April 17, 2024 - Even as we collectively lament a news agenda over-laden with
accounts of indescribably horrific acts of murderous violence has come
information that glimmers of comforting hope at times such as these remain
stubbornly absent.
Whatever the official promises and declarations, there has
clearly been no progress in reversing this country’s deplorable detection rate
when it comes to murder.
Shane Superville’s GML story on Sunday noted a halving of
the detection rate for homicides from an already modest 16% over the first
three months of 2023, to 8% between January 1 and April 1 this year.
Put another way; this year so far, there were arrests in
only 11 of the 142 reported murders during the period. Now, to be fair, this
does not mean to say that is the end of that, since police investigations could
well have since yielded positive results with these specific cases. So maybe,
in the end, the statistic will be 10% or 12%. I don't know.
The sociologists and people whose work involves looking
closely at these things, both globally and parochially, must certainly, at this
stage, be developing conclusions on the impact of high, chronic impunity on
societies such as ours, widespread fear being among the first and most intense
impacts.
Some have also pointed to the changing nature of homicides
in T&T, now dominated by organised activity and what some describe as
“psychotic” events. Knowing more about these things can change the manner in
which modus operandi are addressed.
For instance, the incidence of organised crime is in part
being addressed through anti-gang legislation with more focused and increased
penalties, and changes on the question of bail.
Even so, the fact that a murderer is much more likely than
not to get away with such a grievous act, has had a far more influential impact
on the current situation than the fear of punishment and the judicial
interpretation of harsh laws.
In my view, the knowledge that you are highly likely to be
caught and promptly punished provides conditions for a far higher level of
deterrence. The deterrent effect of punishments, capital punishment for murder
for example, has time and again been questioned by people who know much about
these things.
What is needed is for murderers to be captured, brought to
trial, and punished as promptly as possible. So, this is a matter first and
foremost of enlightened, highly motivated, and well-resourced policing,
followed by the efficient delivery of justice, and the ameliorative effects of
punishment.
Preventative interventions are a key and necessary part of
the required dynamic, but there is now an immediate need to bring violators to
justice. How and why things reached this stage flow as parallel, not
overlapping concerns.
The role of legislators, across the political aisle, also
has to be founded on greater coherence – all sides listening closely to the
other. What currently obtains in T&T is far from this ideal. It has not
helped that political leadership on the subject has been grossly deficient when
it comes to collective deliberation and intervention.
Crime detection rates are not the stuff of political
one-upmanship, especially when loss of life is involved - however critical the
quality of legislative and executive leadership. The experiences of others also
signal the questionable impact of vigilantism and the serious danger of
extra-judicial murder – both implicit in the lobby for more guns and the return
to the “good old days” when the police are said to have been prepared to skip
trials and go straight for fatal punishment.
There is a role for academia here in providing clearer
direction on such matters to avoid unthinking revenge becoming a dangerous
substitute for justice. This is particularly important at this dark time.
But there remains no “spin” to untangle the emotions that
flow from feelings of hopelessness. No political grandiloquence capable of
explaining away open evidence of incapacity. No resort to magical intervention
as anodyne for the failings of human effort sufficient to bring assurance and
confidence.
It is also significant that nothing about this is brand new
or estimated in measures of electoral terms. My personal journalistic archives
in recent decades do not record a time when, as a noted trend spanning any
significant period, investigative outcomes yielded anything to suggest that a
durable trend of effective policing was at hand.
The current situation in fact does not signify a relapse of
any kind, but the escalation of persistent decline. Getting away with murder
has long been a disturbing norm.
