Watching a real crime

What can you (safely) say about Trinidad and Tobago’s latest media hero that is not a paean of praise? Crime Watch’s Ian Alleyne prides himself on going boldly where no man has gone before. In this State of Emergency, our police force has only just begun to swoop down on criminals. Not Mr. Alleyne. Every week, armed only with his camera, his zeal, and his apparently inexhaustible testicular fortitude, Mr. Alleyne goes off on a crime safari. ”The hunt is on,” he posts on his Facebook wall. On television, he warns detractors and criminals alike, “When I come after you I will gather dirt from when God was a little boy!”

The public is duly impressed.  I myself am not altogether convinced of his righteousness. I admire Mr. Alleyne’s bravery – he seems to believe that nothing can stop him as he progresses on his march against crime. I completely understand why his programme has created such a stir in our society. We Trinbagonians feel increasingly overwhelmed as successive governments create successive failed strategies to deal with our urgent crime problem. In the midst of our despair, a man has emerged who is, apparently, ruthless and willing to risk his life on our behalf. We are rescued! One person urges on Alleyne’s Facebook fan page, ‘hunt them down!” Another lavishes praise: “Super Hero talk! Go, Captain T & T.”

Heroes are very scarce on the ground in our country, and victims all too plentiful. As I lock myself behind burglar proof bars every evening, I too feel a yearning for action against the criminals who have made Trinidad and Tobago into Dodge City.

But here’s the thing: I think that in Crime Watch Mr. Alleyne has been offered (and has grabbed with both hands) a power that he may now be abusing. As the ‘star’ of a show on one of the country’s most-watched television channels, he has the ear and eye of countless citizens of this country, of all ages. On his Facebook page, messages expressing adulation are posted by teenagers who probably never bother to watch the news. No one can deny that Ian Alleyne has caught the public imagination. Using the leverage bestowed on him by television and social media, he has become one of the most influential men in Trinidad and Tobago today.

So what does Mr. Alleyne do with his power? On one night, he shows us a graphic video of a young girl being violated, all sound effects included. On another, he shows the body parts of a woman who has been dismembered. He prods and pokes the corpse of a murdered woman to demonstrate what he thinks may have happened. The national audience buzzes with satisfaction as he promises to get justice for the victims - but what does that justice cost?

Mr. and Ms. Trinbagonian, do we actually believe that young girl who was raped will be allowed any opportunity to deal quietly with her pain until she can go beyond it? She won't receive justice. Instead, having been raped once, that child will continue to be victimised, thanks to the video that was aired on Crime Watch, and that was later making the rounds on Facebook. The family of the woman who was dismembered must continuously relive the sight of someone they love torn to pieces, as captured by Crime Watch and posted on YouTube. They must deal over and over with the thought of what her last living moments were like. The young woman who was murdered lost her right to respect, even in death, as Mr. Alleyne prodded her corpse to demonstrate his skills of detection to his admiring fans. Whether her murderers are caught or not, she has already been dehumanised and made into a freak show for the gratification of people who never knew her, and some of whom couldn’t care less about her.

We, the viewing public, urgently need to take some time to ask ourselves: are the victims identified by Crime Watch  finding justice, or simply being re-victimised? Who is committing the ultimate injustice against them? The criminals or Crime Watch? And as we make Crime Watch the flavour of this season, aren't we, the audience, being complicit in THAT crime?