THE current Trinidad state of emergency is a good point of reference to examine solutions to runaway crime and race relations. Faced with a rising, uncontrollable crime rate,Prime Minister Mrs. Kamla Persad-Bissessar declared a state of emergency on the advice of her Minister of National Security, Mr. John Sandy a former head of the Trinidad armed forces. Se ttp://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2011/09/03/sandy-calls-manning-share-info-who-mr-big. Most of the criminals hauled in under the curfew were Afro-Trinidadians which gave the deposed opposition PNM leaders a chance to cry race discrimination. With tears in his eyes, the black kingmaker of the UNC Mr. Jack Warner defended the crackdown as a necessity. Mr. Warner refuted the PNM opposition charges that it was aimed at punishing Afro- Trinidadians. See http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2011/09/03/warner-moved-tears-during-debate The black Trinidadian Security Minister Mr. Sandy was more direct and revealing. He told the Trinidadian Parliament that most of the crime victims were black Trinidadians who looked like him  with black mothers like his, who were the ones crying for the loss of their children. He gave detailed statistics which revealed that the majority of criminals arrested were blacks who wreaked havoc on
their fellow black Trinidad countrymen. He was right. Crime dropped dramatically in that island nation’s crackdown due to its political pro active decisiveness. Nearly three quarters of Trinidadians approved the
state of emergency and an extension of the curfew hours in a tracking poll.
Minister Sandy forcefully defended the state of emergency as an important step to arrest Trinidad’s crime wave. So what lesson does this hold for Guyana?
In talking with a colleague Bully (his nickname and a retired black solider) and his employer Mr. Lukie, the conversation pivoted on race and crime. I told them that much crime is committed by blacks and Mr. Lukie remonstrated with me. He said that our friend Bully would be bothered at such a statement. But I replied that the truth must be told and it was not a personal criticism.

Bully and I have always had honest exchanges of opinions and he has been accustomed to my way of frank speaking. He has always been honest and frank with me as I expected him to be. I emphasised to Bully and
Mr. Lukie, that the PNM could have controlled the crime situation if it was serious and wanted to do so. For example, the PNM government could have militarised the high-crime areas, specifically the ghettos.

These voter banks saw the PNM building housing schemes and distributing them to its predominantly black PNM supporters. It’s similar to the PNC government building Melanie Damishana on sugar lands (it was emancipated i.e what belongs to blacks is theirs for good and what belongs to all other Guyanese is up for grabs still) to bottleneck a once vibrant Enterprise, now an apathetic PPP stronghold subjected to constant outside robberies and violence.

In our discussion about crime, both Mr. Lukie and Bully asked me if I was afraid to walk the streets. Yes, I said.

I also mentioned that most blacks were decent law-abiding citizens who may greet you with a good morning shout out with absolutely no criminal intentions However, I emphasised that the blacks who are involved in crime are just about 2% of the entire black population and not the entire African race. Unjustifiably, the entire race gets blamed for the misbehaviour of a tiny minority of their group.

However, it is the silence of the majority of blacks that keeps the black criminal elements alive, as is also the silent Indian majority that keeps crime alive in their country.  What could explain or justify a Waddell arming and training teenaged children to brutalise neighbouring Annandale, and Enterprise and allow the WPA/ACDA’s Mr. Tacuma Ogunseye to label them as “freedom fighters”?  Or the brutality of the Buxton-based Fineman’s gang massacring innocent Indians at Lusignan, degutting children and womenfolk and repeating the same in Bartica? Most of our current crime sprees involve brutal kidnappings, murders, rape, daylight and brazen robberies and this affects the entire strata of our citizenry. Even so, political crimes are a miniscule percentage and ambitious politicians only use it to fuel their own political agendas when they scream racial discrimination and marginalisation. The Indian reaction after the Lusignan massacre of forgiveness is a striking contrast compared to the black political pogrom against Indians at Wismar on May 26 1964 after the two elderly Sealeys were so brutally killed at Buxton. These contrasting episodes do not reconcile with a Christian ethic of turning the other cheek which governs black cultural values and underpinnings.

No one can support white collar crime which sees civil servants making up fictitious names for old age pensions as the AFC initially warned us or passing goods without appropriate customs duties. With all such white collar crimes I am also totally opposed. Yet I support that blacks should get their fair share while other races are also entitled to theirs. Robbery and crime just cannot be justified by any race in their name and be acceptable as fighting for freedom.

Such white collar occurrences, however, do not cause me to fear walking the streets.
The Trinidad and Tobago Peoples Partnership of Prime Minister Mrs. Kamla  Persad-Bissessar has acted decisively in fighting crime.