Dear Editor,
On March 23rd 2015, three hundred and forty-one police officers took it upon themselves to conduct twenty-nine roadblocks across both Trinidad and Tobago causing gridlock traffic that lasted for hours and provoking panic among the law-abiding citizens of this country who feared that something more sinister might have been afoot. The reasoning for this insanity turned out to be more petty than nefarious, however, which prompted a future Commissioner of Police to refer to the incident as “A Day of Total Stupidity.” But unlike in 2015, when the actions of the police could be blamed on the actions of three hundred and forty-one individual police officers protesting circumstances occurring at the time, the roadblocks which occurred yesterday in a similar fashion were apparently sanctioned by the leadership of the TTPS as a measure to curb the out-of-control crime rate, which makes their complete and utter failure even more frustrating.
Every successful police service in the world will boast that the key to being effective in the fight against crime is the use of intelligence in constructing their strategy and tactics, so I beg the question: where was the intelligence in the police action conducted yesterday? How many criminals and murderers did they expect to arrest during rush hour traffic on a weekday? What information did they have that pointed them to the assumption that they would have been able to do so? And if there was actual intelligence and information that we are not aware of, then why did the TTPS fail to apprehend and charge anyone with a single felony? The TTPS must explain whether this fiasco was created by a flaw in either their planning or execution or both, even though we already know the answer.
Now, most people would not be complaining, or even care had it not been for the massive inconvenience that this police exercise caused especially as the fruits of this endeavour only serve to benefit the government through the fines that are being injected into a haemorrhaging public purse. On top of being attacked by the criminal elements running rampant in the street, the law-abiding citizens are now being harassed and inconvenienced by the police service, who are doing nothing to actually protect them. And to be completely honest, I’m not quite sure which is worse.
You know, there exists a possibility that similar to 2015, this most recent action of the police may be in protest of a situation that is becoming untenable to them, for which ordinary citizens must bear the cost. It is not outside the realm of possibility that these extreme actions are being done in an attempt to silence the general public who have been clamouring for more police action as a preventative relief to the growing crime and murders plaguing the country. Bereft of ideas, and frustrated by the constant criticisms, it is easy to see how this type of drastic response might silence an already traumatized public for fear of being penalized.
This all being said, I await my hearing in the Privy Council later this year to once again argue the illegality of Erla Christopher-Harewood as Commissioner of Police, and the resulting verdict can create a leadership change in the TTPS that will fare better at both crime prevention and policing so that the citizens of this country aren’t forced to suffer as they have been doing for the past few years.
Best regards,
Ravi Balgobin Maharaj
Mob: +1 868 476-6181
Email: ravibmaharaj@gmail.com