Rodney Charles: Crime symposium a waste of money

NAPARIMA MP Rodney Charles, on Thursday, dubbed the recent Caricom crime symposium, "a colossal waste of time, money, effort and talent," whose funding the Government could instead have used for much-needed items for TT's protective services, addressing a briefing at the Opposition Leader's Office in Port of Spain.

Damning the event as "a talk-shop," he said nothing new was offered.

"It was a poorly disguised and costly attempt to buy time by Rowley and shift responsibility for home invasions and out of control murder rates to Caricom.

"So for the next few months those of us who criminals allow to remain alive will be told: Hold strain we are waiting on Caricom solutions."

Likening the symposium to Carpha's efforts against the covid19 pandemic, he remarked, "Regionalising the problem has not worked."

He accused the Prime Minister of politicising the event, by failing to fire Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds and by failing to give reasons for rejecting the UNC's plan to split Hinds' ministry into two, namely ministries of defence and home affairs.

While thanking Caricom participants at the symposium and while hoping for positive outputs, Charles said he was not holding his breath.

He asked the cost of the symposium and whether it could have been done cheaper, such as virtually, or by IMPACS or UWI.

"What are the measurable outputs of this PR exercise? And the time lines for achieving them?

"Can we expect a reduction in murders, or home invasions, or car thefts? If so, when?"

Would the symposium give comfort to families living in fear of home invasions, he asked.

"Could the $15 million or so spent on this two-day seminar not pay for four scanners for our ports of entry? Or three fire appliances for Rio Claro or Siparia and Mayaro? Or 1,000 CCTV cameras, or 900 printers, diaries and receipt books for police stations? Or body cams for frontline police office?"

Could the cost of the symposium instead have been used to fund the DPP's Office, judiciary, Coast Guard or Forensic Science Centre, Charles added.

He said TT should give no funding to a Mexico-led lawsuit against US gun manufacturers, but instead TT should tighten its porous borders against gun-running.

Charles chided Hinds for saying it was not his job to craft a crime plan.

He dubbed the Government "long on excuses and platitudes", but short on actionable and measurable plans.

"They love to talk, talk, talk but when it is time for action, we get a regional talk shop. Dey go kill we with talk.

"They do not know how to operationalize ideas. Caricom has a well-known implementation deficit."

Charles scoffed at Rowley's plan for a ban on assault rifles, saying firearm user licences (FUL) were granted only by a commissioner of police and no FUL has ever been issued for assault rifles. "So it is essentially already banned in TT for civilians." Rather than fresh legislation, he said the borders must be secured.

Charles said the solutions to crime were already known, as spelt out in the Ryan Report, Watkins Report, Scott Report, Sabga Report and Jones Report.

On the symposium theme of "An abused child becomes a dangerous adult," he accused the Government of failing to help vulnerable children as he cited Social Development Minister Donna Cox's shocking figures cited at the event of 5,340 reports of child neglect, 5,267 reports of child sexual abuse and 3,530 reports of child physical abuse for 2017-2022.

He lamented for 2017-2022 some 1,811 children in court for criminal matters, 1,405 cases of children in need of supervision and 27,095 cases of domestic violence. The 2022/2023 academic year saw 5,362 secondary and 463 primary school pupils suspended from school, he lamented.

Noting one suspended primary school pupil was a gang leader, he asked, "Do we need Caricom to tell us what needs to be done?"

Saying every citizen has just faced seven years of "unimaginable trauma" under the current Government, he said the Opposition had promised stand-your-ground laws and legislation to make home invasions a specific criminal offence with a 25 year penalty.

In the question session, Charles urged action against criminals running extortion rackets and urged a targeted protection for Chinese businesses against bandits. He wondered why the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) couldn't monitor the phone calls of the "big boys" who were importing illegal drugs.