Pastor Clive Dottin is urging those working in high risk communities to “display a strong degree of courage” and not allow individuals and their owners to intimidate them.
Speaking to the T&T Guardian in the wake of the attack of Roman Catholic Priest Father Clive Harvey, Dottin said he was “praying to God to protect those of us who work on the ground.”
Both Dottin and Harvey have been doing work in high risk communities such as Sea Lots, Laventille and Gonzales, ministering to young people involved in criminal activities and those who may want to turn their lives around.
Harvey was confronted early Monday by two gun toting men who robbed and tied him up. They told him they were sent to kidnap and kill him.
There were no arrests up to late yesterday as police continue their investigations. Harvey lamented that “stupid little boys” are being used by the bigger criminal element. He saw them as “victims.”
Dottin did not want to put the handle “stupid” on those involved in criminal activity, but he admitted to being concerned that “gang leaders and their thugs are infiltrating secondary schools and setting up cells. We need to address it. Set up a task force to deal with it,” he urged.
He does not believe those involved in the attack were “victims” recalling that he interviewed a 15-year- old boy “who told me he could call the shots.”
Describing the attack on Harvey as one “meant to send a signal,” Dottin said, “Whoever did it must be called to account.”
Asked if he feared a similar attack, Dottin said nothing was impossible but he “walked in faith.”
Head of the Police Youth Club Derrick Sharbodie said he is aware that Dottin had received his “own fair share of threats.”
He said the work of both men in at risk communities is well known.
“I am aware they made serious inroads in terms of handicapping the progress and by extension some of the criminal activities taking place and it had come to a point where, while some of the gangs were happy, others were very displeased.”
Sharbodie said the phone and the money “were all window dressing. The fact that they said he would be kidnapped shows they wanted to take it further.”
He is urging Harvey to “review and revise how he conducts his business in terms of working with the gangs and the groups as he needed a second or third party with him.
Asked what kind of protection is extended to religious leaders who work in the at risk communities, Sharbodie said: “the Commissioner of Police is absolutely clear that the superintendent work close by with the religious leaders so that anywhere they going there is a police presence.”
A similar service, he said, was extended to the now deceased community leader Hal Greaves.
Many times, he added, the police are not visible but they are there because of information which comes to them.
Sharbodie said following the recent incident “we will have to provide some extra form of tactical service as he goes about doing his work, it will be done very inconspicuous so as not to bring attention to him or to make him feel uncomfortable.”
He said: “Father Harvey is somebody of great value and when you have somebody of value bringing that kind of service you have to protect them.”
He commended Harvey for his position that he wanted to meet with the persons who attacked him saying “I think it is an excellent move, he is extending an olive branch, telling them I am not your enemy.”
