HUNDREDS of women, girls, men and boys marched around the Queen’s Park Savannah in Port of Spain declaring “Enough is enough,” as they demanded action by those in authority to deal with crime, especially violent crimes against women and children. The march came nine days after 22-year-old court clerk Andrea Bharatt was kidnapped and three days after her decomposing body was found dumped down a precipice in the Heights of Aripo in East Trinidad. The marchers called on politicians to effect changes to the law to enable women to protect themselves. Carrying home-made placards, men, women and children marched to the chants of: “We want justice,” “No bail for rapists,” and, “No bail for kidnappers.” Co-organiser, Dimitri Chote said there are three things that should be done: legalise the use of non-lethal weapons; regulate PH (private-hire) taxi drivers and make the Sexual Offenders Registry public. He said non-lethal weapons such as pepper sprays and Tasers will give women and young girls a fighting chance when confronted by male predators. Regulating PH drivers will ensure the mainly male drivers will be registered and could pave the way for such provisions as GPS tracking. Making the registry public could provide potential life-

saving information to society’s women and the parents of the country’s vulnerable children and teenagers. Chote described the turnout as “amazing” and beyond his personal expectations. He said he wanted the anger and outrage over Bharatt’s murder moved off of social media and into tangible, physical action that could foster change. Chote said that he and fellow organiser Ishmael Tarouba were accused of being racially motivated to protest. “People were citing racial motivation and so on, which made me wonder, ‘why do this if this is the kind of ignorance I am meeting?’ We know there is no racial motivation behind this. This was just a terrible action done to somebody who didn’t deserve it and I had trouble sleeping at night so I said, ‘let me do something about this. Let me act.’” Many protesters said they came out to make their voices heard and ask Government to do something about crime.
Sarah Benjamin-Paul, who marched with her husband, daughters and nieces, said she is fed-up of the situation in the country. “We have to think about the future of our girls. If nothing is done, it’s just going to continue getting worse and it’s just going to go downhill from here,” Benjamin-Paul said. (Trinidad and Tobago Newsday)