Dear Editor,
During the press conference held by the Prime Minister regarding the State of Emergency, Elizabeth Williams, reporting for i95.5FM and Trinidad Express, probed Dr. Rowley concerning his thoughts on the fact that Special Prosecutor Randall Hector was brutally assassinated in what appears to be a well-coordinated attack, on the day after the State of Emergency was implemented, and the response that he gave has to be the most asinine thing I think a Prime Minister could have said. Because, in his rambling, in what appeared to be an attempt to come up with an answer to this question in real-time, as though he was unprepared for a reporter to ask what is a fairly reasonable question, Dr. Rowley suggests that the reason that Randall Hector could have been assassinated during an SoE is simply that the criminal element does not respect the rule of law, and by proxy, does not recognize or respect the State of Emergency.
And so, I have to ask, did the Prime Minister really expect that the commencement of a State of Emergency, in and of itself, would be such an earth-shattering announcement, that this would immediately deter criminals from carrying out their business immediately? Did he think that merely a few days after gang members opened fire on individuals entering a police station in the capital city, would suddenly and spontaneously become afraid of that same police force, to the point that the thought of committing a crime would cause the m to shake in their boots?
It has long been theorized that Keith Rowley is completely divorced from the reality that the citizens of this nation are faced with on a daily basis, but this logic is so utterly and profoundly out of touch with how humans think and behave that it makes you wonder if he understands anything about how people and society work at all.
What is worse, is that despite the impressive work of members of the investigative media such as Mark Bassant, who has been publishing detailed news stories with theories on how the assassination of SP Randall Hector might have been planned and executed, the police, who have now been granted even greater powers of search and arrest, have yet to detain a single individual in this case despite it being three days since the shooting took place. And I want to make it clear that I am not blaming the police for this, because just like the announcement and roll-out of the SoE itself, there has been no planning or forethought in giving the police these new powers, and such, they are no more equipped to do their jobs today than they were last week before the SoE took effect.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the country was on complete lockdown and our international borders were sealed off, somehow, illegal contraband was still reportedly making its way to our shores, in addition to illegal migrants. And I bring this up now because as the country has now entered into the most relaxed State of Emergency that we have ever faced, there has been no indication by the government of how they intend to deal with the breaches in our border security. As the gangs continue to arm themselves with newer and more sophisticated weaponry, the TTPS will always be somewhat at a disadvantage, unless perhaps full-scale martial law is introduced. Because for as long as the murder of Randall Hector remains unsolved, the criminals will understand that they have nothing to fear from this partial State of Emergency.
Best regards,
Ravi Balgobin Maharaj
