Warner slams costly "visionless" crime plan

Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner has scoffed at a new crime fighting initiative announced last week by Minister of National Security Martin Joseph.

In a media release Sunday Warner said the newest proposal, "is visionless, repetitious and uninspiring."

He said it's short on new ideas, "fumbles with logic and stumbles on innovation" since it does not "encapsulate the root problems of crime, nor does it portray any methodological or practical approach to combating this social evil."

The minister's crime initiative is based on a report prepared by retired Canadian Army General Cameron Ross.

Warner questioned whether Ross or any foreign consultant is suited to advise on crime and whether the Ross report took into consideration the most relevant data regarding demographics and the record breaking statistics.

"Between 2001 and 2008, there have been 2510 murders in Trinidad and Tobago. The 600 mark for 2009 is close to reality. In 2008 we were listed as having a homicidal rate of 42.3 per one hundred thousand a monumental increase from the rate of 10 per one hundred thousand as it stood in 2000," Warner noted.

He pointed out that of the 1300 murders committed between 2005 and 2008, only 279 were detected and of this 279 some 20 per cent collapsed in courts.

"Today we read of witnesses and even accused being gunned down in the full view of the police. Such a frightening picture seems to have escaped the scrutiny of the Government’s foreign advisor.

"Minister Joseph has also left several questions suspended in political mid air. He failed to define the new role for the Defence Force under the ‘Ross Proposal’," the MP noted.

Warner noted that the country didn't need a foreign consultant to recommend a closer working relationship between the police and the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force (TTDF) because since it was established in 1962 the defence force was always charged with the responsibility of promoting the rule of law.

He said the TTDF has always been under a mandate to work jointly with the Police Service in securing the nation.

"We didn’t need a Canadian national to advise us on that. The Minister must therefore specify his new role of the TTDF. Does he plan to have army officers patrolling the streets with arms and ammunition? Is the Minister advocating an army State?" he asked.

Warner noted the minister's statement that the new crime initiative would also include incorporating the Special Anti-Crime Unit (SAUTT) by an Act of Parliament and promoting the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) to spearhead all natural disaster operations in the country and wondered what is new about all this.

"These are the very same issues which have been debated for years," he said noting that the opposition is on record for its vociferous call to give legitimacy to SAUTT by an Act of Parliament.

"Clearly there is nothing new...It is a rehash of old ideas, political regurgitation at its best," he said. "Nothing has been said about treating violence in our schools, the fight against gangsters or the developing phenomenon of violence against tourists, particularly in Tobago," he added.

Warner said Joseph needs to explain to the nation how much it cost to retain Ross and his team to produce what he called a "pathetic" document.

He outlined other costly failed crime plans in which foreign consultants were involved:

• In 2002 the PNM contracted with Thomas Clayton to report on crime. He cost the State millions but his plan failed
• In 2005 the PNM invited Professor Stephen Mastrofski. His failed plan cost the State $55 million

"The Government seems to have a penchant, proclivity and political appetite for foreign advisers, all of whom have succeeded only in draining the treasury, straining the taxpayers and failing in crime," Warner said.