An Attitude Portrait of Trinidad

Someone told me recently that they passed by Broadway when a team of police and licensing officers were pulling drivers off the road and making them strip the dark tints off their vehicles.

As he passed, they were frisking one man while ensuring that his passenger removed the dark tint from the car’s windows.

An observer exclaimed, ‘People rapin’ and murderin’ we 8 year old girls and de best ting all yuh could do is hassle a man for his tint?’

The officers ignored the complainers in the crowd, and went about the task of pulling over other drivers and charging them for various offences.

Why did that person complain? Weren’t the police just trying to do their jobs?

I think that the criticism of the police (in this case) was wrong. We’ve gotten waaay too slack in TnT. We’ve allowed ourselves to get numb to the little things. What was wrong is now very much right.

“So whaz de big deal if dey have dark tint? Why de Police fighting down de youths so?”

Did the complainer ever stop to think that the dark tint could be hiding guns or illegal drugs, or maybe one of their own female relatives/friends in the back seat?

There were a few cases where women waiting on taxis got snatched off the streets, sometimes even in broad daylight.

The Police’s problem is that they’ve the ‘little things’ slide for too long, without proper enforcement.

The ‘little things’ (like littering, dark tints, etc) became the routine things.

Those routine things (like taking a ‘PH’ taxi) became the normal things to do. More so as the police either hadn’t sufficient manpower… or the zeal… to nip the trends in the bud.

I find it ironic that Trinbagonians are straight like a pins when we visit the USA or the UK though. We won’t even throw our dinnermint wrappers on the pavement, or cross against the traffic lights! And there’s not even a police officer or a camera in plain view to keep us in line!

Why don’t we behave like that when we’re home?

😥