Beyond the ‘gang’ label

Life inside a Laventille community shaped by violence, poverty and resilience

Hardship.....

To Fabien, St Barbs is home before it is a headline. Yet he does not deny the hardships facing the community. Instead, he argues that poverty, unemployment and neglect have left many young people with few opportunities. "It does hurt me to see plenty young children ent finishing school, dropping out of school, because their parents can’t feed them, their parents can’t buy books for them, because their parents can’t feed they self too.” He believes many young people are judged long before they are understood. “It have real thing this community need. It have real thing the youth men them need in this community. It have plenty ah dem who finish school and have nowhere to go. It have some ah them, dey mother and dey father, they have nothing. It have some of them mother leave them with dey grandmother. Dey grandmother getting a pension, that can’t even self feed dey grandmother because dah is small money.”

For him, economic hardship can leave people feeling hopeless. “When a man know he don’t have no wuk and he can’t feed he family, boy that will send a man mad boy. That will really make a man want to kill, too. Ah telling yuh. That will make a man really want to kill he self. Like, yuh going out dey and do something, yuh ent care if yuh dead. If you get through, yuh get through.

Beyond Violence

For Grace (alias), the struggle extends beyond violence itself. “It have nothing. It have nothing to eat. No food on the table. Yuh sit down on the chair and you’re wondering. You feel tears coming out of your eyes.” When asked what she would tell a family member becoming involved in crime, emotion overtook her. “I don’t want them in that kind of life, that life is not good, it ent suit them. Try and get some kind of work or some kinda thing. It does make meh... It does. It does.... Allyuh trying to bring back memories, making me feel to cry. Make meh feel to cry. It not easy. It not easy.” Her words reflect the painful reality facing many families in communities affected by gang violence — where loved ones are not only lost to shootings, but also to the pull of criminal life. For Fabien, St Barbs is defined by family, belonging and resilience. For Grace, it is where her grandson’s life ended. Between those two experiences lies a more complicated picture than crime statistics alone can capture. It is one of communities wrestling with poverty, violence and grief while still trying to preserve a sense of home

.............

For over 50 plus years they supported Eric Williams party....

This is the legacy he left them....

Rowley a million dollar pension

They live in poverty....the mother of crime.

A poster claim I hate the African leader....

I despise what he left his own ilk suffering in poverty, violence and poor infrastructure so they cannot get ahead. They depend on 10 day work hand outs as employment as the 1% get richer.😡

..........

Cops promise more patrols after Beetham Highway robbery

One officer in the Port-of-Spain Division said while bandits on the Beetham Highway have typically thrown debris, rubbish and other items near the shoulder of the road to try and get drivers to stop, this was the first time there was a report of a vehicle being used by bandits to get victims to stop. In the most recent incident on Friday night, three people were robbed when they stopped on the eastbound lane of the Beetham Highway after their vehicle came into contact with another car driven by a bandit. According to police, the trio reported feeling their car make contact with another passing vehicle. The driver of the car, reportedly drove alongside the victims and demanded that they pull over, blaming them for the collision. On parking on the shoulder of the Beetham Highway, the man called out to other bandits who beat and robbed the victims, before stealing cash, jewelry and a cellphone.

According to data compiled by the police Crime and Problem Analysis (CAPA) branch, in the Port-of-Spain Division alone, there have been 127 robberies between January 1 to June 22 2026.Of this figure, 13 robberies have led to arrests and charges and have been considered solved. For the same period in 2025, there were 129 robberies, 16 of which were considered solved. “So, in the not-too-distant future, we may see some heightened patrols on both the eastbound and westbound lanes of the highway to provide some coverage and faster response times.”

However, responding to Guardian Media via WhatsApp yesterday, Laventille West MP Kareem Marcelle condemned the robbery and assault, calling for more services to be offered to youth in his community. “It is therefore extremely unfortunate to have a very minor part of our community engaged in such a disturbing act. I condemn this and all types of violence. “I am also renewing my call and advocating for more opportunities for our at-risk youth in our communities and constituency to minimize the risks to violence.”

............. Laventille West MP Kareem Marcelle

 “I am also renewing my call and advocating for more opportunities for our at-risk youth in our communities and constituency to minimize the risks to violence.”

Your party has been in power over the past decade , what did you do for such citizens?

............... Laventille West MP Kareem Marcelle

Marcelle challenged the UNC for associating national crime with PNM areas, highlighting the case of a murdered child to frame the government as callous. He argued that blaming PNM constituencies for crime demonstrated that the administration did not care for, or "HATE[D]" the residents. Marcelle alleged that the UNC administration systematically neglects and holds animosity toward Afro-Trinidadian communities. He stated, "They hate African people, they hate black people, they hate people from Beetham, they hate people from Sea Lots, they hate people from Maloney, they hate people from La Horquetta, they hate people from Train Line, they hate people from Arima, they hate people from Carenage, they hate we." Consequently, he maintained that the people of his constituency would never support the UNC.

