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Vol. 30, Issue 30 QUEENS/LONG ISLAND/BRONX/MANHATTAN July 26–Aug. 1, 2019
FOCUS ON
T&T CRIME
T & T to ease dollar contracts for gangs
By Bert Wilkinson
Successive governments and
administrations in Trinidad
have blamed everything from
weapons and drug smuggling,
the activities of radical Islamic
groups in the country to the
state of the economy for nearly
two decades violent crime,
assassinations and abductions
but officials are putting a new
periscope on the issue that may
well trigger a decent reduction.
In a country, which is used
to a gun murder every 20
hours or so, security officials
openly bragged this week that a
deliberate effort to arrest several
gang leaders has resulted in
zero murders between Sunday
and Wednesday, an unusual
development in daily island life.
Police have on file 298 killings
for the year so far, slightly
behind that of last year.
But more importantly,
authorities including Prime
Minister, Keith Rowley are now
admitting that governments
have made serious political
mistakes in the past by allowing
gangs to bid for state contracts.
This in turn has resulted in
serious infighting by gangs
trying to muscle out rival
groups. There is also evidence,
the prime minister said, that
some gang leaders have been
engaging in extortion, using
their influence to demand a
share in state road repair
and other contracts. Some of
the money from these very
contracts help to fund criminal
activities. Rowley said this
practice will soon end.
The move to divorce gangs
from state contracts and cut
off their money supply, comes
about a week after Police Chief,
Gary Griffith angrily demanded
an abrupt end to this, saying
everywhere else in the world
enforcement agencies try to
cut off the money supply. In
Trinidad, this is the opposite
but police now seem to have
the agreement and backing of
‘Untamed’
Jahdisha Sterling portrays “Ferocious Jezebel” for the
band “Untamed” presented by Antoine International. See
story on Page 33. Photo by Nelson A. King
We've Got the Power!
Rowley’s cabinet.
“It’s been with us for
quite some time,” Rowley
told reporters.” It is not a
simple problem to get rid of
because it has worked into our
administrative systems. And we
have to work our way out of it.
And we will certainly do so.”
Elaborating, he contended
that contract pro grams such as
the Urban Rehabilitation Relief
Program (URP), Communitybased
Environmental Protection
and Enhancement Program
(CEPEP) and to a lesser extent
other small pro grams including
the Housing Development
Corporation (HDC) were
handed to various community
groups instead of being handled
by the state “under the hands
of public officials. We moved
into this new environment of
awarding contracts. We jumped
from the frying pan into the
fire. Remember ghost gangs,
the gangs that didn’t exist but
only on the pay sheet,” he said.
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