Dear Editor,
I couldn’t agree more with the statement by Rakesh Rampertab in his letter captioned “The kick-down-the-door banditry in the eighties was brutal and debilitating” (08/04/27) that with respect to East Indians, “the devastation caused and the extent of the psychological dominance resulting from years of criminal attacks have unfortunately been ignored or taken for granted at times”.
One can argue and debate whether the crime spree of the past few years has an ethnic overtone but those who experienced (personally and vicariously) the kick-down-the-door banditry of the eighties, know that that was a Black on Indian phenomenon with tremendous political underpinnings. However, because of the state of the media under the PNC, reportage on this phenomenon was sketchy and minimal at best. Besides most victims were so fearful that they preferred not to make public their ordeal lest they be vicitmised again. For invariably, the parting words of the perpetrators would be “we coming back”.