The Express newspaper reported Thursday that National Security Minister Jack Warner sent a representative from his Ministry Wednesday to hold talks with gang leaders in Laventille.
The paper said Warner confirmed that a three-hour meeting was held. He explained that if the demands by the people in Laventille are within the law, they would be met.
The President of the civil service association, Watson Duke, was among the persons present at the meeting, the Express reported.
The Express said when its reporter asked about the meeting Warner said it was at the request of the gang leaders. He said he did not attend but sent the chairman of the Office of Law Enforcement Policy of the Ministry of National Security Keith Renaud to meet with the group.
"I told him (Renaud) to go and see what they wanted, and if what they wanted was within the law then we would do it, and I asked him to go and see. But I haven't turned my back on them. When the report comes, through the AG, through the Ministry of Justice and through Cabinet, we would look at it," the Express quoted Warner as saying.
Former Prime Minister Patrick Manning met with gang leaders at the Crowne Plaza hotel during his tenure and got the gangs to sign a peace accord to stop murders that were taking place along the East-West Corridor during that time.
The present government has pledged not to do deals with gang leaders. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said in September last year her government won't follow that route.
"Do you remember that billions of dollars, not millions, hear me clearly, BILLIONS of dollars went into CEPEP and URP and into the hands of these gang leaders with their ghost gangs and funded their nefarious activities?
"What do you think happened with all the alleged contracts that these gang leaders received through the PNM? How can any government sit and talk about co-existing with criminals?" she asked.
"It was so bold faced that when one of those gang leaders died, the PNM Political Leader and then Prime Minister is on public record as having said the country had lost a national hero," Persad-Bissessar said.
"The anointed “hero” was a gang leader whose criminal record was as long as from here to San Fernando East, someone who had publicly campaigned up and down the East West corridor for the PNM," she added.
She said the People's Partnership government does not "negotiate and wine and dine with the gang leaders at hotels like the last administration did."
She emphasised that, "The moment the PNM government of the day took the decision to negotiate with criminal elements in exchange for political support, it set off a dangerous course of events from which the country is still reeling today.
"The moment you sit and talk with an enemy such as that you have surrendered power; you have ceded constitutional power and legal authority to the gang leaders. How can any government sit and talk about co-existing with criminals?"
Read the story: PNM encouraged criminals, failed to deal with crime: PM Kamla
The paper said Warner confirmed that a three-hour meeting was held. He explained that if the demands by the people in Laventille are within the law, they would be met.
The President of the civil service association, Watson Duke, was among the persons present at the meeting, the Express reported.
The Express said when its reporter asked about the meeting Warner said it was at the request of the gang leaders. He said he did not attend but sent the chairman of the Office of Law Enforcement Policy of the Ministry of National Security Keith Renaud to meet with the group.
"I told him (Renaud) to go and see what they wanted, and if what they wanted was within the law then we would do it, and I asked him to go and see. But I haven't turned my back on them. When the report comes, through the AG, through the Ministry of Justice and through Cabinet, we would look at it," the Express quoted Warner as saying.
Former Prime Minister Patrick Manning met with gang leaders at the Crowne Plaza hotel during his tenure and got the gangs to sign a peace accord to stop murders that were taking place along the East-West Corridor during that time.
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| Former PM Patrick Manning shakes hands with gang leader Sheldon "Crock" Scott in Laventille during the 2007 election campaign. Crock is among several gang leaders who have been killed since 2007 |
The murders did not stop. Instead gang rivalry got more intense and most of those "community leaders" have been killed since that encounter.
The present government has pledged not to do deals with gang leaders. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said in September last year her government won't follow that route.
"Do you remember that billions of dollars, not millions, hear me clearly, BILLIONS of dollars went into CEPEP and URP and into the hands of these gang leaders with their ghost gangs and funded their nefarious activities?
"What do you think happened with all the alleged contracts that these gang leaders received through the PNM? How can any government sit and talk about co-existing with criminals?" she asked.
"It was so bold faced that when one of those gang leaders died, the PNM Political Leader and then Prime Minister is on public record as having said the country had lost a national hero," Persad-Bissessar said.
"The anointed “hero” was a gang leader whose criminal record was as long as from here to San Fernando East, someone who had publicly campaigned up and down the East West corridor for the PNM," she added.
She said the People's Partnership government does not "negotiate and wine and dine with the gang leaders at hotels like the last administration did."
She emphasised that, "The moment the PNM government of the day took the decision to negotiate with criminal elements in exchange for political support, it set off a dangerous course of events from which the country is still reeling today.
"The moment you sit and talk with an enemy such as that you have surrendered power; you have ceded constitutional power and legal authority to the gang leaders. How can any government sit and talk about co-existing with criminals?"
Read the story: PNM encouraged criminals, failed to deal with crime: PM Kamla
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