PM: Gang warfare no threat to average citizen

Wednesday night’s  shooting at Movie Towne was a case of “internecine warfare” which did not “involve” or “threaten” the average citizen, Prime Minister Patrick Manning said yesterday. He was speaking at a post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall yesterday. Told that the ordinary citizen went to Movie Towne, Manning said of course there could always be “collateral damage” or “unusual incidents”— where innocent bystanders could get hurt or killed. But he stressed: “That is a kind of internecine warfare that is taking place among a particular group and the average citizen is not involved, or not really threatened by that directly”. Manning said while the government was not happy with the levels of crime in the country, this particular incident did not involve the average citizen. He said the Minister of National Security, Howard Chin Lee gave him a report on the shooting and indicated that investigations were on the way and that he would let him know more as soon as he was in a position to do so. Acknowledging that the shooting followed a verbal confrontation  between persons during a radio programme, Manning said the shooting might not necessarily have been a function of the radio programme. “The radio programme may just have been a symptom rather than a cause,” he said.

The Prime Minister said Government had “reason to believe” that there was a link between the increase in the number of guns in Trinidad and Tobago and the political disturbances in neighbouring Venezuela, which began last November. Manning, who is chairman of the National Security Council said that the authorities noticed that the “virtual revolution in Venezuela to change the political order by a form of civil disobedience” led to an increase in the amount of guns coming into this country. “Basically you have drug lords in Colombia and the routes by which they come from Colombia into the Caribbean vary based on the opportunities that they see. When that situation broke out in Venezuela the authorities in Venezuela were more concerned with internal law and order. And therefore were not as well...(vigiliant)... and the drug lords saw an opportunity at that time to do some things that they would not normally have tried and the backlash of that we got in Trinidad”. Manning said Government was “actively considering” a gun court, similar to the one in Jamaica, in which persons charged for the possession of arms could  be denied bail. Manning conceded that the crime situation had deteriorated “on the face of it” over the last 18 months. But, he contended, that he was equally certain that had Government not done what it had over the same period, the state of affairs would have been much worse. “We have been able to stymie it,” the PM said. 

Questioned on the “shoot-to-kill” policy, Manning said it was a very dangerous thing for politicians to try to decide what the police ought to do. Noting that the Police Service was insulated from that by law, he said it was not a matter for the government to say that the police must shoot everybody that they see on the streets. Told that the Minister of National Security stated that the law allowed policemen to shoot to kill in defence of themselves and of citizens, Manning said:  “Is that what the law says, I don’t know?” and added that “Government would not tolerate anything that is extra-legal.” Asked whether crime would be an election issue, Manning said, “election or no election,” Government was going to maintain a heightened measure of vigilance. Manning stressed that dealing with crime also had a social dimension. Government, understanding this reality, had made a “significant social intervention” which was reflected in the expenditure patterns, he noted.  On the question of proper surveillance of the coastline, Manning said Government had intended to install a modern radar system to give the Coast Guard complete coverage of the coastline. It would also include the introduction of very fast “mother boats”.