Alexander warns criminals: Cops will stop foolish behaviour

JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter

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Crim­i­nals are be­ing warned by Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der to be­have them­selves for Car­ni­val, as the au­thor­i­ties will be out in full force to en­sure law and or­der.

Alexan­der said it is the in­ten­tion of the Gov­ern­ment to en­sure the safe­ty of every­one dur­ing Car­ni­val.

“Car­ni­val is al­so for fam­i­lies and not for crim­i­nals. If you come out to fight on our na­tion’s streets...take ad­van­tage to frus­trate per­sons, to com­mit of­fences against them. I sug­gest you think again. You will meet law en­force­ment at every cor­ner. The Gov­ern­ment, Prime Min­is­ter and the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice are all here to stop your fool­ish be­hav­iour.”

Alexan­der added that cit­i­zens al­so have a part to play in a safer Car­ni­val, adding that the ears and eyes of each cit­i­zen are im­por­tant to law en­force­ment.

“Your eyes and ears are im­por­tant to us. If you see some­thing, say some­thing. We all have parts to play to en­sure that we all have a safe and se­cure car­ni­val.”

For those crim­i­nal­ly mind­ed, Alexan­der had this warn­ing: “If you are a crim­i­nal or a mem­ber of a gang, I just want you to know that you should not come to Car­ni­val and at­tempt to cause any dis­rup­tion. I sug­gest you stay home. And to our law-abid­ing cit­i­zens, the po­lice want you to know that they are with you, se­cur­ing the vibes, pro­tect­ing the peo­ple and pre­serv­ing the cul­ture. They need you to do your part and fol­low in­struc­tions, and I re­peat, fol­low in­struc­tions.”

He said peo­ple should not throw cau­tion to the wind dur­ing Car­ni­val, and part of their safe­ty is obe­di­ence to the po­lice ser­vice.

“Some peo­ple in this coun­try be­lieve that when it’s time for Car­ni­val, there are no rules. That state­ment is quite in­cor­rect. The rules for the sea­son and why they mat­ter, some peo­ple don’t like rules. But rules are what stop Car­ni­val from turn­ing in­to a crime scene. The Gov­ern­ment and Prime Min­is­ter have de­clared Car­ni­val 2026 a spe­cial event un­der the law.”

He added that all the re­stric­tions that would be in place for Car­ni­val are for the ben­e­fit of the peo­ple and not in­tend­ed to cause any dis­com­fort.

“The last thing we want is to spoil the fun. Re­mem­ber that! We don’t want to spoil the fun,” he said, adding that the ban on glass bot­tles re­mains and is not just for Port-of-Spain ac­tiv­i­ties.