UNC: Trinidad is burning because of crime

United National Congress (UNC) member and former temporary senator Sean Sobers said TT is burning and the Government is failing to address the country’s “spiralling crime situation.”

Sobers also pointedly asked what was going on in south Trinidad.

Sobers, along with St Augustine MP Khadijah Ameen, addressed the country’s crime situation at its weekly press briefing on Sunday at its Charles Street, Port of Spain, office.

The crime trend did not happen overnight in TT, he said. He accused the government of failing to operationalise critical pieces of legislation.

Sobers spoke of Saturday’s murder of security guard Andy Alberto Macias Hosein who was shot dead during a robbery of Ketan Jewellers at High Street, San Fernando.

He said the Government then came and told the country of crime plans to deal with the situation in 2019 and in 2020, 2021 and 2022, TT was still faced with “emboldened criminals” who attack the population, “no longer under the cover of darkness but within broad daylight, in public spaces, in our homes.”

He said this meant that no one was safe anywhere and TT was under siege.

“In January of this year, you had two people being gunned down in South Park. Again, this is not some backyard or back alley this is a shopping mall. You have all sorts of people traversing this shopping mall.”

“Then as recent as yesterday in south again. I don’t know what it is with south? Why allyuh harassing south so?

“Where is the tangible aggressive response from the Government and the ministry? It is not present and more needs to be done,” he said.

Sobers said one heard nothing when people looked to the Government for some type of assistance as it relates to crime.

TT was a society that now reacted only when there “was blood running in the streets,” he said.

“We are a nation under siege. TT is burning and you the Government, the chair of the National Security Council, Minister of National Security, you continue to fiddle while TT burns,” Sobers said.

He also called on people to use Crime Stoppers.

Sobers said as a country it does not matter what type of instruments systems put forward for people to use nor the type of legislation brought forward, if detection rates are low, criminals will continue to be embolden and continue to do crime.

“It does not matter what offences or sanctions available in law to treat with someone who is caught subsequent to a trial, you are not going to be caught. And even if you are caught the time that you will take to go through the criminal justice system is an inordinate amount of time too.

“When you have those things put together you have a criminal element in this country who is larger than life and has no fear or concern for repercussions at all because ultimately they will tell themselves they will not be caught,” he said.