Comprehensive crime plan
Wednesday, September 7 2011
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, in her address in the House of Representatives on Sunday, delivered the first comprehensive and long-term plan for delivering us from the ongoing scourge of crime. In closing the debate to extend the state of emergency, Persad-Bissessar spoke clearly and courageously, and traced the roots of crime to the current poisoned fruits of crime we now endure.
What has impressed us with this plan is that it does not try to depend solely upon suppression, detection and conviction, but goes far deeper to seek the root causes of the criminality poisoning our society. But make no mistake, the most urgent aspect of any crime plan which we discuss at this time—and this is not confined to the current state of emergency, but rather the past few years—must concentrate initially upon suppression, detection and conviction.
However, if we are successful in merely suppressing crime by initiatives such as the state of emergency, special Anti-Gang laws and the like, we would be, in effect cutting weeds as they emerge, but doing nothing to prevent the weeds from emerging from the ever-present roots we fail to see. Because the Prime Minister has gone below the visible weeds to seek out the roots of crime, and these roots now run deep, strong and extensively, and are not limited to “known hot spots”, we believe that we can eventually begin to deal with the causes of crime, and not simply to react to crimes committed.
The proposed initiative to “Tag” criminals, including persons charged but out on bail, with electronic “anklets” is a commendable one. This tracking system is working in other countries, and we see no reason why it should not be applied here as well. Passing this initiative into law will require a special majority in Parliament, but we can see no reason why it should not be passed unanimously in both houses. However, if the proposed system is to be effective, it must be properly managed and serviced at the headquarters end. We suffer an unfortunate propensity to have our systems and machinery fail, and in many cases when failure occurs, nothing is done to reinstate the systems.
So part of this tracking system, and indeed of all the planned technological inputs which will be introduced, must be guarantees that everything will be properly maintained. This will require a whole new culture within our security services and the technical support people. While we believe these points are being considered, we make no apology for raising them here. For example, we had heard too many stories over recent years about the 360 degree radar system being “down”.
But beyond the tracking and the upgrades of crime-fighting technologies, existing laws to be properly applied, and even the new laws to be introduced, we need to determine why crime has become such a scourge in our small country. Clearly, there is no universal opinion on this and until we know, and better yet, understand where we had gone wrong (for this situation did not suddenly manifest itself) we will not be able to remove the poison from the roots of our society.
The committee to be headed by Dr Selwyn Ryan to examine these root causes (and gangs, drugs, and URP contracts are the symptoms, not the causes) of criminality has a tremendous task ahead of it. But we support its mandate and look forward to its recommendations, and indeed the implementation of recommendations.
And we cannot close without restating our appreciation of the ongoing commitment of the security services to their duty.
Wednesday, September 7 2011
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, in her address in the House of Representatives on Sunday, delivered the first comprehensive and long-term plan for delivering us from the ongoing scourge of crime. In closing the debate to extend the state of emergency, Persad-Bissessar spoke clearly and courageously, and traced the roots of crime to the current poisoned fruits of crime we now endure.
What has impressed us with this plan is that it does not try to depend solely upon suppression, detection and conviction, but goes far deeper to seek the root causes of the criminality poisoning our society. But make no mistake, the most urgent aspect of any crime plan which we discuss at this time—and this is not confined to the current state of emergency, but rather the past few years—must concentrate initially upon suppression, detection and conviction.
However, if we are successful in merely suppressing crime by initiatives such as the state of emergency, special Anti-Gang laws and the like, we would be, in effect cutting weeds as they emerge, but doing nothing to prevent the weeds from emerging from the ever-present roots we fail to see. Because the Prime Minister has gone below the visible weeds to seek out the roots of crime, and these roots now run deep, strong and extensively, and are not limited to “known hot spots”, we believe that we can eventually begin to deal with the causes of crime, and not simply to react to crimes committed.
The proposed initiative to “Tag” criminals, including persons charged but out on bail, with electronic “anklets” is a commendable one. This tracking system is working in other countries, and we see no reason why it should not be applied here as well. Passing this initiative into law will require a special majority in Parliament, but we can see no reason why it should not be passed unanimously in both houses. However, if the proposed system is to be effective, it must be properly managed and serviced at the headquarters end. We suffer an unfortunate propensity to have our systems and machinery fail, and in many cases when failure occurs, nothing is done to reinstate the systems.
So part of this tracking system, and indeed of all the planned technological inputs which will be introduced, must be guarantees that everything will be properly maintained. This will require a whole new culture within our security services and the technical support people. While we believe these points are being considered, we make no apology for raising them here. For example, we had heard too many stories over recent years about the 360 degree radar system being “down”.
But beyond the tracking and the upgrades of crime-fighting technologies, existing laws to be properly applied, and even the new laws to be introduced, we need to determine why crime has become such a scourge in our small country. Clearly, there is no universal opinion on this and until we know, and better yet, understand where we had gone wrong (for this situation did not suddenly manifest itself) we will not be able to remove the poison from the roots of our society.
The committee to be headed by Dr Selwyn Ryan to examine these root causes (and gangs, drugs, and URP contracts are the symptoms, not the causes) of criminality has a tremendous task ahead of it. But we support its mandate and look forward to its recommendations, and indeed the implementation of recommendations.
And we cannot close without restating our appreciation of the ongoing commitment of the security services to their duty.
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