Crime in the Caribbean
Trinidad & Tobago: Tourist beware, caution required on beaches
You often read in the press of incidents happening in places where you think you would be free of such. You go with your family and friends to a beach promoted to be the most beautiful and enjoy the ambiance it offers. The thought that predators actually lurk there is furthest from your mind.
That freedom that I grew up with, that I expressed to others, that I felt was part of the blessings of my land ceased to exist when on December 31, 2009, Old Year’s Day, I was assaulted with intent to rape along the Pigeon Point stretch known as The Swallows.
zI had left my family and camera crew at the hotel and gone down to the beach to shoot additional footage for an upcoming eco-tourism/conservation series on television.
They were all accustomed over the years to me disappearing with my camera during the early morning when everyone was still asleep. You do get the best nature shots during the early morning and late afternoon.
That morning, I sat in my vehicle, windows up and doors locked, watching as joggers passed, security personnel passed, and two or three other vehicles passed. At 6.30 a.m. as I picked up my camera from the front seat and opened the door to alight, this man jumped inside my door and stuck the most menacing blade I had ever seen to my throat. The sheer length and thickness of that blade made me go weak at once. I think that my heart stopped beating for a few seconds.
He said, ’Don’t move, don’t move,’ in a threatening tone as I came out of my initial shock. He then ordered me out of the vehicle, ’Come out, come out!’
I started to beg him not to kill me, to just take anything, everything. My camera, phone, purse were all within sight and reach but he only concentrated on me.
He further pressed the knife against my throat and ordered me out, ’Ah say come out now!’ in that unmistakable Tobagonian twang. My whole life flashed before me as I slowly got out of the vehicle. My children did not even know where I was and how would they take this if the man killed me and my body turned up days later. This could not be happening to me. No, not in this beautiful sunlit place where so many people had just passed by. But it was happening.
The man then stuck the blade into my back and ordered me to walk away from the vehicle and down the road. He gripped my left arm with his left hand while he kept the knife in the small of my back with his right. I managed to look back at my vehicle expecting to maybe see other men ransacking it, but there was no one else. I had a good look at the man then as he walked with me. The sight of his bare face and that blade is now emblazoned on my memory forever.
He forced me to walk a couple hundred feet down the road. I tried to keep to the middle of the road for fear that he would force me into the sea on my right or into the bushes on my left. My fear was not unfounded.
Comments
I think the problems with such high crime rates in Trinidad has to do with the people that enforce the law.I don't think that they are doing a very good job.First of all there should be more severe penalty for crimes.Too many people commit crimes in Trinidad and they pay little penalty for that crime, what about putting them in jail and throwing the keys away.Law makers should make the penalty for committing a crime so fearful,that no one,no one in Trinidad and Tobago,will ever think about committing a crime.
This was such a dreadful crime and my heart goes out to you both.
I, too, was the victim of violent crime in Tobago in 2008, a home invasion sexual assault while on holiday. It shattered my life. I have a new life now, but it has been a long time coming.
Hmmm...I loved growing up in Trinidad.
however I have not visited there for 13 years. Why?
Family members murdered
Family members attacked
Friends murdered
Friends attacked
When one hears one's relatives in TnT state that over the last 13 years they personally know 16 people who have been killed one realizes that there is a major problem there.
We are not talking about the gang wars and the gang killings. We are talking about decent people who have been kidnapped. attacked in their homes or in their cars. A lot of these attacks are unreported in the news.
A relative has a store in Trinidad. Just the other day he was there with his assistant. A lady customer came in and they all got talking...My relative and his assistant had both lost a brother to murder and so had the lady customer ..all within the last 13 years...Now that is not coincidence. This is just how it is....rampant killings.
Be warned. This is not a case of the media exaggerating......
