Fuad ‘sick’ over Angels’ treatment

FOUR MONTHS after it was first launched, the fledgling Guardian Angels group continues to be unfairly maligned by the Government and certain sections of the wider population in Trinidad and Tobago. This was the profound sadness expressed yesterday by the Angels’ founder, Barataria/San Juan MP Dr Fuad Khan. Khan told Newsday that since the Angels’ were formed in March, their effectiveness has been limited due to the meagre resources they are able to receive from private individuals. The United National Congress  MP said the present scenario was due in large part to the unfair judgment passed upon the Angels by the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) and others. Khan also lamented that up to today, his request to former Police Commissioner Hilton Guy for the Angels to receive special training (including training in the use of firearms) seems to have fallen on deaf ears.  “I feel sick. I expected nothing else. Anything that is a UNC idea. Crapaud smoke yuh pipe,” he said.

Khan also revealed that he felt deeply wounded when Gover-nment injected $3 million into the CrimeStoppers programme and could not at least give the Guardian Angels equal consideration in terms of funding. He observed that while people were now talking about neighbourhood watch groups as mechanisms to fight crime, the UNC had been talking about that for the last five months. The UNC parliamentarian declared that notwithstanding the opposition against the Angels,’ the group has been continuing its patrols in Barataria/San Juan.  He said the size of the pilot group has not grown from the 15 persons it started off with in March and groups in other UNC constituencies have not been working as well as the Barataria/San Juan unit. Khan also said the Angels were not providing security for members of the San Juan Businessmen’s Association who placed themselves under a curfew in light of the crime situation and disclosed that he received a request from people in St Clair to establish a Guardian Angels group there.