PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar: SoE and curfew to continue

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has said the State of Emergency (SoE) and the curfew (11 pm – 4 am) implemented in several areas of Trinidad will remain in place, until so advised by the security agencies.

Speaking at the Post Cabinet press conference at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair she said the members  of the security agencies spent several hours addressing Cabinet.

She said both measures instituted on August 21, 2011 will be constantly reviewed. The three month SoE will officially end on December 5, 2011.

The Prime Minister said the security agencies have said the SoE and the curfew have been “valuable tools in the fight of crime”. She said the agencies were putting measures in place to deal with crime after the SoE.

The Prime Minister also announced the National Security Operations Centre (NSOC) which allows for all members of law enforcement agencies to share information. She said previously there was no joint planning or sharing of information.

Quoting statistics since the start of the SoE to 6 am on Thursday, the Prime Minister said there have been 3932 arrests. She said 57 persons were arrested for homicides. On a figure of 500 murders a year, she said it meant there were 45 murders per month. Noting that although there were 15 murders in the first month of the SoE, “15 too much” it equated to 70 percent reduction in murders.

Other statistics given by the Prime Minister included 449 for gang related incidents; 745 for drugs; 769 for serious offences; 200 for other offences; 418 for enquiries and the seizure of 1243 ammunition, 29 magazines and 125 firearms. Additionally, three quarter billion in drugs have been seized or destroyed.

Crime down with State of Emergency

At midnight Monday morning, T&T was placed under a limited state of emergency to facilitate anti-crime curfews in hot spots, as announced a few hours earlier by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. The measure specifically allows the 5,000 Defence Force powers of search and seizure, and of arrest, so they will be able to better supplement the work of the TT Police Service, she explained.

The areas in which the curfew takes effect in so far are: Arima, Arouca, Beetham, Carenage, Cunupia, Diego Martin, Enterprise, Felicity, Gasparillo, Grand Couva, Hermitage, Icacos, Laventille, Maloney, Morvant, Sea Lots, Trincity, Pigeon Point, and Crown Point.

The aim of emergency rule was to halt the current spike in gang activity and crime in general in the shortest

possible time, the prime minister said in a televised address. “The nation will not be held to ransom by marauding gangs of thugs bent on creating havoc on our society. The limited state of emergency in hot

spots across Trinidad and Tobago is merely part of a larger aggressive reaction response by the government.”

The measures include a 9:00pm to 5:00am overnight curfew. At a 15 minute news briefing at her Phillipine home at 8 pm, she said the documents to effect the state of emergency — a proclamation and regulations

— were already on their way to President George Maxwell Richards to be signed.

The measure follows two recent instances of mass killings, namely four persons shot dead at Jonestown,

Arima, on Thursday, a woman killed at Pt Lisas on Friday and three killed in Laventille and another in El Socorro yesterday . 

The 2011 murder rate is about 261 persons. Persad-Bissessar said the State  must respond to a very tragic spate of murders. Persad-Bissessar said on Monday August 22 that criminal activity had ground to almost zero since the limited state of emergency was declared on Sunday night.

Persad-Bissessar said weapons and ammunition were seized, bandits who resisted law enforcement officers were killed (in Arima on Monday) and gangs were on the run. 

She was speaking to the media during a tour of the Chancery Lane Complex in San Fernando.

“I am pleased to report that the results are already coming in that critical information has been gleaned,

weapons and ammunition seized and bandits who fought with our law enforcement units have been killed.

“Already, criminal activity has ground to almost zero, and gangs are on the run. I am quite aware that this lull is due to the limitations imposed upon the criminal elements but which is also confining the freedom of innocent

citizens,” she said. 

Persad-Bissessar said although it was only day two of the state of emergency, all indicators show the strategy

was delivering positive results. “Let us be grateful to the joint services carrying out these dangerous exercises. It would be well worth it if we could bring back some measure of security to our nation. The nation

salutes each and every one of you,” she said.

Persad-Bissessar noted it was mandatory to go to Parliament for an extension to the state of emergency,

“and if we decide to go that way, it has to be done within 15 days”.

Persad-Bissessar said she was willing to meet Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley, but her priority was

to ensure the first leg of the state of emergency was a success. “In due course, I will meet the Opposition

Leader. No date has been set yet as my priority right now is this first leg to get the operations and logistics

going to the best that we can,” she said.

The spike in murders, she said, was ironically due to the police’s success in seizing large drug hauls, saying

such sums won’t disappear from the drug-trade without such consequences. 

“There comes a time in the history of a nation when we have to take very strong action, very decisive action.”

She said Government has spent more money on crime than its predecessors, noting this problem is the

result of years of neglect and would not disappear overnight. “The current crime spree indicates that more must be done and stronger action must be employed now. The situation cannot continue like this without a response that is commensurate with the wanton acts of violence and lawlessness,” she said.

Such a response must halt gang activity and lawlessness in the shortest possible time. “After much deliberation

with the National Security Council and members of my Cabinet, it has been agreed that Government impose a

limited state of emergency in hot spots across the country,” she said.  

Saying this measure needs the nod of the President of the Republic, she said as she spoke the proclamation

and the regulations were on the way to him for signature for a limited state of emergency, under section 8(1) and 8(2) of the Constitution. She said a limited state of emergency would allow a number if things to be done, but she declined to spell these out, citing grounds of security. 

Admitting the state of emergency would affect the lives of law-abiding  citizens living in the affected areas, she asked them to bear with the Government in its anti-crime fight. “We  have the will. We will succeed. The nation must not be held to ransom by groups of thugs bent on creating havoc in our society,” she said. “We

will hunt them down. We will search them out, and we will bring them to justice.”