Beckles offers to work with Govt on crime fight

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les says she is pre­pared to work with the Gov­ern­ment to tack­le crime fol­low­ing the Bel­mont killings that left two-year-old Aki­ni Kafi, his fa­ther Aquil Kafi and An­tho­ny Wil­son dead.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, Beck­les said crime had be­come a na­tion­al cri­sis that con­tin­ued to dev­as­tate fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties across Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“I main­tain the po­si­tion of the Op­po­si­tion that we stand ready to work with the Gov­ern­ment to ad­dress this scourge. The safe­ty of our cit­i­zens must come be­fore pol­i­tics, and the well-be­ing of our youth de­mands re­spon­si­ble lead­er­ship from all sides,” she said.

Beck­les ex­pressed con­do­lences to the griev­ing fam­i­lies, say­ing the en­tire coun­try was mourn­ing the tragedy.

“As the na­tion and an­oth­er com­mu­ni­ty have been plunged in­to mourn­ing, I wish to ex­press my deep­est con­do­lences to the fam­i­lies of two-year-old Aki­ni Kafi, his fa­ther Aquil Kafi, and An­tho­ny Wil­son. Their loss is heart­break­ing, and the en­tire coun­try grieves with them,” she said.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader called on cit­i­zens and po­lit­i­cal lead­ers to rise above di­vi­sion and unite against crime.

“Crime knows no politi­cian, no par­ty, and no colour. It is a na­tion­al cri­sis that con­tin­ues to de­stroy fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties across Trinidad and To­ba­go,” she said.

Beck­les al­so con­demned in­flam­ma­to­ry com­ments made by a ju­nior gov­ern­ment min­is­ter fol­low­ing the killings, say­ing po­lit­i­cal grand­stand­ing and in­sen­si­tive rhetoric had no place while fam­i­lies mourned.

“Those com­ments bring no com­fort to griev­ing fam­i­lies and con­tribute noth­ing to the ur­gent task of ad­dress­ing vi­o­lence in our so­ci­ety,” she said, re­fer­ring to com­ment made by Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Hous­ing Phillip Alexan­der.

She urged the coun­try to re­turn to stronger com­mu­ni­ty val­ues and pro­vide young peo­ple with op­por­tu­ni­ty, guid­ance and hope in­stead of fear and de­spair.

“I pray for Trinidad and To­ba­go. I pray for the fam­i­lies in mourn­ing, and I pray for wis­dom, uni­ty, and com­pas­sion to guide us through this dif­fi­cult mo­ment,” Beck­les said.