PM: Operation has exposed cowardice of Maloney gangs

Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­[email protected]

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says the first night of spe­cial op­er­a­tions in Mal­oney has ex­posed the cow­ardice of gangs op­er­at­ing in the com­mu­ni­ty, de­clar­ing that crim­i­nals who ter­rorise in­no­cent res­i­dents were nowhere to be found when con­front­ed by the coun­try’s se­cu­ri­ty forces.

“That is what hap­pens when fake bad man meet re­al bad man,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­clared yes­ter­day, as she praised the po­lice and sol­diers de­ployed to the com­mu­ni­ty un­der the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Act.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the op­er­a­tion had demon­strat­ed that gang mem­bers who in­tim­i­date law-abid­ing res­i­dents were un­will­ing to con­front trained se­cu­ri­ty per­son­nel.

“To­day, the Mal­oney com­mu­ni­ty saw first­hand the cow­ardice of the gangs op­er­at­ing in their com­mu­ni­ty. These gangs on­ly ter­rorise law-abid­ing cit­i­zens who don’t have the means to de­fend them­selves,” she said.

“Not a sin­gle gang mem­ber had the courage to take on the brave men and women of the po­lice and de­fence forces. In­stead, they hid like the cow­ard­ly bul­lies they are be­cause that is their true na­ture, weak­ness.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s com­ments came af­ter the Mal­oney Build­ings Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment be­came the first com­mu­ni­ty in Trinidad and To­ba­go to be de­clared a closed area un­der the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Act, with a night­ly cur­few im­posed be­tween 9 pm and 5 am.

The op­er­a­tion, which be­gan on Tues­day night, in­volved mem­bers of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) and T&T De­fence Force (TTDF), sup­port­ed by the Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency (SSA).

Turn­ing her at­ten­tion to law-abid­ing res­i­dents, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, “I want the law-abid­ing cit­i­zens of Mal­oney to know that your Prime Min­is­ter loves you and your chil­dren very much. I con­sid­er you all my fam­i­ly and your chil­dren are my chil­dren.

“I will do what­ev­er it takes to keep you safe and if that means us­ing Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions to put down the gangs op­er­at­ing in your com­mu­ni­ty, that is ex­act­ly what I will do.”

The Prime Min­is­ter in­sist­ed that her Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) ad­min­is­tra­tion was de­ter­mined to en­sure cit­i­zens could live peace­ful­ly with­out be­ing ter­rorised by crim­i­nals.

“No man, woman or child should have to flee for their lives in their own com­mu­ni­ty from ram­pag­ing gangs shoot­ing in­dis­crim­i­nate­ly,” she said.

How­ev­er, Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so launched a po­lit­i­cal at­tack against the Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) and Trinci­ty/Mal­oney MP Camille Robin­son-Reg­is, ac­cus­ing them of aban­don­ing res­i­dents.

“For years, the PNM and the sit­ting MP did noth­ing to pro­tect the peo­ple of Mal­oney from be­ing ter­rorised by vi­o­lent gangs and crim­i­nals,” she claimed.

“The PNM nev­er cared about their sup­port­ers, who they view as a vote bank at elec­tion time. They are on­ly in­ter­est­ed in do­ing the bid­ding of the one per cent own­ers of the PNM.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar main­tained that Gov­ern­ment would not be de­terred from pro­tect­ing com­mu­ni­ties, even in the face of po­lit­i­cal op­po­si­tion.

“If the PNM and their sup­port­ers don’t want the pro­tec­tion of the state se­cu­ri­ty, so be it. But as long as there is one law-abid­ing cit­i­zen in any com­mu­ni­ty who wants that pro­tec­tion, your prime min­is­ter and my Gov­ern­ment will move to pro­vide it,” she said.

The PM thanked the se­cu­ri­ty per­son­nel in­volved in the op­er­a­tion, pray­ing for their pro­tec­tion, strength and pa­tience.

The de­c­la­ra­tion of Mal­oney as a closed area has, how­ev­er, trig­gered con­cerns about the han­dling of the op­er­a­tion and its im­pact on res­i­dents.

Robin­son-Reg­is has crit­i­cised Gov­ern­ment a lack of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, say­ing res­i­dents were left fright­ened and con­fused about the cur­few and whether per­mits were re­quired to en­ter or leave their homes. She has al­so de­mand­ed the dis­clo­sure of the in­tel­li­gence used to jus­ti­fy the de­c­la­ra­tion.

The Gov­ern­ment is ex­pect­ed to pro­vide Par­lia­ment with in­for­ma­tion sup­port­ing the de­c­la­ra­tion in ac­cor­dance with the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Act.