State of emergency declared in TT
HOPE (Honesty Opportunity Empowerment Performance) deputy political leader Karen Nunez-Tesheira says the state of emergency (SoE) that was declared on December 30 is an act of desperation by the government.
She made this comment via WhatsApp on December 31.
President Christine Kangaloo to declared the SoE early on the morning of December 30 acting on the advice of the Prime Minister in accordance with Section 8(2)(c) of the Constitution.
Acting Attorney General Stuart Young and National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds elaborated about the SoE at a subsequent news conference at the National Security Ministry's office on Abercromby Street, Port of Spain.
They said the SoE was called to deal with intelligence from the police about reprisal killings by gangs on a large scale, using illegal high-powered firearms.
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Nunez-Tesheira, a former PNM finance minister, said, "Apart from the SoE being unquestionably viewed by many as an act of desperation and the apparent reluctance of this government to deal with the real or main cause, not symptoms of crime, the 'strategy' is questionable."
She recalled that when the UNC-led People's Partnership coalition government declared an SoE in 2011 to respond to an upsurge in murders, the then opposition PNM expressed concern that it would merely lead to a concentration of police/defence force presence in specific areas, leaving other areas vulnerable and attractive with lessened surveillance focused on those areas.
Nunez-Tesheira wondered if this could happen under this SoE.
"Will this administration not be effectively implementing the same strategy and some may say 'making trail for gouti to run?'"
In a separate statement, HOPE political leader Timothy Hamel-Smith repeated the party's call for the establishment of a gun court.
"Firearms are the underlying issue and therefore the simplest approach to fixing crime is by setting up a gun court which is the most appropriate method by which government can bring crime under control given that most serious crimes, whether involving kidnapping and extortion, home invasion and murders are committed with firearms."
Under the Firearms Act, Hamel-Smith continued, the only evidence required is simply that the defendant is in possession of an unlicensed firearm."
He said, "Yet the police have been parading guns galore as media events but no one has ever been found in possession."
