Govt back-pedalling to avoid blows?

THE EDITOR: So a decision was made by our National Security Council to contract the services of four private security firms to join with the police in patrolling some areas of the country.

When that decision was made is up for debate because the activity had a start date of April 6 and was announced publicly via a press release from the Ministry of National Security on April 7.

What is strange about this press release is that the Minister of National Security was at an earlier press conference and he made no mention of the initiative but belatedly indicated that he did not want to distract from the Ministry of Health’s update by revealing this information at the time.

Surprisingly, the minister at Wednesday’s press conference announced the cancellation of the initiative, indicating that the decision was in response to the overwhelming position of citizens that there was no need for an additional layer of protection.

I really don’t want to give credit to covid19 for causing politicians who don’t ask or consult with us on major decisions to suddenly listen to us

This is the same Government that, when in opposition, criticised the then UNC-led People’s Partnership government in 2014 for introducing a similar initiative called Community Comfort Patrol, saying that untrained, unknown people were driving through neighbourhoods in strange vehicles pretending to be police.

Following victory in the 2015 election, the PNM administration abandoned the patrols in 2017. Additionally, the Minister of Health is quoted as stating in a parliamentary debate in 2018 that the only beneficiary of the patrol was the company which was awarded the contract.

Strangely, the Commissioner of Police was the minister of national security when the patrols were introduced.

The initiative has now been cancelled but there are still many questions to be answered about what led the National Security Council to implement an initiative that was heavily criticised by the then PNM opposition.

We need answers as to why the council responsible for our national security back-pedalled?

Was it, as is done in boxing, to move backwards quickly to avoid blows?

I don’t for one second believe the Government listened to us.

BRYAN ST LOUIS

via e-mail