Memorial for the murdered
Yesterday, I bumped into a young man on the pavement near the Lapeyrouse Cemetery. We locked eyes. His face was sunken. He looked furious and sad with the kind of redeyed crazed look that could make you cross the street. I said: “Sorry. Are you okay?” He said: “No. I’m hungry. I have no work. You have money?”
I dug into my bag and thrust $20 at him, aware of this paltry offering. He pushed past me roughly into the midday heat, and I to my car.
I thought, there are two T&T’s butting heads. The people with education, jobs, a home, guaranteed meals, and relative safety are pitted against who live in a cavern of poverty, illiteracy drugs, guns and dependency in gang square miles.
Both think the other hedonistic, greedy. Both have a cowboy, video killing game, simplistic belief that crushing the other is the answer.
One draws a gun at a traffic jam. The other contemptuously rolls up their glass at poor boys who, instead of being at school, are hustling at a traffic light.
One side says: “Let’s hope those drug and gun dealing criminals kill one another.” The other says: “Let’s rob those greedy crooks who thief from the small man, who drink bubbly with the people who let the cocaine pass.”
Everyone is dehumanized, raging, grieving.
I think of some memorials to the dead—Washington’s War Memorial, Auschwitz train memorial, New York’s 9/11 memorial with the names of the dead amidst Virgil’s words: “No day shall erase you from the memory of time.” We remember for two reasons. Blood must not be shed again, and every human life is sacred, no matter how ordinary.
Where are our memorials to our dead? Upon request, the Police Commissioner provided me with the names of the 521 murdered in 2018: Lutchman Singh, Brandon aka Chinee Khan, John Ramkissoon, Miguel Simmons, Nikkita Bascombe, Mark Knolly Bascombe, Arisa Vana David, Samuel Shane, Anton aka Young Salick Alleyne, Nazir Mahabub, Unidentified, Inga Schewelt, Jeremy Darrian aka Darko, G5 Stephen, Shaquile Thomas, Kylon John Alexander, Brandon Joseph Khan, Unidentified, Nicholas Hoyte, Andre (Puncheon) Pereira, Devon Hernandez, Joshua Andrews, Keshawn Isaiah Joseph, Jahmai Donaldson, Adrian Akini Wilson, Sheldon Anthony Spring, Lennard De Larosa, Kurt Monticeux, Ashram Persad, Andre (Garlic) Sydney, David Callender, Imani Omar Blackette, Dominic Koon Koon, Negus Thompson, Jamal Joseph, Jerome Ottley, Kenrick aka Turbo Mark, Dave Babwah, Luke Adams, Andre (Zion) Cruikshank, Troy Henry, Keon Walcott, Shaquill Nichols, Derick Lumpress, Andy Bailey, Franklyn Chan, Kerron Michael, Jameel Martin, Sarah Joseph, Garth Sansand, Marvin Johnson, James Wise, Francis aka Franny Stafford, Davindra Boodram, Brent Richardson, Miguel Cruikshank, Keston(Neil) Mayers, Richard Beharry, Ricardo Prescott, Ricky Harripersad, Russell Seaton, Marie Solomon Cain, Akiel Ottley, Kendel Dowden, Junior Weekes, Brian Phillip, Clyde Mitchell, Sean aka Muffy Bowen, Monica Gumbs, Kevin Hamlet, Jeremy Humphrey, Roger Singh, Kevon Robinson, Vishesh Mahabir, Victor Vincent Niblett, Quasse Rodney, Osei Joseph, Che Romeo, Christopher Anthony, Tony aka Strongie, Pancho Queeley, Jason Des Vignes, Vijay Ramjattan, Jason Hayphasing, Joey Ogiste, Gabriel Cupid, Joseph Jamari, Keewan Marine, Kevin Horsford.
I quickly ran out of space. I would need an entire page per year. Ten pages for ten years of the dead. This ‘memorial’ is insubstantial. We need walls and walls of space for the names of our dead.
On my way home through Woodbrook, I saw police, I see a covered body on De Verteuil Street. Another murder on a bright morning on a regular street.
Unless we look at the circumstances around every murdered person in T&T, really look; unless citizens, governments and armed forces at every level insist on governance, decent institutions, education and protection of the vulnerable, unemployed men, young boys and women; transparency, universal civic duty to fellow citizens and zero tolerance on the influx of drugs and guns, our streets will flow with the blood of quickly forgotten citizens and then we the living (fingers crossed) citizens will become less human with each passing day. From 2009 to 2018, 4,418 people were murdered in T&T.
T&T has the highest rates of murder in a non-warring country worldwide. Despite spending the highest per capita on crime T&T has among the lowest detection rates in the region.