Big Fish, Small Fish....

We are dealing with so many things in the national conversation simultaneously that it is getting harder and harder to decide what to write. Take this week for example, we are dealing with (all at one time) the urgent need for Dangerous Dog legislation to save lives, the legitimacy of this State of Emergency, the uncharacteristically yet very noticeably silent PNM (despite all hot spots being PNM constituencies), among others still vying for expression space, but the one topic that seems to be holding the most traction since the start of this exercise has been the issue of big fish small fish where raids and arrests are concerned.

Divided almost clearly along political and racial lines, there are many who see this State of Emergency as targeting black ghetto youth almost exclusively while ignoring the Big Fishes in society. To hear them speak the lack of raids in affluent and upscale communities beg many questions, and in these instants and for the purposes of this war on crime state of emergency, i want to ask, who or what constitutes a big fish?

This is the same country where eight hundred million dollars worth of cocaine was seized in a raid on Monos Island not that long ago which resulted in the successful prosecution and jailing of a handful of gardeners and fishermen. This is also the country where four billion dollars worth of the drug began its journey to the UK before it was intercepted by international forces, yet to my mind no one has been held accountable for that crime. There was also the comical 'finding' of a multi million dollar quantity of marijuana at an upscale automobile dealership recently, and like the 'discovery' of the twenty one million dollar drug haul at Piarco last month, only minnows and laborers have so far been made to account.

To my mind and correct me if I'm wrong, the closest this country has come to being able to put a face and a name to illegal drugs and firearms was when the police, in the process of searching the premises for documents for a fraud case against him, found an alarming stash of high powered automatic weapons and exotic drugs as well as complex sex toys at the home of contractor Hafeez Karamath now deceased. That case is said to be before the court, but to cynics in this country that means that it is going nowhere.

To clear up some of this confusion where fish size is concerned, let us put the conversation out there for everyone to weigh in on and hopefully guide the government in their pursuit of a crime free T&T:

For example, corrupt Businessmen whose wealth are overwhelmingly disproportional to their capacity to earn, are they fish? If yes, what size, or should it depend on the size of their fortune?

Corrupt (rogue) police officers and soldiers, are they fish? And if so, big fish or small fish?

Abu Bakr and the members of the Jamaat, long suspected of being involved in the drug trade as muscle and intermediaries, are they fish also?

Can government officials on the take, corrupt Judges, Magistrates and lawyers be classified as fish? I would think based on their ability to frustrate the intention of justice they could be medium sized if not large fish, but i am willing to be guided if I am mistaken.

While it is becoming clear that from a criminal justice point of view there are many different sizes of fish to pursue, if each of these categories have their own 'big fish,' I (like many, many others) would like to ask, why not start from the top of the criminal tree?

Why not go after the big daddies in the drug trade (which seems to be the source of most of our criminal enterprise and its associated violent response), those capable of financing, planning and executing multi million dollar deals while mopping up the soldiers, the hitters and the cleaners simultaneously?

Shouldn't a well reasoned, well planned anti crime operation that was launched with such draconian measures as a State of Emergency target the entire underworld and not just one class of fish?

In my opinion any action against crime is good action and i need to say this clearly, but if you do not cut down the evil tree from its root, what is the point of disposing of the low hanging fruit? 

Trinidad is a small country, and while we may not have evidence to prove who is doing what, everybody seems to know who is doing what and we know that the government knows also. If they (the government) are unable to pass and enforce legislation that prevents the movement of drugs through this country, and if they cannot prevent the illegal enrichment through the proceeds of the narco-enterprise (money laundering etc), then what is the point of the pretense?  

Regardless of size or class the government should be encouraged to target ALL fish in the criminal ocean, or what we would have had here at the end of however long this exercise takes is nothing more than a hastily planned, poorly orchestrated PR stunt that did nothing of any real and lasting value for the country and would have just distressed an entire population of people for no good reason.