Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - Hier 04:39

Crime’s predictable comeback

PAOLO KERNAHAN IT’S ALL roaring back – the daylight robberies, the snatch-and-grabs, violent home invasions, kidnappings and murders. TT, we are back to form! Back to the perpetual state of terror that’s uniquely in tune with our national character. The brief respite from criminal predations is over – robbers and killers alike have come to their senses, realising that the so-called state of emergency (SoE) is a farce. Bandits have gauged the mettle of the state and found it wanting. It’s time to eat again; it’s time to be eaten again. A young mother of a teenager was shot in the head and thrown from a car in Chaguanas in the "alive" of day. Avanelle Abraham worked as a hairdresser, driver with Rideshare and an event decorator…all while studying. She made such sacrifices to raise her son in an economy that favours only the wealthy, keeping the rest of us on a treadmill of debt and obligation. None of this mattered to the monster who killed her and discarded her body like an old fridge on the road. For all of this administration’s fevered attempts to gild its abhorrent alignment with US actions against nameless, faceless targets of nameless, faceless drones, many of the acts comprising this criminal resurgence appear to have little to do with the drug trade. Avanelle Abraham’s parents believe her killing was a violent reaction to spurned advances – a template of violence against women that’s grimly familiar. In Penal, a teenager was forced to witness the killing of her parents. Police have yet to settle on a firm motive for the brutal slayings, but they’re working on the theory that a logging rights dispute may have had something to do with them. On the bus route, bandits stormed a maxi and "taxed" passengers working two and three hustles just to put food on the table, all while these masked bit---- work just the one – terrorising people who wake up every morning, put their feet on the floor and get ready for a day of punishing graft. Women could be heard on the video recording begging to have their ID cards returned, having willingly turned over their money. Losing your cash is one thing; losing ID cards and important documents ensures the victimisation lasts much longer, as replacing them is far more difficult than it needs to be. Criminal activities that have increased sharply in recent weeks suggest that robbers and murderers who may (or may not) have been gun-shy about “working” in an SoE have gotten their groove back. While there have been police exercises such as targeted raids coupled with armed police patrols in some communities, they are obviously insufficient to keep gunmen in their kennels. They have awakened to the reality that this SoE is a hodgepodge of knee-jerk missions and ticketing exercises. There's no real comprehensive strategy or crime plan in play here. As this column has previously outlined, this state of emergency without a curfew and a strategy is like cornflakes without milk. While there has been a statistical decline in the incidents of violent crime, overall, the picture on the ground remains the same. The crime detection rate stands at 33 per cent, which has changed very little since 2014, when it was 32 per cent. Over that period, countless billions have been thrown at the problem to achieve an almost negligible result. It’s important to note that this 33 per cent exists in the context of an SoE, which has been in place for the entire year so far. With all the extended powers afforded to law enforcement, neither the police nor the state can make a serious dent in crime. This is not surprising considering another, even more underwhelming statistic. The rate of conviction is estimated at less than four per cent. In 2024, out of more than 27,000 reported crimes, there were only 1,037 convictions. The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has noted a 70 per cent acquittal rate of those brought before the courts. That, coupled with low detection and backlog of cases, as observed by the CCJ, creates the ideal conditions for the mould of criminality to spread and infect all society. The Americans could bomb a million boats at sea, and none of it would change the data that ultimately illustrates a gruesome picture of why we continue to fail spectacularly at combating crime. The murderers, killers, kidnappers and all assorted "badman" have realised that the SoE is an absolute joke. They measure their odds of capture as acceptably low. Even though the government changed, nothing else has, so it’s back to business as usual. The post Crime’s predictable comeback appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.