What is Happening to Our Safety and Security

The Murder Toll Has Crossed 300 in 167 Days:
What is Happening to Our Safety and Security
 “If a man with an automatic weapon spray a crowd of innocent people trying to kill somebody, and you end up killing three people, and four almost got killed, and others could have been killed, this indiscriminate killing – isn’t that what terrorism is? Indiscriminate killing of innocent participants, that’s what it is.” – PM Rowley on I 95.5

Last week, the Prime Minister and Head of the National Security Council expressed his indignation at the ‘indiscriminate killing’ which he labelled ‘terrorism’.
That was in response to the mass shooting of 6 people, 3 killed on the Chaguaramas boardwalk.
The Minister of National Security, Ag. Commissioner of Police, Williams and Head of Defence Force held a media conference to condemn the killings and promise ‘heightened joint security presence ..during the holidays…as a deterrent’.
This ‘joint approach will give citizens a sense of security’, the Minister promised.
This kind of media conference and promise of greater joint presence or military presence in communities, etc. has become routine since the first killing of a pair of school youth in uniform in Laventille. They have been repeated with the slaughter of another school boy in that area and every time there is a new flare up in the killing spree in Enterprise or other ‘hot spot’.
The Prime Minister and Minister Dillon have repeatedly told us that Government does not fight crime. The Police is the principal crime-fighting security agency and the ‘law enforcement agencies’ are the ones who will deal with crime.
Sadly, all these pronouncements have not provided any let up in the ‘indiscriminate killing of innocent persons’ the PM called terrorism seven days ago when an 8-year-old was among the critically wounded.
Our Right to Safety and Security Must be Guaranteed
If guaranteeing the Right to Safety and Security of Citizens is not the responsibility of the Government, then can the PM explain to us why his party included a 10-point Crime Plan in its Manifesto in 2015; why he and his National Security Minister address the nation after every murderous mass killing and offer “solution”?
Or, why is Ministry of National Security launching ‘The National Crime Prevention Programme’ tomorrow (July 18) replete with speeches by the PM, Senior and Junior National Security Ministers?
We do not need assurances of ‘a sense of security’ from the Government.
We need our Right to Safety and Security guaranteed!
So, after 300 murders in 167 days (according to media tallies), after ‘terrorist’ killers easily escaped a location with one road in and out, a nearby police post and police station along the road, are we to seriously think that another ‘Crime Prevention Programme’ will make it any safer for citizens in their homes, in public areas like the boardwalk, or anywhere?
Will there be new performance targets for the Police in terms of:

• Response Time to Citizens’ calls for help
• Detection Rates
• Conviction Rates?

Round 3 of Commissioner Nomination Friday
Or will the 3rd round of Nomination by the House of Representatives on Friday, July 20, produce Point 1 of the Party-in-Power’s 10-point Crime Plan – Appointment of a Commissioner of Police.
Oh yes, that is on the Order Paper and MP’s will dutifully come out during their vacation to ‘consider’ another Notification of Her Excellency (also on vacation after 4 months in office) “in respect of the nomination of Mr. Stephen Williams”.
Will the Government whose PM told us in relation to the first 2 episodes of this sad tale that nomination of persons for the position who did not apply for it ‘was the deal breaker’ was the real reason they rejected the first 2 nominations, now accept the nomination of a man who not only applied for the position, but, has occupied it for several years?
Or, will the ‘convoluted process’ which was unanimously put in place by all Parliamentarians in 2006 and further detailed by this Government in Legal Notice 218 0f 2015 by again be the excuse for failing to appoint a Commissioner?
Certainly, it will be most interesting to see what convoluted logic they will come up with for rejecting the nomination of Ag. Commissioner Williams on Friday. And, if rejected, will the Government expect Williams to enthusiastically lead the ‘principal law enforcement agency’ in implementing Wednesday’s Government Crime Prevention Programme?
After all, in round 2, the PM repeatedly reminded us that the Merit List of Nominees IS THE LAW.
Or will he and his Party-in-Power veto this opportunity to implement Point One of their 2015 Crime Plan and confirm to all of us that that plan was only useful for the purposes of trying to win votes?
Whatever transpires on Wednesday with the launch of the Crime Prevention Programme or on Friday when the 3rd nomination is considered by the Lower House, how would either of these outcomes make the guarantee of the Right to Safety and Security for All Citizens any more a reality?
We, the People, are not spectators in this tale of a sad land. We are its principal characters.
The ‘indiscriminate killing of innocent’ people, the ‘terrorism’, denounced by the PM only a week ago, must be halted.
That is the job of the State – the Government, the Protective Forces, etc.
We do not need any more lip service and talk shop.
We NEED ACTION.
 
Clyde Weatherhead
A Citizen Fighting for
Democratic Renewal of
Our Society
17 July 2018
 

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