Who will be treated like law-abiding citizens during this State of Emergency (SoE) and who won’t?

Yesterday, I wrote a post warning the average Trinbagonian about the dangers of assuming that we’ll be considered law-abiding in a situation where the laws were being changed on the fly. And then I sat down and watched the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) and T&T Defence Force (TTDF) fumble their way through a press conference in which they revealed that they themselves weren’t entirely familiar with the new regulations they’d already begun to enforce.

Among the many things that stood out to me from the presser was Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher’s response to a question of whether section 4(1) of the SoE regulations grants her the power to institute a curfew. After re-reading the section in its entirety, she haltingly confirmed: “That’s a yes, but it’s not for the general public. I want the public to understand that under the SoE, we are specific in who we are targeting.”

Alongside Acting Attorney General Stuart Young’s earlier pledge that law-abiding citizens wouldn’t be targeted by the SoE, the CoP’s statement only served to highlight the fact that the government has opted to use a drastic national measure to, they repeatedly promise, target a small group of people.

If you pay attention, you’ll also notice how vague they’ve been when it comes to identifying exactly who they’re targeting. In addition to using euphemisms like “law-abiding citizens” and “general public” to assure the majority of us that we won’t be the ones getting our doors kicked down, they’ve been giving us chapter and verse about all of the heinous crimes that have captured the national attention over the past year, sending a clear signal that they intend to use their expanded legal powers to go after the minority that has been holding the nation at gunpoint.

What they haven’t said is how they plan to use their new powers only on those individuals.

How does one impose a curfew on criminals only?

Obviously, one doesn’t. One would have to lock down an entire community—suspects and law-abiding citizens alike—and sort it out after. Which, incidentally, is already partially underway.

That’s the quiet part the government doesn’t want to say out loud: when they say “law-abiding citizens” and “the general public,” they’re addressing those outside of certain specific communities. If you don’t live in an area traditionally considered to be a hotspot, you aren’t as likely to have your door kicked down. In fact, if you live in certain extra-special communities, you don’t have to worry about it at all. But if you happen to live in, say St. Barbs, well… law-abiding or not, you’d better brace.

The gag is that the government doesn’t even have to be particularly circumspect about their intentions in this regard. Many Trinbagonians are thoroughly unconcerned about the way the armed forces treat the residents of underserved communities. Some of them even cheer for more inhumane treatment.

Mind you, the government is well aware of how we feel about our fellow citizens in those spaces. In fact, our leaders are so assured of our disregard for those communities that they’ve been treating them in ways they wouldn’t dare to treat others since long before the SoE. To add insult to injury, they then turn around and blame the residents of those communities for the obvious results of this decades-long neglect.

Which is how we find ourselves here, in a nationwide SoE called with the aim of tamping down a surge in violence that is clearly an outgrowth of the very same indifference.

You only have to look at the quotes coming out of a recent Newsday article to see that the law-abiding citizens of Laventille have been desperate for the authorities to help them with the gang violence that’s been allowed to spread all over their streets.

A man who has been living in the community for more than three decades told Newsday while he did not know the motive behind the shooting, he was happy with the police’s response.

“I’m glad for this kind of (police) visit, because the place under a kind of meditation right now.”

He said based on his religious beliefs and the crime situation, he had no objection to the SoE regulations or the door-to-door searches.

“I am a Bobo (Shanti) so I does hold laws and commandments and it’s a right I defending any day. We fed up of this s–t, boy, we real fed up. And it’s not only in Paradise Heights, it’s all over the country.

“They don’t need a warrant to come by me. Just come in! I telling them, ‘Come in!’”

He said law-abiding citizens should have nothing to fear.

“I think everybody up here is pleased about this. I don’t think it will have anybody (who is displeased). Anybody who is against this, it’s because they’re dealing with illegal stuff.

“Everybody’s supposed to be glad and open up their place and tell the police to come in.”

[…]

An elderly man said the police operation in the community is an example of the popular adage “better late than never.”

“It’s a good operation. It is definitely needed. They should have started that before now, but they start it now and I’m okay with it.”

[…]

He said crime has become unbearable and has prevented citizens from doing basic things they enjoy.

“I used to clean in front my building. Every day at 6 am I come out and clean this area because I’m retired.

“It seize my blood that I can’t come out because I’m uncomfortable now. It is sad.”

5 murders in Laventille linked to gang alliance. 31st December 2024. Newsday

Unfortunately for them, the odds are that, as soon as these expanded powers go away, the authorities will return to the status quo until the violence we’re all happy to ignore within their communities happens to spill outside once again.

It’s unfortunate for us all, really. Because, no matter how much some of us wish it was possible, we can’t actually confine crime to the areas filled with people we deem undesirable. And our willingness to turn a blind eye to what the authorities allow in those areas is why they’re so comfortable underserving the rest of us.

It’s why a single tweet about the TTPS’ unwillingness to track down a citizen’s stolen belongings unleashed a flood of similar stories of police failures.

It’s why the 2023 Police Service Commission survey found that only 29.1% of people were satisfied or very satisfied with their interactions with the TTPS, and fear of crime has increased steadily since 2020.

It’s why communities are begging the TTPS to skip the “confidence patrols” and ramp up actual police presence instead.

And it’s why the experts are saying that our spiraling crime situation isn’t so much a result of not knowing what to do, but not doing what we know needs to be done.

So, why won’t they do it? Well, why should they? The law-abiding citizens of T&T haven’t required it of them.