(Trinidad Express) “We would like to signal our growing impatience and anxiety with the lack of actions regarding persons who are free to kill.”
This was the stance yesterday from president of the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA) Gregory Aboud, who is calling for more work on the ground by Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith and the TTPS.
“We are among those that were very supportive and enthusiastic, not only about the appointment of Gary Griffith as commissioner of police, but also the appointment of Stuart Young as minister of national security,” Aboud said, via telephone.
“But we feel entitled to say, with respect, not wanting to be disrespectful to either but wanting to intimate a strong sense of impatience now, that the honeymoon is over and it is high time that something be done to confront the freeness with which persons are able to kill in broad daylight, without fear of any accountability or fear of being apprehended.”
Aboud said Griffith, in particular, “needs to recognise that where justice is not dispensed by the State agencies, particularly the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, that in itself is an injustice being perpetrated on the society”.
“The failure to hold accountable those who are killing so freely in broad daylight, including women and children, are being encouraged to do as they want because there is no fear of being arrested. We would like to suggest that the commissioner stop everything he is doing and try to apprehend one murderer, and then try to make it one at a time. He can start with one case.”
Aboud was also critical of the TTPS’s claims that some 15 per cent of violent crime is being solved as, he said, it includes domestic violence cases where the perpetrator surrendered.
“Surely that should not be part of the data,” he said.
“We hope the commissioner understands we are left with no choice but to make this call publicly since our contributions and consultations and suggestions, made in previous meetings, seem to have brought no results whatsoever.”
Aboud further stated: “We are being treated to public relations events by the minister and at the level of the protective services, and we have seen enough of that and now the country needs to see some sort of action, particularly as it relates to murder.”
Aboud was horrified at the number of children falling victim to crime, and said the current state of affairs ought not to be accepted as the norm.
Asked about the passing of the Firearms Bill and hopes it would deter some gun crimes, Aboud said: “We recognise the good intentions of Government in wanting to legislate a solution that is destroying the fabric of our society.”
He said, however, legislation must be implemented to be effective.
“We are tired of ineffective leadership, and request a change of course and more work on the ground by the commissioner and his people,” Aboud said.
