I Got New Shoes and I’m running Barefoot?!?!

Sometime yesterday evening, I found my way to the police station to report the snatching of my purse. The previous night my purse was snatched as we loaded into our maxi. After Bryan and I made a fruitless (and probably stupid) attempt to run down my assailant, and after I called the police (who didn’t answer), I called to cancel the one credit card I had in my purse and went on to the party.
The following day, I took the time to walk back to the corner where my purse was snatched to find the street name. Though there were no street signs, I discovered two surveillance cameras. This info made me feel a little more secure about bothering to file a report. As I walked to find a security guard on campus, I still couldn’t figure out why I was going. As a person who does not believe in using the police as an answer to everyday problems, I found myself reporting it to avoid incurring any charges for the keys I lost with my purse. I hunted down an on campus cop. I found their mobile unit on the other end of campus, but because their office is “only there for police presence”, (whatever that means) they had to take me to the nearest police station.
As the street where the incident occurred went from Augustine Street, to Wooden Avenue to it doesn’t really have a name, I knew my efforts were growing even more futile. I walked into the small cramped station and proceeded to file my “report” only to find out that what I was filing was a piece of paper to prove to whomever it may concern that I was robbed. When I asked the officer what I needed to do to file an actual claim with his office, he was surprised that I even wanted to bother to do this.
Despite that, I went on to report it. We wasted half the time getting a description of myself. Yes I said of myself, that isn’t a typo. When I asked if I needed to give a description of the purse snatcher I was told they would call me if they found him. They only gave me time to describe the clothes he was wearing yesterday.
I was directed to go back to the on campus security office to make a report. Here the on campus officer wrote my claim on the back of some sort of sign in sheet. In this office I spent most of my time describing why I was in Trinidad and what my purse looked like.
And all for what? I could see that between Bryan and I running down the street, and Sia and the locals searching the complex where the purse snatcher slipped through the fence, all the effort towards finding my purse had been exhausted. All I got out of my reporting experience was about 3 phone calls and a text message from the officer who stole my phone number off of my police report.
And all for what? I had already come to grips with the $30 I lost. Everything else was replaceable.

Fear

Many of the Trinidadians that I have encountered since I arrived here in Trinidad & Tobago have commented on the rise in crime and the lack of safety that has recently become an issue here. Though I understand the unease that comes with an increase of crime, sometimes the discussions seem to allude to a different issue. One instance stands out to me in particular. I was coming out of a Chinese restaurant with a woman, as we got into her car she turned around to look at a young man walking past the restaurant and remarked “I don’t trust those young men.” Something about this bothered me deeply. All I saw was a young black youth, dressed like most of the young black youths that I have encountered since I have been here. What exactly made him untrustworthy? What makes a human being fear-able? As people repeatedly warn our group that this place or this corner is unsafe, who are the one’s we should be afraid of? When does a person go from being a person to being someone to fear and what criteria are we using to make those judgments? What does it feel like to be feared?

Hang em!!!

July 2, 2010 11:33 am
Yesterday, one of the people who work in the Corporation, Rosalind, posed a question to the rest of the employees in works. She asked, what is a potential solution to immediately curb the crime levels in Trinidad and Tobago. The answer, hang them. Of course, as a person who is extremely anti- capital punishment, I was appalled. But to my dismay, my usual arguments against the murdering of ex offenders did not apply here. Hanging is not as expensive as other methods of execution used in America, so I couldn’t pull the “it’s cheaper to keep them than kill them” argument. They also feel that with such low conviction rates, the convictions carried out are just- they do not believe there is a race issue in their criminal justice system. And with such low conviction, how can one even begin talking about recidivism hardening criminals. Stumped I began asking about the cause of crime her. Though this is the lay perception, it calls for a deeper look into the cause. They maintain that poverty is not a major issue. (Though Trinidad is a supposed 3rd world country, I believe that it is relative poverty that leads to crime and so I am not sure whether or not it really is an issue). Also, Trinidad has universal education. SO questions arising are: Is there high relative poverty? And just because there are high educational opportunities does not mean there is high attainment, so what are the attainment levels? I also want to know how race affects criminal justice in Trinidad.