STEVE ALVAREZ

THERE ARE some things that, if they were not real and negatively affecting the lives of people, they would be funny. I can just imagine someone living in a country that effectively manages its water distribution laughing at our inability to fix two leaks along Panka Street in St James that have been pouring thousands of gallons of water into the drain for more than two months.

Perhaps the most recent funny incident is that of asking citizens, in a country with over 500 murders a year and a plethora of robberies and home invasions, to apply to use pepper spray on possible criminal elements. Pepper spray that can be made by simply placing pepper sauce in a spray bottle. The Government requires citizens seeking that method to protect themselves to apply for a permit to do so.

What is more laughable is that, according to the media reports, 384 people applied and only 38 were approved. So, one can conclude that someone somewhere thought that 346 applicants were not sufficiently at risk to be allowed to use a spray that at best produces a burning sensation to possible attackers. That is, if one is lucky enough to be able to spray the "sauce" into their face.

This, however, points to a more serious issue. That is the Government's failure to offer citizens an opportunity to protect themselves from criminal elements. The Government has made it close to impossible for a homeowner to own a firearm.

That matter can easily be fixed by passing legislation that allows homeowners to own firearms and keep them for home protection only. As in some states in the US, these firearms can only be transported to the range for practice and cannot be on one's person. In transportation, the gun must be in the trunk and the ammunition in the glove compartment. The aim is to let citizens protect their homes from criminal elements.

In TT, not only do we make such protection near impossible, but the Government also fails in doing the simple things, like issuing licence plates so that one can discern a genuine plate from a false plate put in place for criminal activity. Gun courts for people arrested with illegal firearms, expeditious ballistic testing, revision of tints for vehicles so that one can see into them, and structured police patrols for rapid response are ignored as possible solutions that can help reduce crime.

One can almost conclude that it seems like there is an encouragement of criminal activity. Failed efforts to block telephone calls from prison, access to bail for gun possession, rushing to raid stored weapons rather than waiting for the criminals to seek to retrieve them and arrest them when they are in possession all seem to pander to the criminal elements.

There must be a serious approach to dealing with crime.

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