Young won’t quit over 500 murders

UPDATE:

NATIONAL Security Minister Stuart Young said the country recording 500 murders for the year is upsetting but he sees no reason for his resignation over it as demanded by Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

“I am ignoring the Leader of the Opposition and her members for these calls. At the end of the day, I am doing my job and I am doing it to the best of my ability and there are results that are being shown at this time,” he said at the post-Cabinet media conference at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s.

Young said: “Every single crime committed in Trinidad and Tobago is of concern to me. I have seen the Opposition, I have seen the report in one newspaper by the Leader of the Opposition calling for my resignation. At this stage I don’t think there’s anything for me to resign with respect to.”

He said he has also seen a very transparent attempt by the Opposition from the appointment of a new commissioner to put a wedge between the Government and the Commissioner of Police by saying “the commissioner is too far in front there and the Government is hiding behind.”
He added: “Any right thinking and civic-minded citizen can see that is a ruse by the Opposition and they are trying to just create a false narrative.”

He said the commissioner and men and women of the Police Service are the people who constitutionally do policing work. “I can’t go and arrest anyone.”

Young said every week he has been having meetings with the commissioner, heads of divisions and other arms of law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

Last year TT recorded 495 murders. Asked if 500 murders was an indictment on the government, Young said that in the last few months there were a lot more detection, kidnapping victims being rescued, people prosecuted, a number of serious drug busts and the first arrests and charges under the anti-gang legislation.

“Seeing the Commissioner of Police taking a leading role in policing is a breath of fresh air. At no time has this administration abdicated its duties in the national security arena and we will continue to work as hard as we can. Obviously it is very upsetting for the number of murders ­– which is one of the statistical measurement lines the public uses – cross 500. Seeing one murder a day is too much as far as I am concerned.”

He added there was a new energy and vibrancy with the authorities working together including the national security ministry in fighting the scourge of crime.

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi commented on Persad-Bissessar’s resignation call and said she is panicking because she is seeing the puzzle pieces coming together including laws being proclaimed and the courts being sped up as well as competent national security minister working with a competent commissioner.

“That is her trying to influence people by old talk.” Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General Fitzgerald Hinds said the PNM promised a number of things it its election campaign “but we would not have been foolish enough, mindless enough, to promise that there would be no murder or murders. No government welcomes that. That is the reality.”

ORIGINAL STORY:

NATIONAL Security Minister Stuart Young said the country recording 500 murders for the year is upsetting but he sees no reason for his resignation over it as called for by Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

"I am ignoring the Leader of the Opposition and her members for these calls. At the end of the day I am doing my job and I am doing it to the best of my ability and there are results that are being shown at this time."

He was speaking Thursday at the post-Cabinet media conference held at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann's.

Young said: "Every single crime committed in TT is of concern to me. I have seen the Opposition, I have seen the report in one newspaper by the Leader of the Opposition calling for my resignation. At this stage I don't think there's anything for me to resign with respect to."

He said he has also seen a very transparent attempt by the Opposition from the appointment of a new commissioner to put a wedge between the Government and the Commissioner of Police by saying "the commissioner is too far in front there and the Government is hiding behind."

He added: "Any right thinking and civic-minded citizen can see that is a ruse by the Opposition and they are trying to just create a false narrative."