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  • 2 days ago
Deepening the discussion on the Zones of Special Operation, we are joined by author, writer, activist and Nation of Islam Leader Dr David Muhammad.
Transcript
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00:22on the zones of special operations we are joined by also writer activist and
00:29nation of islam leader dr david mohammed good evening dr mohammed and thank you for joining us
00:35good evening it's a pleasure to be on so how do you feel about this proposal to instead of the soe
00:43replace it with this still very vague zone legislation yeah well this approach seems to be
00:53one of those strategies that is agreed with by both sides of our political divide going back to
01:02some proposals that were made around 2017 and also in emulating jamaica who interestingly have had
01:12a remarkable reduction in their murders for 2025 as a matter of fact recently we've been crossing 600
01:21they have just gone over 700 down from over a thousand and their population is double ours
01:28my concern however is that i would like for these zones to be selected based on real and actual current
01:42crime rates and statistics rather than on past stigma reputation fear or suspicion of these communities
01:54and these real and actual crime rates and statistics must also include white collar crime if there's any
02:02other approach to selecting communities based on what happened five or ten years ago and the way that
02:10people subjectively feel about particular communities then um i don't think that that would work
02:17so what areas immediately come to mind when you heard of this suggestion
02:21geographically speaking the only areas that i would entertain a thought about would be those specific
02:33communities where there have been an alarming increase in actual crime rates i don't want to give examples
02:43of communities that are but i could more speak and i'm more willing to speak on communities that are not
02:51for example based on recent releases by the ttps regarding the number of gangs in each police division
03:00it was noted that the largest number of gangs are no longer in port of spain they're in west trinidad
03:09and so if white collar crime is included as part of the consideration for what a zone of special
03:17operation must be then we have to be completely objective about defining and redefining areas so
03:25i would say for example persons who consume or sell on street corners illegal narcotics
03:35those areas must be considered no more dangerous than other areas where residents may own and control
03:45large businesses and be responsible for the direct importation of illegal narcotics circulation of illegal
03:52illegal weapons and also money laundering through big businesses we tend to only redefine a dangerous
04:00community by the visibility and also the media sensationalization of the acts that specific residents in those
04:08communities commit so if we are honest open realistic and take a full view of the complete spectrum then i think that should be the
04:18guidance for which we prescribe these zones i mean you touched a bit on this a little bit earlier but
04:24how are we going to formalize these marginalized communities as hotspots without adding to the stereotypes
04:33well by simply making reference exclusively to the actual fact so for example
04:42the laventill community has had a overwhelmingly significant reduction in murders but yet still the stigma may remain because of how the area is treated
04:59ideologically in conversations about crime so i don't think we should consider the views feelings and sentiments and attitudes that
05:10people have about an area we should be factual about the actual numbers and statistics the quantitative data that is coming out of these areas and there are many parts of trinidad
05:22right now that have some out-of-control crime rates that still do not have that stigma i think that communities like that should be sooner prescribed the status of a zone of special operation than one that has been in the
05:40that may have cleaned up changed transformed to some degree but again the reputation still lingers on so you're saying it should be data driven
05:52yes it must be data driven and also there must be strength in the machinery in the system to engage
06:00in again open-mindedness and to refrain from racial profiling youth stereotyping and area of residence discrimination
06:12and be guided accordingly and in the same way that for example i mean i've been talking a lot about the glasgow model i traveled recently to scotland to interview police officers
06:21on the most successful crime reduction plan that the world has known going back 20 years to glasgow and one difference
06:32i think in those kinds of societies to ours is for example in the early 1990s there was the stephen lawrence murder
06:42right i myself attended the court hearings back in 1998 in london
06:49but there was a commission of inquiry into the racial profiling and stereotyping of members of the
06:54metropolitan police subsequently the macpherson report was released in 1999 where it was found that
07:03there was institutionalized racism in the processes of stopping and searching which led to inaccurate and
07:10faulty conclusions where multiple cases that were referred to the courts had to end up being thrown out the
07:17the difference in our society is i think that from the mcpherson report came the phillips and bowling
07:28report on policing in 2012 there was the sharpened bud policing on ethnicity in 2005 and they actually
07:35change they actually introduce new policies based on old mistakes they actually accept newly introduced
07:45guidance in the form of data-driven reports and actually make the necessary transformations and
07:51get rid of the bad eggs in the system and then move forward i think we tend to be a little bit more
08:00stubborn sometimes when errors are highlighted within the system and there's sometimes a willingness to
08:07cover them up rather than to admit defeat and change them so i know this can work but these are
08:14my concerns regarding it so you would have mentioned the model that was used in jamaica and you would have
08:21mentioned this the success of that model but it also came with some heavy criticism as it related to human rights
08:29infringements etc so what do you think that we in trinidad can do to ensure that that does not happen here
08:35well the success that i attributed to a model was to glasgow scotland not so much jamaica they were
08:44successful in reduction statistically glasgow scotland which i prefer to use as a template that is directly
08:53applicable to our situation took an approach where crime was not seen exclusively as a national security
09:01problem but it was seen as a societal problem whereby we had to get all social agencies and institutions
09:10involved in the reform in particular of the segments of the population that were finding themselves
09:16troubled and at risk so the churches got involved the religious community got involved the police of
09:22course were already involved but the schools through the parents teachers associations also got involved
09:27the sports clubs the football associations as well as businesses there were apprenticeships being
09:34offered by entrepreneurs to give young people opportunities to take them off the street and remove
09:40those at-risk elements that have a direct impact on their at-risk status such as broken homes faulty parenting
09:49dysfunctional families poverty and unemployment negative peer group influences such as gangs and educational
09:55people underachievement the society not just the police and the courts but the entire society have the shared
10:03collective responsibility to intervene on whatever levels they can to bring about a multi-pronged approach
10:13and i sincerely believe that is the only formula for success so if the police are doing their part that is good
10:22but we in the community also have to do our part but both parts must be in collaboration and cooperation
10:30with one another so that they can amplify the success incrementally on both sides okay well thank you very much
10:39dr muhammad for joining us tonight to provide your insight on this uh developing matter thank you thank you
10:46still to comment
10:51you
10:53you
10:53you
10:57you
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