(Trinidad Guardian) January 2022 ended with 50 murders, a figure that was double that of last year and given the constant rising number of murders and violent crimes, a criminologist has suggested that T&T seems heading to become a mafia country.
This is the view by criminologist Ramesh Deosaran as he sought to give an explanation on why the murders keep rising in the country.
Deosaran said he more believes it to be for economic reasons but went on to slam the Government’s Anti-Gang legislation which he said is doing nothing to help the situation.
Speaking with the Guardian Media during a telephone interview yesterday, Deosaran said the Attorney General, Ministry of National Security and the Police Service “should explain the miserable failure of all these draconian anti-gang legislation repeatedly made in Parliament.”
“They have not been working. It seems to be a lot of waste talk, promises of having drones and having the borders sealed and imprisoning people with arms and ammunition and that scared the public at the point where they felt that it was a good law. Whatever the Opposition did or did not do at the time the fact is the legislation that the Government was bringing to the Parliament they have all miserably failed in terms of dealing with the gangs and the violence now troubling the communities and the public and also bothering the Government,” Deosaran said.
He advised that the Government stop ‘blathering statistics’.
“The Government has to now step back and take a fresh look at these gang-related behaviours and the sudden increases in serious crimes now rather than just talking and blathering statistics. They have to step back and do some serious analysis which has been lacking for a long time now.”
Deosaran said the increase in murders and violent crimes to him is for more economic reasons, “than people have mental illness or just plain wicked. I mean there’s a rationale for it.”
Deosaran suggested that the police do some demographic analysis on the people committing crimes.
“Their backgrounds need to be checked because there are a lot of foreigners in the country not only from Venezuela. People are forming gangs with their own here and regenerating with locals here.”
“We’re heading into a mafia country in the same way as in other countries. Immigration is a bit contributor all over the world and here too,” he added.
