I hate to say this but if you stay quiet you are empowering the criminals and they will just shoot you later because they want you shoes. So you might need to report and move. After all what good is it to live only to have your children prisoner by the same crime lords.
Never easy to chose one way or the other. All I know is when I die I have to answer for all my inaction as well as actions.
I would tell the police. While they may not do anything about it at least you know in your mind that you did the right thing by not allowing these thugs to get by with it. If they come back for you are you really in any more danger than you are right now. IF you do not report them you empower them like Krakyn said. They will just do worse and worse things and as long as they are not stopped they will come for your stuff too.
Name: Destiny
Comments: Tell the police and then what? I do believe it's my duty to report criminal activities but it's my life and my family lives what will be endangered. When a member of my family is murdered, all they will get is a headline on the news and a place in the murder rate!
To those outside the realms of Trinidad & Tobago, you have to understand that this question has a lot more to it than simply should I tell or stay quiet. First of all, were I in the US I would be more confident of telling because there are resources in place to take care of my family and myself (witness protection, cops that act quickly, surveillance methods, etc). In Trinidad it is another story. Witnesses are actually targeted for death and when they cannot reach them they go for their family. Now answer honestly... you are in some kind of witness protection program, a primitive one at best, where you hear that they shot your wife, beat up your children and the police say they cannot do anything about it... what would you do?
To add to this, the system is such that cases drag on for years and the likelihood of the accused actually being put away is slim because the case ends up being thrown out for lack of evidence or poor reporting / case finding on the part of the police, etc. A lot of citizens also feel that sometimes you go to the police and you end up really passing the info to the criminals because of the number of bad cops in the force.
Lastly, I have written encounters within this Board about working to catch criminals with the police or how the police handled cases. A read of these will put you up on the weight of that question.