Soldiers abducting civilian minors?

“With both hands tied behind their backs, two friends were shot dead and their bodies dumped in a citrus plantation, miles away from their homes.

They were snatched while walking along Coffee Street, San Fernando, on Saturday night and bundled into a seven-seater van. An hour before, three teenagers had also been abducted by men reportedly wearing soldier uniforms, beaten and dropped off at various locations, police said.”

The three teens were all 17 years old. Legally, they are all minors. They were beaten, and dropped off at various locations. Reportedly by soldiers in uniform!

Now one must not believe everything reported in a newspaper, but there were witnesses, this time. Our soldiers, whose purpose is “…to provide a safe and secure environment for the well being of all citizens…” Hmmmmm.

Will we become like Argentina, during their ‘dirty war’, with civilians that ‘disappeared’, courtesy the military?

So now the citizenry must not just protect ourselves against rampaging murderous criminals and police ‘stray’ bullets, but also our own soldiers too! Incredible. In 2006, TT Defence Force soldiers were charged with kidnapping and murder. Time for the population to be armed, in an orderly manner, with the appropriate training and safeguards. If the bulk of the law-abiding population is armed (or at least assumed to be) then day-to-day interaction with those charged with our safety, security and wellbeing will be more pleasant, polite and–at the very least–professional.

We should not continue to beg to be treated right. We must create the environment to ensure that it happens. Deal with others exactly as they are, not how we would like them to be. So if rogue police officers and soldiers act like criminals, then we must treat them as such. And by ‘we’, I mean the citizenry. Don’t expect their colleagues to do for us, what we must do for ourselves.