COP wants crime summit

In a statement, Mahabir said government has not fulfilled its responsibility to ensure the safety and security of the people of Trinidad and Tobago.

He noted that the number of murders for this year has already surpassed 60, with government offering nothing as a solution to stem the killings.

He suggested that a National Summit be convened to address “this critical situation and produce an actionable practical plan to deal with the crime situation”.

Parliamentarians, law enforcement leaders, political and non-Governmental organisations who have studied and formulated views on the various aspects of the process of crime fighting __ prevention, detection, prosecution, rehabilitation __ and relevant social interventions should be part of the summit, Mahabir suggested.

“We are speaking about developing an actionable practical plan with immediate to long-term time horizons to deal with the most critical issues of loss of life and human trafficking while recognising the right of citizens to self-protection and to the protection of the State.” “The Congress of the People fully appreciates and understands that there is no single-dimensional approach to bringing our society from the abyss of the massive loss of life due to violent crime that has plagued us for a decade at least. We expect no one measure to solve the problem,” the COP leader said.

He added that government needs to get its priorities in check.

“No amount of traffic light cameras and more stringent road traffic penalties and all the amendments to anti-Terrorism Laws, as announced by Government are going to stop the daily slaughter of our citizens by murderous criminals. More people are murdered than killed in road traffic accidents, no terrorist attacks are going on in our country, but, men, women, children and our elderly continue to be murdered every day. We need to get the priorities right,” he urged.