$10M for "Shaq attack" to fight crime: Guardian report

A 'giant step' in the fight against crime

Jack Warner has pulled out what he hopes would be a secret a weapon to fight crime - a "Shaq Attack", a multi-million dollar sport initiative for community basketball teams to compete for a top prize of one million dollars.

And he brought out the legendary American basketball giant Shaquille O'Neal to the event at Beetham Saturday where he and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar launched the Hoop of Life initiative.

The event was a key distribution ceremony of the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) for people whose homes were destroyed by fire in an arson attack in Trou Macaque last year. But Shaq's presence overshadowed everything.

The full details of the crime busting sport component would be unveiled later. However the Guardian media quoted unnamed 'reliable sources' as saying the project is estimated to cost $10 million. The paper said its sources said the Hoop for Life is only one part of a comprehensive crime plan that Warner would unveil within the next two weeks.

Apart from the prizes being offered, players would get stipends to ensure that travelling and other expenses are met with certain restrictions. One stipulation to be part of the project is that anyone involved in crime would be banned and the team disqualified. Warner said the idea is to pull young people away from a life of crime.

In her speech the Prime Minister said her Government wants to foster better communities and steer the nation’s youth to the right path. “We have to find a way to shift consciousness of our youth and to get communities behind them." She lamented the fact that "we are losing too much of our young people to a life of crime.”

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Shaq told his audeince to believe in themselves. “They said I could not get my doctorate—I graduated recently. They said I could not play basketball and I showed them differently. To make it you must believe in yourself,” O’Neal said.