(Trinidad Express)
PORT OF SPAIN – A national crisis. That is how Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has described the unacceptable level of criminal conduct in the country.
Speaking at the People’s National Movement (PNM) special convention at the St John’s Ambulance Brigade Hall, in Port of Spain on Sunday, Rowley said with 122 murders to date, if it continued unabated, the country could be looking at 500 murders for 2016.
He said for those who felt that they could make this a political issue and talk about the Government and the Minister of National Security: “I am putting it to you today that that level of unacceptable conduct is a national crisis.”
The Prime Minister said this was why the Government brought to the Parliament amendments to the Strategic Services Agency and Interception of Communications bills in order to give the SSA greater scope, authority and ability to get involved in collecting information about people who are intent on committing crimes.
Noting that the Opposition was opposing the move, Rowley said: “We invite the Opposition to join us in the battle against the criminals and with or without them, we are going to go ahead and pass that law.”
The Prime Minister said this was the same legislation that the People’s Partnership brought in 2010 and passed with the support of the PNM Opposition, “and to hear them today raising concerns and questions about who will spy on whom”.
Recalling that Kamla Persad-Bissessar had told the country in 2010 that she found evidence of the Manning government spying on a whole range of people, Rowley said, when called upon to produce that evidence, the People’s Partnership Government said “the files had disappeared with some Israelis”.
“What we do know is that the files went down to Siparia on request and people whose names went down there, officers of State who were trained to go and get information on criminal conduct before the crime is committed, all of them were dismissed,” Rowley said, adding that the State had to pay millions to these people.
Rowley said his Government was prepared to do what has to be done to deal with the crime situation. He said addressing the problem of the low detection rates was high on the Government’s priority list.
“You cannot have a detection level, in the face of a killing spree like this, of nine, ten, 12 per cent. The criminals know that the odds are in their favour. We have to improve that,” he said.
He said while the focus was on firearms as the item of choice for murderers, and efforts had been concentrated on trying to get firearms off the street, what was alarming to him within recent times was a number of other situations, including the use of strangulation and gasoline as weapons of murder.
I would like to point out that this “King Kong” made a comment which has a veiled threat of violence on black people:
“KingKong April 7, 2016 at 5:24 pm
fools like you encourage this kind of behavior–rob me and you smell daisy–period no if or buts–”
This person replied to someone’s comment accusing the original poster of committing robbery, when he/she was only lamenting about how female pedophiles of Caucasian descent are the ones dictating laws abroad which criminalizes teenagers.
I urge the admins to report King Kong’s comment to the local authorities because he/she uttered threats to another person.
parrot put the stats here your overwhelming stats where your people were jailed and came out to be drs – lawyers / scientists …you gus go in there as criminals and come out bigger and better criminals– you want things in life then work and smell your stink sweat for it and stop crying about others doing this that the other bad thing to you.
What a dumb analogy..and your are a bigot and a racist—this is what happened when kids are born out of wedlock and do not know who daddy even the mama does not know–fools like you encourage this kind of behavior–rob me and you smell daisy–period no if or buts–
T&T PM says crime at ‘crisis’ level…122 murders to date
Proven track record they can run country down..
How come this fool can’t control things the ppl thought he is the best thing ever to grace the land so they elected him–now the man crying out –who will he blame now–you cant do the get the hell out!!!!!!!!!
Is it a co-incidence that Trinidad and Tobago was forced last year to increase their age of sexual consent from 16 to 18 and now crime has skyrocketed?
How many of these violent criminals are sexually frustrated young men who were told by old white women who display their nudity around little kids, that “If you are 18-years-old and you like a 17-year-old, you are a child predator”, thus causing the need for these young men to vent out of their sexual frustrations by committing violent crime, just like in the Western-occupied Middle East where thousands of unmarried young men are lured into joining terrorist groups in order to access the vagina by force and power?
What about if those criminals were in jail because they were 18 and their sexual partner was 16, and now, with their lives ruined, they have no choice but to commit crime in order to survive?
These are the questions one should ask before criminalizing the young, because hard criminals never had a chance in life to succeed or develop themselves.
This is exactly why I don’t tend to involve police if a non-white boy picks my pocket or steals my expensive shoes. I would rather cuss him up and tell him it’s wrong than to give him a criminal record or get him known by police, because one day he might become a doctor or lawyer, but if he doesn’t get the chance, he might become a violent criminal who murders people.