OVER the past few months, more high-powered guns than ever were illegally shipped to Trinidad and Tobago.
An American agency said they included machine guns, revolvers, pistols, rifles and shotguns.
More AK-47s and high-calibre bullets have been smuggled in.
“Guns have been found concealed in automobiles and televisions, and household items, such as bags of rice and cereal boxes,” the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said.
Around 85 per cent of violent crimes in T&T are committed with illegal guns shipped through at least a dozen wide-open borders.
The illegal weapons “flow largely unabated into the country, fuelling gang violence and driving a high homicide rate,” another American report said.
The Rowley Government has made no effort to strengthen border security to stamp out the flow of weapons, drugs, and contraband goods.
The police service has no presence at the open seaports – including those in south-west Trinidad – through which Venezuelan refugees, including criminals, land at will.
“Corruption is endemic in the land,” the US noted, “and law enforcement benefits from a weak and inefficient criminal justice system.”
Most crimes go unsolved, “partly due to weak evidence gathering and management capabilities.”
These circumstances have clearly worsened in recent months, while the unsuited Erla Harewood-Christopher has occupied the Police Commissioner’s chair.
“These security challenges all pose risks to TT’s short-term and long-term stability,” the Americans reminded us.
Indeed, the recourse to a State of Emergency – in which citizens’ rights are curtailed – illustrates the current national instability.
Each state of affairs – gun trafficking, poor crime detection, a weak judiciary, and police corruption – has dramatically worsened under the watch of Harewood-Christopher.
Yet the police chief is taking a lap of honour.
She listed what she considers her success but sidestepped the raw fact that T&T is slipping into anarchy, with a murder rate equivalent to Haiti, a failed State.
Harewood-Christopher’s self-praise is an indication of how low she has set the crime-fighting bar and her obvious absence of requisite leadership skills.
Leading the anti-crime fight-back requires a competent, visionary law enforcement officer with a strategic plan, high-performance standards and the unflinching confidence of her troops.
Harewood-Christopher is a functionary with none of the required skills to tame the gangsters, inspire the nation and prompt policymakers to make the appropriate investments.
She is not the public official to take T&T out of the hellhole as one of the most violent places on earth, swamped with illicit arms in the hands of thousands of driftless and savage youths.
Attorney Larry Lalla is correct in asking that the top cop be relieved of her duties.
To be fair, she did not appoint herself to the most demanding and thankless job in the land, but, equally, she must be painfully aware she does not have the skill-set to bring peace to a troubled land.
Harewod-Christopher must resign and the government must match that gesture by empowering the Police Service Commission to select the most suited available candidate.
That is T&T’s primary hope of ending our near-civil war.
