Patricia McIntosh was speaking Friday night on the Firearms (Amendment) Bill. “All past governments and predecessor governments must take collective responsibility...We all had a part to play in this,” she declared.
And she demanded that the People's Partnership show its plan for dealing with crime.
The MP traced the upsurge in crime to the failed coup in 1990, saying the blood spilled then has changed the society forever.
She blamed the former UNC government of 1996 to 2001 for setting the stage for crime by cutting many of the social schemes set up under the predecessor PNM government, which was in office from 1991 to 1995.
“As an educator I was in the schools and most of the developmental programmes were discarded,” she said. “That’s when crime really took root. I saw it as an educator.”
However the official records don't support the MP's argument. In fact major crime grew significantly under the first Manning administration and began dropping immediately after the Panday government took office with murders falling to as low as 98.
However, when the Manning regime returned to office, major crime grew again, reaching an all time high of more than 500 murders in 2009. With the People's partnership government in office, major crime dropped by 20 per cent.
Minister of legal affairs Prakash Ramadhar connected crime to the current culture that he said seems to make some youngsters susceptible to being lured into a life of crime. He warned about the influence of realistic and violent video games that allow players to mimic killers.
Ramadhar also spoke about the need to a stronger connected to family life and chores around a home that give young people a sense of achievement from planting a crop or rearing an animal.
No comments:
Post a Comment