Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 19/Dec 06:33

The police fear of mosquitoes

THE EDITOR: It is often said that God is a Trini, but after listening to Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro, one has to wonder if the Almighty hasn't simply left the building in a fit of hysterical laughter. We have reached a new, subterranean low in law enforcement logic: the dengue defence. To hear the head of our police service explain it, the reason the architects behind a $171 million drug empire are still sleeping comfortably in their beds tonight is not a lack of intelligence or a lack of weaponry, but a fear of mosquitoes. Yes, you heard that correctly. The "capture of persons responsible" was abandoned because officers might get a bite. It is a statement so profoundly embarrassing that it should come with a national disclaimer. Do you think the DEA in the US, Scotland Yard in the UK, or even the anti-narcotics units in Colombia pack up and go home because the bugs are biting? When the FBI is staking out the cartel in the Florida Everglades, do they abandon the mission because the humidity is too high? No. They look at us, the supposedly economic giant of the Caribbean, and see a nation of jokers. We are the "folks" of the international intelligence community. We beg the Americans for military-grade radar, we gallery with the high-tech toys, but when it’s time to do the gritty, itchy, uncomfortable work of actual policing, we fold like a cheap deck chair. We are spinning top in mud, and the world is watching. Singapore executes traffickers, we execute excuses. The commissioner speaks of "resources" and "risk," but he misses the point entirely. Seizing the drugs is merely scratching the itch, catching the owners is the cure. By taking the weed but leaving the men, we are merely tax collectors for the underworld, writing off their inventory as a business loss while the infrastructure of crime remains intact. We need to cut the head off the snake. Instead, we are poking the snake with a stick and running away before it hisses. The drugs are replaceable. The guns are replaceable. The people bringing them in are the true danger. But they are safe, protected by a police force that apparently dissolves in the dew of the Caroni Swamp. It begs the terrifying question: What exactly is the TTPS trained for? If a swarm of mosquitoes is enough to deter a stakeout for a massive narcotics haul, what happens when the bullets start flying? Are our elite units trained for combat, or are they trained for comfort? It seems our officers are ready for the "glamour" of the press conference, but allergic to the grime of the job. Guevarro, your job isn't to protect officers from dengue, that is what repellent is for. Your job is to protect this population from the cancer of the drug trade that fuels every murder, every home invasion, and every robbery terrorising this land. But as long as the "dengue doctrine" is official policy, the big fish will continue to swim freely, laughing all the way to the bank, while the rest of us drown in the blood and tears of a country held hostage by incompetence. HUGO MAYNARD via e-mail The post The police fear of mosquitoes appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.