The violence is everywhere, not just the Caribbean islands, not just Mexico, but even normally safe Europe has a travel warning, and the daily US news is filled with drive-by shootings, mall shootings and the ever present school shootings as well as sex offenders. Since I have tourism businesses in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico and am President of the local hotel and motel association,(past local SKAL president also), my concern is the overplay the media has done to the perception of violent crime "everywhere" in our state. Most Americans are "fearcotting" Mexico, in spite the fact that no innocent people have been shot this year in Tijuana, only 2 last year and 4 the year before. This is a fortunate record that neither Los Angeles nor nearby San Diego have. But I believe the main threat for tourism is global terrorism that focuses on killing innocent victims, not our drug cartel war that focuses on killing each other, not tourists that are their potential customers. It is sad that a limited amount of thugs and sex offenders have ruined the great images of great vacations for so many
It has been a year nursing my husband who while on holiday on Tobago he was sliced across the top of his head by a man wielding a cutlass. The cutlass entered 2 inchs into his brain and left him brain damaged. The man hit him a further three times slicing his nose off, cutting his left eye out and then smashing his front teeth into the back of his mouth. I tried to protect my husband who was bleedin profusly from his head wound when the assailant hit me with the cutlass across the bridge of my nose to the corner of my mouth thus I had to hold my face on. We will never be able to have another vacation as my husband can not travel now but we live every day with the scars of that dreadful day tn Tobago. I am frightened to give my details as I will need to return for the trial and I read often what happens to whitnesses
i used to own a gun for sport practice and competing in local target clubs.NOW i need it for another purpose.i live in trinidad where the house is locked up.going to the shops is a chore going out at night is no longer exciting,as the first thing on yr mind is security.this violence is something for the big cities. but drug crime is everywhere and until we all stand up and take responsibility it will grow.
we must stop looking at users as'ill'as its an addiction they cannot control.they chose that first drug they play a major part of the the crimescene of supply and demand,they will rob, rape, murder.THEY R OUR FAMILY MEMBER,OUR NEIGHBOUR,OUR FRIEND.they r all around us.unfortunately here we do not trust the police.we feel they r part of the corruption within the drug/crime world.they r paid a pittance to protect the population so therefore bribes r 1st nature not 2nd.recent cases involving the lose of cash and the finding of weapons in roofs of police stations with no one accountable is an example of the acceptance/tolerance that trini's live with.they DO NOT WILL NOT stand up and say ENOUGH.so do trin's get what they deserve some might say yes,this island is beautiful,most of it's people r the same,we must be able to root out the rotten and grow a more stable society for the future of our children .i want to stay here but not in daily fear.so please let me have my gun,put the power back in my hand and let me start to chase these crime lords to the nearest jail.
These sort of crimes will go on as long as people stick their heads in the sand and claim Tobago is safe, and anyone who is attacked must have somehow done something stupid. On one Tobago tourist website someone put this comment in response to complaints about the high level of violence and sex attacks saying the sex attacks were "not to visitors on major beaches, but on deserted beaches and into som discos, because many femals doesn´t understand the different between a "local macho-man" in W.I. and men in common in Europe". With this sort of attitude, what can be done about lowering the attack levels.
How sad it is that a few thugs are ruining the very industry that is so important to us in the Caribbean. I am so sorry for the writers unfortunate experience and hope that she was not badly hurt, thought the mental scars will remain forever. I also hope that the perpetrator of this ungodly crime is brought to justice and is used as an example to all other potential criminals out there to show that this is unacceptable behaviour in our islands. When travel advisories are issued against one island- all suffer. Put an end to this crime wave now before all our livelihoods are destroyed.
I am ashamed to say that this is what the island that I was born and raised in has come to.
My childhood was one where we were carefree and allowed to roam the neighbourhood barefooted and without adults to care for us once they knew where we were...the older children looked out for the younger ones. We did not live in houses with wrought iron burglar proofing and very often did not even lock the front door at night....crime was not a big issue....now it is the main issue and despite the burglar proofing and security measures that would satisfy any insurance company, we are not safe even in our own homes any more.
The present government continues to deny or has chosen to ignore the escalating crime probnem that prevails in both Trinidad and Tobago.
These island are absolutely beautiful and so are their people..... unfortunately it is the few rotten apples that are spoiling the island's good name.....time to weed them out!!!!!!!
Post new comment