“Let me make it clear—we celebrate 70 years as a party this year. Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles has defended Laventille West MP Kareem Marcelle after he accused the United National Congress-led Government of using the PNM label as a racial slur and being hostile towards Afro-Trinidadians. Speaking with reporters outside Parliament in Port of Spain yesterday, Beckles said Marcelle’s comments were misinterpreted and that he was conveying the feeling on the ground in his constituency that the Government does not care about them. Sources within the party said Marcelle’s remarks did not receive universal support

note : look at your PNM party ignoring such citizens for over 50 years.

@sgtdjones

Dude, stop polluting the board with BS. Eric Williams is dead. So too other PMs. What is the current PM doing for the people in these communities you continue to highlight?

@Fantom

I am aware Eric is dead , I am just posting what his legacy left behind.

The PNM left the country near bankruptcy.

If T&T pays off its foreign debt it has no money left.

How can the government help such communities within a year yet your party has been in power for over 50 years and did nothing

Ask your PNM what they did ?

How did their supporters get to live in such poverty?

I await your explanation.

Lets hear your BS...

@sgtdjones

Sgt, my good man, you are not dealing with logic! I shall be concise & say no more.

@sgtdjones

I pointed that out before, the love for negative labels in describing other people, and the contempt that develops in those folks over time. The so-called 1% is experiencing the same kind of branding and stigmatization that the people of Lavantille, Beetham etc experienced over generations. Negative branding and stigmatization of a people can have self fulfilling prophecies, because when the negative branding takes root in society, eventually the people are treated accordingly

The negative stigmatization over time leads to marginal;ization of the society and its people. Soon, all of the rest of the society avoids them. They can't get proper jobs, the better schools avoid taking them in, banks deny them loans and other services to set up businesses. If the just say where they are from, no dice to them.

In the short term, it may it may be seem humorous, but over time, the marginalization leads to resentment, and negative traits develop that affects the whole of society. Violence and poverty are not an overnight thing, it is a reaction to societal marginalization of folks in certain communities, because of certain characteristics that the people did not like those folks for.

Today, having learnt nothing from history, the same folks resort to labelling another group as 1%. This group worked and became rich, and they are persecuted for that. So, the people of Laventille are poor, and you hate them, and blame Eric Williams and Pam for that. The 1% came and became rich, and you hate them for that too. So, what is your problem? You do not love people of Laventille, and you do not love the 1% either. You hate them because you can't control them. You realize that to gain or keep power you must get a substantial amount of votes from either groups, especially those you refer to as the same ilk of the PNM, so wish to inflict guilt and pain. Even as you won the elections, they have not voted for you, they simply abstained from voting to punish the PNM. You are aware that once they vote, that you have no chance. That is hurting you, so you push the narrative that PNM kept them poor. If the PNM kept them poor, make them rich nah.

The stigmatizations that you keep creating to demean other people who do not look like you, would hurt the entire society in the long run. When you divide a society, no one wins. The people that you refer to as 1% today, arrest them and keep them in jail with no evidence to bring charges, do you think that they would come out of this with love in their hearts? The present administration in T&T is one of the worst I have seen in the entire Caribbean, ever. All these distraction tactics to take people off from the poor jobs they are doing would boil over in Venezuela's earthquake fashion. Cut and and paste about the numerous closures all over the place in the energy and related sectors.

.................Facts.

Obviously , no one read what the Laventille community is saying in the lead post. They have no jobs, little education , no infrastructure, no food to feed their young....poverty over the last 60 years with no improvement under the PNM. Read the column .

Where were the Pan Africans over the last decade?

Any percentage should be prosecuted should they be involved in criminal activities. What did Eric Williams call the Indians after he lost the election... "Recalcitrant minority".

The downturn in T&T economy can be related to idiots in the last government. They had 12.5 billion in the HSF and a debt of 75 billion to start a ten year tenure.

When outvoted, today its less than 6 billion and 145 billion in debt.

That tells they borrowed and didn't grow the economy.

Over 500 billion in budgets and look at the poor communities they haven't improved since the 1960's.

It will take approx. 15 billion to service the debt.

Think approx. 50 billion budget, and it will get worst.

A long winded word salad above that I will not read.

Lewwe see who can put 2 and 2 together! Fools, try a good read nah. 😛https://www.bbcearth.com/news/teenage-elephants-need-a-father-figure