Kamla tells government: Stop talk on failed bail bill, legalise pepper spray

OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has called on Government to stop politicising crime-fighting.

In a press release on Thursday, she said the people of Trinidad and Tobago are in danger owing to the government’s failures in national security and the criminal justice system.

She said the failures are appalling and unacceptable and “continue to pose a clear and present danger to the safety and security of all law-abiding persons of TT.”

This is happening, she said, while the rest of the nation prays for the safe return of 22-year-old kidnap victim Andrea Bharatt, the safety and protection from criminals of “terrified law-abiding citizens” and "justice for the many crime victims.”

She said instead of focusing on this, Attorney General Faris al-Rawi “chose to engage in a pathetic attempt at distraction by bringing up the Bail Bill/law.”

In May 2020, the Opposition opted not to support a government bill to deny bail for 120 days to anyone caught in illegal possession of military-grade weapons (for use or for trafficking).

Persad-Bissessar said, “When our nation needs to unite and pray for this young citizen and others, we reject the AG’s misguided and misplaced utterances.

“The time for discussing the Bail Bill/law was in Parliament where the Government and Opposition ventilated their views. The Bail Bill/law is but just one, if not the last, stop of defence.

“The Bail Bill/law was in place before but did not stem the avalanche of crime nor protect the many crime victims. The Bail Bill/law does not prevent crimes as (it) only kicks in after a crime is perpetrated.”

She said the government has failed to resource the protective services.

She questioned why the government had money to “approve contracts to pay millions to the family of the AG and Minister of National Security (Stuart) Young, yet they cannot find money to adequately resource the protective services to carry out their duty, better to protect and serve.”

She added that the detection and prosecution rates in the criminal justice system are “abysmally low."

“The Rowley regime's continued failure to fix the criminal justice problems in which people can be charged multiple times with no convictions is another example of their failure.”

She said it is not a time for “cheap political points.”

“The only discussion we need to hammer out here is how do we protect our young girls and all citizens from those who prey on them.”

She also suggested the government consider legalising pepper spray and other non-lethal devices for women to use.

“It is clear that the Rowley regime has continued to fail to protect the people of our nation...I call on the government to publicly identify and name their security experts who have advised against using pepper spray and other non-lethal devices for vulnerable persons, particularly women, to defend themselves against possible criminal attacks.”

In December, following the murder of teenager Ashanti Riley, the call for pepper spray to be legalised took over the country once more. It even received support from Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith, but the Prime Minister had asked that it be carefully looked at since criminal elements may also benefit from the move.

On Wednesday, during a media conference, the Prime Minister said the Cabinet will decide on the use of pepper spray and that "nothing was cast in stone". "We are open to being guided by the facts. We are prepared to use every tool...to protect the vulnerable population."

Young has said pepper spray was no "silver bullet for crime."

"It is not a very simple decision there are a lot of for and against arguments and I will not pin any timeline on that," he said in a separate media conference on Tuesday.

"All I can do is caution and ask people to be very careful out there. We have a lot of sick people in our society as far as I'm concerned and I find it very disheartening and upsetting to see our young women subjected to this type of criminal activity and behaviour."