Persad-Bissessar: ‘Serious concerns’ over gang bill

THE Opposition has serious reservations about renewing anti-gang legislation passed two years ago which comes up for review in the House of Representatives next Friday, said Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar. “The Opposition has serious concerns with that piece of legislation.”

At a virtual briefing on Friday she said the Opposition will first have to caucus ahead of the debate on the Anti Gang Bill 2020 which proposes to extend the Anti Gang Act 2018 which is subject to a sunset clause. She said, “It is a radical and brutal affront and violations of human rights as enshrined in the Constitution we are being asked to abridge, and therefore we’ll have to give consideration.”

Persad-Bissessar said she keenly awaited to hear what Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi would say in presenting the bill.

“Last time the Attorney General said ‘I know who the gang leaders are. We are ready. We are going to pick them up’. So said, nothing done.”

She claimed this tough legislation has not helped over recent years.

“So come and tell us. If you already have it in place and crime is so bad, that means it is not working, it is not helping you. So convince us that it will help you.

“It’s like an oxymoron. You have it in place and yet you are crying that it’s not helping. ‘Crime is at an all-time high.’”

“So let’s hear how this will help him when obviously it has not helped him for all the years it has been in place.”

Persad-Bissessar said she had another report dated October 29 relating to the fitness of TT’s banks, on top of the previous report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that she had cited at a recent virtual UNC Monday night meeting. She urged Finance Minister Colm Imbert to “come clean”, failing which she would release this latest report.