Tobago needs police force

Speaking last Friday at a political meeting in Plymouth heading into the January 23 Tobago House of Assembly election, Moore, an attorney, said Tobago currently tops the statistics with respect to robberies in the whole of Trinidad and Tobago.

“Tobago district leads the country in robberies. Orville (London) knew about all the other disrespect but this is the real disrespect. Plymouth just suffered the loss of their daughter as a result of crime. All over the island, business owners are frightened, people giving up businesses because of crime.

“Terry Baynes closed down this Play Whe shop in Bethel, (because of) crime. He has decided that his life is way more important than that, but nobody talking about that,” she said.

Moore, a former Minister of Justice, said that when Trinidad ignores Tobago, the result is crime.

“When all resources for solving crime, (when) all crime plans must be devised in Port-of-Spain, the Minister of National Security has his foot and his toe and his hand in everything for Tobago.

What this means is a Tobago that has been left behind because he in Port of Spain and we in Scarborough… “Has the Minister of National Security reached here yet. And he wouldn’t reach, never mind our brand is clean, green, safe and serene. You have branded us clean, green, safe and serene and you don’t care if we not safe. You have sold us to the international markets as clean, green, safe and serene but we lead the country in robberies.

“No Minister didn’t take a helicopter ride over here as yet, nobody ent take no plane and fly here yet, but more than that, our Chief Secretary has not flown to Trinidad on urgent business, the urgent business of Tobago’s crime situation. We have to talk about that,” she said.

Declaring that the Tobago Forwards was a serious party with a serious leader, addressing the island’s real problems and solutions, Moore said the island must have its own police service to see to the safety of Tobagonians.

“What does the Tobago Forwards say... cut the Police Service navel string, cut off the navel string in Port of Spain and let us mind our own business, we big enough. “We could call it anything, you choose the name, it does not matter, but the decisions that our police officers make here with respect to security must be made right here in Tobago, 100 percent,” she declared.

“Don’t call any man in Portof- Spain to see if you could buy a gun, don’t call any man in Toco to see if you could borrow their speed gun, don’t call no man in Port-of-Spain to find out of you could send 10 police officers north and send three in the west.

Make your decisions here, you are on the ground,” she contended, Moore said the reason why the Police Service was not responding to crime in Tobago was because “Port-of-Spain is not allowing them to respond, because Port of Spain busy with train line.” “We don’t have train line like Port-of-Spain so they not worried about us, we don’t have murders like Laventille so they not worried about you, but hear what, we don’t aspire to be train line, we don’t aspire to be Laventille, we do not want to be measured by that yardstick.

“What we want is autonomy over the integrity of our people, what we want is autonomy over the safety of our people. Trinidad cannot tell us how to police us, they have no clue, so they send across their Trinidad ideas over,” she said.