PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley Tuesday urged families to crack down on relatives engaged in criminal activities as Trinidad and Tobago law enforcement authorities seek to stem the rise in murders here.
At the sod-turning ceremony for a housing project in El Dorado, east of here, Rowley also criticized the country’s justice system.
He told the audience that those relatives were engaging in criminal conduct with the use of firearms.
“You keep that as a secret to yourself, and only when the firearm is discharged, and you kill somebody, you react and call upon the police and the government to do something.”
Over the weekend, at least 12 people were shot and killed at various locations, including five people who were murdered when gunmen fired indiscriminately at a housing development project just on the outskirts of the capital. A police officer was among those killed during that incident on Saturday.
Rowley told the audience that while there would be the burial of the dead, families could do something to prevent such tragedies.
“If you know who it is, then, for God’s sake, tell the people what they have and where they are, and something could be done.
“Up until recently, people with such criminal intent had access only to handguns, which they could conceal on their person. Today, most of the killings in this country are done by people carrying assault weapons, and it is tough to handle and move around with an assault weapon without somebody seeing you and somebody knowing you”.
Rowley said there are too many people in Trinidad and Tobago “who know who the killers are, who know who the criminals are and who are turning a blind eye to it and worse, who are encouraging it.
“We have difficulty with the police, yes, we know. We have difficulty with the Coast Guard, yes, we know…but we are constantly available to respond to the criminal element once the state authorities have information about its presence and intent.
“Many of these people live in homes. A person cannot be handling an assault weapon in your household, and you don’t know. And if you are the mother, the father, the neighbor, the cousin, the friend, and you know, then you are part of the problem if you provide them with the secrecy they need…”.
So far this year, there have been more than 115 murders. Last year, the island recorded 576 murders.
Prime Minister Rowley recalled an attempted robbery here” not so long ago.” After police intercepted the car with the robbers, he said one of the firearms recovered by the police, an assault weapon, belonged to the state.
“It belonged to the police, and when you check the records, the police had lost that gun seven years ago. So, for seven years, that weapon was there, threatening the nation until the police intercepted it.
“You want to tell me for those seven years, handling the gun….nobody wasn’t in a position to report that perpetrator to the authorities. And multiply that seven times by seven, and that is what’s going on in this country.
“As I speak to you now, the problem has multiplied because, for the last two weeks, we have been dealing with the state’s contribution to that problem, where state authority in a position of trust has surreptitiously broken down and the calypso that we listen to, Who’s going to guard the guards,” became the most pertinent question in Trinidad and Tobago.”
Rowley was no doubt making reference to the situation engulfing the Strategic Services Agency (SSA). The National Security Council (NSC) recommended to the Cabinet that the head of the SSA be replaced immediately and that new leadership and management be installed with despatch.
The government has since appointed Brigadier General Anthony Phillips-Spencer, the island’s Ambassador to the United States, as acting director.
Rowley told the sod-turning ceremony on Monday, “The state agency had become one with the criminal agencies.
“We will continue to fight the criminal elements in Trinidad and Tobago. It is not an easy task; they have the advantage that we don’t have, and the advantage is they decide when they are going to extract from us using their criminal intent, and they determine who they attack and where they attack.
“That is the only advantage they have. But suppose they are walking around our society armed with guns, walking up and down the street, being seen by tens of thousands of us, and you don’t let the authorities know. In that case, they have another advantage, and that advantage is that we are too fearful to report them to the authorities”.
Rowley said the criminals also had another advantage when they were brought to court “through one door and come out through another door to continue what they are doing.
Rowley said last week, he heard a “parliamentary colleague” complaining that a murderer who was on bail committed another murder and is now on bail for that second murder.
“And they want to know now what is happening in the court. Welcome, welcome, welcome, because we as a society believe it is magic. Houses will appear on this site; gangs will come, the gunman will come pointing guns…will charge an extra million dollars to pay them, and you will pay him the million dollars ….
“At the end of the day, that’s what’s going on, and of course, if the. The Commissioner of Police gets information, not evidence. Still, data that one or two police officers whom she knows by name are in a situation where they may not be functioning optimally, and such a person is transferred…we are so good now the court is saying you have to tell policemen why you transfer them.
He said as soon as the police officer is told of the reason, “that becomes a bone of contention for the same court.
“We are copying some systems from societies that are different to ours and putting in place some things that will work to the advantage of the near do wells in our society. I am not here to say I want to do the judiciary job, but I am pointing out the cause and effect to you.
“So if, as of today, every time the Commissioner of Police transfers anybody, you have to give a reason to the person in the Service …you have to understand the effect of that”.
Rowley also noted that people who are given bail in some instances “when they come out are not going to church to be no choir boy, they are coming out to kill the witnesses.
“That is what it is. We better face those realities. We should also know that when we enter the realm of putting violent criminals who are inside or outside on bail, the average citizen will want nothing to do with being a witness in any violent matter.
“Because if you are a witness, you know what your portion is even if the person is convicted, and our judicial system will only survive to dispense justice if there are witnesses who are prepared to stand up and say, I saw this, or I know that.
“As long as the system issues that, the criminal would have won the war,” Rowley said.
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