Where once I rolled marbles and dice, there is now misery and murder

I was on my way to the airport after interviewing the assistant commissioner of police in Trinidad. An occupant of the car received a call on his mobile phone that a young man from a working-class suburb had been shot.

He was the third victim of gun murder in two days. We raced to the scene, charged through a maze of alleyways to find Gavin sprawled on the floor of his humble dwelling.

Blood was pouring from his chest, the life slowly draining from his body; his girlfriend had a hole in her leg and an 18-month-old baby had been shot through the arm. There was blood everywhere and its smell, mixed with the stench of open drains, hangs in my nostrils as I write.

It was around this issue of urban mayhem that I had spoken for more than two hours with the commissioner. Much of the warfare takes place in Laventille, a suburb of Port of Spain, where migrants from smaller islands such as St Vincent and Grenada settled more than a hundred years ago. My grandfather was one.

A lower middle class of teachers and other small-time professionals kept the children of these migrants civilised. They have moved out to fairer pastures, leaving young drifters under the heels of criminal dons. The police commissioner sees a state of emergency as the only solution.

Now that his men have learnt the terrain and intelligence has been gathered, all is ready for an invasion of Laventille, detaining scores without trial; there will be casualties on both sides, he said, "just like Baghdad".

I recalled his words after we had taken the gunshot victims to hospital. I retraced my steps through the area. Here I grew up, lost my virginity round the back of the local school, pitched marbles and played dice and cards, took my first test in bolero dance.

All that healthy past has degenerated into blood. The war against crime in this land has to be won lest. The assistant commissioner studied at Bramshill College in the UK; may his learning serve a righteous cause.

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