I feel Nyasha’s family’s pain

When I see these developments I do say, there but for the Grace of God go I.” He continued, “I did say earlier on that the country is traumatised by this persistent, constant crudity that seems to be the order of the day.” The Prime Minister said Government has a responsibility to ensure that there is law enforcement is for all crimes, “but at the end of the day, it is the behaviour of people.” Rowley said, “I feel the pain of the families who wake up to this every day.” He believes the state of crime, “is largely the result of a lack of consequence.” “There are people who believe they can do these things convinced in their own minds...

little as those minds are that nothing is going to happen to them.” As a firm believer of Capital punishment, he declared, “It is not as a result of any deterrent.

It is the punishment for the crime.” Rowley continued, “In so far that it is my view, people who are acting with impunity because they believe that nothing will happen, for the minority who will fall into the hands of the law and for whom successful prosecutions would have met I am aware that the Attorney General has put in his department a tracking process.” He said that process will try to ensure that standards of the Privy Council’s Pratt and Morgan judgement are met, “so persons who have chosen crime as a way of life and who have harmed our society will pay the ultimate penalty laid down in law.” He added, “To ensure that we are properly guided by that I as Prime Minister have communicated openly with former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj who has provided a pathway for the Office of the Attorney General to make sure what exists now can be utilised to ensure persons who are duly caught, at least some of them, will have their day in court and at the end of the day, if they are unsuccessful in their escape, face the penalty laid down in law.” Saying Government continues to provide the security forces with the resources needed to fight crime, Rowley said helicopters used in these efforts cost $41 million every three months in maintenance.

He added this amounted to $170 million annually and, “we have just managed to make some changes in that.” Rowley said that Cabinet has approved an initiative to bring down that maintenance cost from $41 million to $15 million.

“We understand what we are dealing with here. We just have to get tough. We have to get alert and we have to get serious that this fight against the criminal element is a national crusade,” he stated.

Rowley urged citizens to support all arms of the protective services.

Rowley, who is chairman of the National Security Council, said law enforcement is taking steps to deal with people incarcerated in prison yet still running criminal empires.

He also disclosed that the American lobbyist firm hired by Government, The DC Group, is assisting this country in obtaining national security assistance from the United States government as part of its remit.