Unite and let the dogs out

January 23, 2002
By Bukka Rennie

My heartfelt sympathy goes out to the relatives, friends and pained pupils of the much loved, late teacher of Trincity, Christopher Rollock.

It was reported that early Friday morning his neighbours heard his screams for help, alerting them that he was about to be murdered.

There are many neighbourhoods in T&T today where, in such circumstances, no one will respond positively. Today, most people will seek to secure themselves within their doors and hope for the best.

At least we must pay homage to the people of Cane Farm who came out. It was good they tried as best they knew how to save his life, even though to no avail.

Every effort was made to box the criminals in the house but they were able to shoot and made good their escape.

All communities should attempt to emulate what was done at Cane Farm. Communities must organise themselves to protect lives.

Dogs, cutlasses, stones and cudgels, licensed firearms, if available, everything that's readily at hand should be brought to bear on the situation in defence of a neighbour under criminal attack.

These young criminals of today enjoy and revel in taking advantage of powerless and defenceless people. They have a field day when they see decent people cringe in fear or are immobilised by the power of fear itself.

Fear is a personal demon that must be harnessed and managed by each and everyone of us if we are to lead and experience truly fulfilled lives.

There have been instances where men awake to see bandits on their premises about to steal their automobiles and, once threatened by the bandits, they actually go back to bed and allow the bandits to take their expensive property without being challenged.

One gentleman recently, according to newspaper reports, after being threatened with a gun, returned to his bedroom crying while a rapist who broke into the home ravaged his 13-year-old daughter. One rapist with a gun, mind you.

The question must be asked: Have we become, or are we becoming, a nation of cowards?

Or is cowardice a reflection of how isolated, fragmented and alone we have become or sense ourselves to be, owing to the skewed social development path on which we have embarked?

Long ago, one went into any community and paid respects to all and sundry there or one paid with his life or lost one's freedom to incarceration.

Not anymore.

And the perpetrators of heinous crimes have become emboldened. The more decent folk cower, the more criminals will trample us into nothing.

The answer lies first and foremost with our sense of community and of collective responsibility which has to be regained, as suggested by the action of the people of Cane Farm.

And it needs to be taken further beyond philosophy into the realm of structural organisation. This philosophical sense should determine exactly how our communities are set up physically.

The other point to consider is this. The world's most foremost modern democratic nation, the USA, was established on the premise of the right of citizens to bear arms!

Over time, this right has been played down, giving way to the coercive arms of the State and the organised criminal underworld.

Amidst this most advanced infrastructure of the USA, probably the most advanced in the world, life has become much akin to that of the jungle.

The exception is Texas, where the crime rate is the lowest in the USA. The Texans bear arms. Almost every vehicle is outfitted with a loaded rifle.

One Texan said: "My grandma always said it is better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it!"

And the view is extended when they maintain: "God didn't make man equal, Samuel Colt did."

Their history and traditions informed the tenets of their constitution.

Our history is quite different, so we need to look elsewhere.

Our police already have made it clear they will never be inclined to hand out licences for firearms more readily.

Our only recourse is intensified community collective action, that is what Cane Farm tells us, and a more holistic approach to dealing with crime and delinquency.