I was resisting commenting on the issue because, like everything else in this town, it has been made into a divisive, bipartisan, and even racist issue. The man chosen, tipped for, and who has accepted the post of Commissioner of Police of Trinidad & Tobago is a foreigner, a Canadian, a White Man, and will be paid somewhere in the vicinity of 1.5 million Trinidad & Tobago dollars per year to do the job.
The 'for' and 'against' have marked their respective positions in the sand and have proceeded to undermine the other side's position on an issue that should never be handled this way.
Not since the tassa drummed announcement of Operation Anaconda and the subsequent disappearance of the anaconda from the Emperor Valley Zoo has there been so much talk about this issue.
Looked at from the supposed 'Trini' perspective (and based on all the associated old talk), the situation comes down to this: This white, Canadian Man and his sidekick are being brought here to be paid millions of 'we' dollars to 'pull at' our brown skin girls and spend his days on Maracas Beach eating shark and bake while laughing at the stupidity of us island people.
Or some version of that.
Here is a man who was deemed suitably qualified to do a difficult job under some very onerous conditions which are being further aggravated by the fanning flames of racism on both sides, that no one in this country is really trusted to do.
Of all the reasons for hiring an 'outsider', that issue of trust is the most important, because the average Trinidadian believes that our entire Police Service is corrupt and that criminals are actually running the system, both from within and without.
When looked at from his shoes, when you realize that this man is leaving a first world country with public and social systems that work to come to this 'back water' and fight up with natives who are not too sure of what they really want, you wonder if we are in fact getting the better end of the deal.
Does he even know what he is in for?
The country he is leaving has a history of law & order, with an annual murder rate of around two murders per hundred thousand.
He is taking up a post in a country that has the fourth highest murder rate in the world (averaging fifty six murders per hundred thousand people per year and climbing), a failing society, a dysfunctional legal system, and a system of governance so corrupt it is world famous.
Personally I think the appointment (like everything else right now) is being politicized and used to score cheap points.
Silly behavior really, especially when one considers how hard life here has become, how dangerous it is to just go about your daily business and how many innocent people lose their lives every day.
This one issue cannot be made into a political football, as crime is affecting all sides equally.
If he fails to make a dent in crime then by all means fire him, but until then, shouldn't we be willing to at least try something else?
Something new?
The textbook definition of insanity is 'making the same mistake and expecting different results'.
Seeing that every other option we have tried so far has failed, shouldn't we at least be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt? Under the current circumstances, it would seem the sensible thing to do.
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