Mitchell: Anti-gang law could stop squatters

The anti-gang legislation could have been used by police officers to lay more substantial charges against those who had illegally occupied apartments at Clifton Towers, Port of Spain.

That is the view of Housing Minister Randall Mitchell who said the illegal occupation of TT Housing Development Corporation (HDC) apartments by criminal elements was a “new practice” where “criminal gang elements” were entering these developments and “chasing out bonafide tenants using tactics of intimidation and violence.”

On November 8, police and soldiers went to several HDC apartments at Clifton Towers, East Port of Spain, where they broke the locks of 14 apartments and detained 15 people who were illegally occupying the apartments.

A few weeks later, on November 23, several people, who had been initially arrested for illegal occupation of the Clifton Tower apartments were rearrested for the same offence in a massive police exercise.

Two men identified by police as suspected gang leaders were among the 20 people detained.

Addressing an HDC key distribution for some 85 recipients at Omardeen’s School of Accountancy, Cipero Street, San Fernando, yesterday, Mitchell said the joint police and army task force had evicted the illegal occupiers on at least three separate occasions.

“And they continue to return, which itself is indicative of a breakdown of law and order.

“Had the Opposition voted with the Government to pass the anti-gang legislation last Wednesday in Parliament, this would have allowed the police to charge those gang members with more substantial offences.

“But for reasons best known to them, the Opposition refused to support the legislation.”

However, he noted that the HDC’s security unit would continue to conduct audits of HDC properties to determine where illegal occupations were occurring and deal with them together with law enforcement agencies.

“The State cannot and will not encourage the reward or allow persons to benefit from illegal and unlawful behaviour,” he said, adding, “To do otherwise, the State would be contributing to the lawlessness we see in society today.” However, Opposition Chief Whip David Lee disputed Mitchell’s assertion saying the legislation had only been brought to Parliament because of the unrest in Beetham Gardens some ten days ago.

“This piece of legislation and the time they bought it was a public relations stunt on their part because they cannot get a handle on crime, they wanted to deflect the conversation off of their incompetence,” Lee told Sunday Newsday.

Meanwhile, in his address, Mitchell observed that HDC communities would witness a reduction in criminal activities as ten per cent of the housing units had been allocated to members of the protective services.

He also addressed a newspaper story about a mother and her children saying the report was “extremely narrow” and focused only on the HDC as “panacea” to the social ills and disregarded the input of the Children’s Authority or the Ministry of Social Development.

He said while he did not want to embarrass the lady whose picture had appeared on the newspaper’s front page, said she had not paid a month’s rent to the HDC after her initial deposit.

“However, the HDC will revisit the matter and see how best it can bring assistance,” he said. And addressing the new homeowners specifically, Mitchell reminded them of their financial commitments to the HDC saying the organisation “can no longer afford to tolerate persons who are habitually delinquent with their financial obligations.