Zahra Gordon

According to this article [SEE ARTICLE HERE] over the past eleven years, police officers in Trinidad & Tobago have been responsible for 256 murders. Of course, these statistics were gathered from a police service department so I think its fair to doubt them. These statistics also do not include the number of people who were injured by the police (or framed or unlawfully searched or arrested). There is a back log of 1,000 complaints against officers filed with the Crime & Problem Analysis department as of February 2011 according to the article. 

Most recently T&T police officers killed 3 people in one sitting. There was no state of emergency declared and these officers have not even been suspended. What is the difference between the guns owned by police and those by the “criminals”? What is the difference between a police officer killing someone and an “ordinary” citizen killing someone? I do not think that a limited state of emergency will make any impact on the amount of “crime” taking place here. And amid all this talk about crime being gang related there is no mention of the many ways the police service functions as (is?) a gang. 

Below is a list of police killings over the past nine months. It works out to about one person being killed by the police every month. Couldn’t find reports of incidents in February or April but that doesn’t mean there weren’t any. 

December 2010: Suspected Cop-Killer Slain 

January 2011: Vendor Killed in Police Shootout 

March 2011: Arima man killed in police shootout 

May 2011: Man killed in police shootout

June 2011: Activists want commissioner to investigate latest police killing 

July 2011: Police kill 3 in Moruga 

August 2011: Suspected bandit killed in shootout with police

For the next 15 days, these might be some useful/put-things-in-perspective links: 

See Trinidad & Tobago laws on limited state of emergency HERE 

See Amnesty International Annual Report on Trinidad & Tobago (2011) HERE

See what Amnesty International said in 2006: HERE

See what the president signed HERE

*There are “explicit” lyrics in the song below. BUT IT IS FITTING!