At lease someblame, Mr PM

THE EDITOR: Prime Minister Keith Rowley doesn’t think he bears any responsibility for TT’s high crime rates, because it’s the Police Service which is mandated to battle crime.

Given this, it might be useful for Dr Rowley to explain what the police started doing differently in 2003, when the homicide rate increased more than threefold from eight murders per 100,000 people to 26 murders per 100,000 people, or where the police went wrong in 2010 and 2015 when murders rose again to 30 per and 34 per, respectively.

On the other hand, there is an argument that the increase in URP funding in 2003 from $100 million per annum to over $300 million set off gang rivalries that fuelled murders.

If this is so, insofar as Rowley in the midst of the economic contraction hasn’t reduced URP funding by one black cent or instituted any other policies to help the cohorts who are both the main victims of crime and the PNM’s core supporters, he is at least indirectly responsible for the 1,300-plus killings committed since he became Prime Minister.

KEVIN BALDEOSINGH

Freeport