’s homicide rate has hovered between 30 and 36 per 100,000 persons, placing this country among the top ten most murderous places in the world. Nonetheless, the spokesmen for national security and policing continue to assure citizens that they are winning the battle against crime – which is to say, every other kind of crime except murder. If this is so, is it rather odd that statistics should show a reduction in every kind of crime except the one which does not require reporting, since murder will always out. And, sociologically, when criminals are getting away with the most serious of crimes, lesser crimes tend to increase in frequency, since criminals then feel that such crimes are even easier to commit and escape unscathed. For all these reasons, National Security Minister Gary Griffith and acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams need to provide cogent explanations why murders continue to be committed with such impunity. It is not enough to claim that measures are being put in place which will eventually result in a reduction in homicides. After all, citizens have been hearing that song since the Patrick Manning administration in 2003, when murder suddenly increased by 300 per cent and continued to escalate annually. Mr Manning and then-National Security minister Martin Joseph and two successive police commissioners were unable to stem this tide or even provide good explanations for the sudden rise in killings. There was the usual talk of the drug trafficking, but no one explained what had changed about that illegal trade to cause more murders concentrated in the East-West Corridor. What is a fact, however, is that the Caribbean countries with the highest murder rates — Jamaica, T&T, and Belize — have one factor in common — politicians using gang leaders as political assets. Maybe that is why no real explanation has been forthcoming from the security spokespersons.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 12:37:35 +0000
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