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Former Police Commissioner Gary Griffith says 55 more murders occurred since he left office when compared to the same period last year.Responding to a newspaper report which said there hasn’t been a spike in murders in the last ten weeks, Griffith disputed assertions that COVID 19 and lockdowns were responsible for the drastic drop in crime and murders in 2020."For the first seven months of 2021, we had fewer murders than we had for the same period in 2020. In the 10 weeks or so since my contract ended, there have been 55 more murders for the same period last year," Griffith added.

He also said, "In 18 months, or the second half of my contract, from January 2020 - July 2021, there was a 30 per cent drop in murders for the same period before, which represents fewer murders; 150 in 2020 and 50 in 2021."He further contended, "If there were fewer murders in the second half of my contract, and 55 more than the previous year since I’ve not been there, isn’t that a spike?"

He explained that more murders for 10 weeks are almost one more murder a day than for the same time last year.
"If that isn’t a spike, then what is a spike?"He added, "Fifty-five more murders for the last 10 weeks, but we are still battling Covid, we still have lockdowns and we still have a curfew. How could those conditions be responsible for the low numbers in the last half of my contract, the previous 18 months, but not in the last ten weeks?"

This man will never learn, he talks too bloody much that’s why he’s in the position he’s in today. if he had control over his tongue he would still be in the top spot waiting to be reinstated, but just like a foolish dog,he barks at every flying bird.

and how many more guns on the street?

Thursday’s daring robbery of a cigarette van in Valencia, in which a security guard was murdered in an ambush, should serve as a wake-up call to the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service which has boldly declared that there has been no spike in murders.

Over the last few weeks, there have been numerous reports of murders in several communities throughout the country.

This week alone there were over a dozen murders, which meant families were left in grief, more lives violently snatched away, and an already traumatised nation left to witness more bloodletting.

This is why the statement from the Police Service seems both insensitive and more than a little out of touch with what is taking place in the country and citizens’ growing concerns about the state of lawlessness in the country which seems to be heading to pre-pandemic days.

Even the statistics quoted by the Police Service show that murders are on the rise.

In its statement issued on Wednesday, the TTPS said: “The murder toll for 2019 was 439, it was reduced in 2020 to 340, and it currently stands at the same figure (340) for 2021.”

But with two months of the year still to come, it is evident more violence is on the horizon and something must be done to curtail it.