Rowley attacks Griffith's tenure as CoP

The Prime Minister on Thursday night welcomed former police commissioner turned political rival Gary Griffith to the gayelle of politics, threatening him with “Bois,” as he urged the country to reject Griffith’s National Transformation Alliance (NTA) in the upcoming August 14 local government elections.

Addressing the crowd gathered at Bournes, Road, St James, Dr Rowley wasted no time firing at Griffith and rehashing the issues of the firearms users licenses (FUL) that triggered multiple investigations into the running of the Firearms Unit of the police.

Rowley reminded the gathering and those listening on radio and viewing on tv, and Facebook live that it was him and his PNM party that supported Griffith’s selection as police commissioner in 2018, a decision he said he regretted and took responsibility for.

Rowley started his attack by discrediting the name of the NTA saying it stood for Not That and called on the crowd to fill in the blanks. Energy Minister Stuart Young happily obliged mouthing "a--" repeatedly. Throughout his speech Rowley called on the crowd to reject Griffith saying, “Not That…”

Referencing the injunction of High Court Judge Devindra Rampersad, who ordered that a report into the dealings of the Firearms Unit under Griffith not be laid in Parliament, Rowley said voters should ask why Griffith wants the contents a secret.

“The question that you have to ask is what is in those reports that I know and that he knows that he doesn’t want you to know? It has to be, it ain’t nuttin’ good.”

Am I now, as Prime Minister of this country, injuncted by the court to not tell the Parliament where there is danger, because an individual has managed to get into the court. And as you all know, the courts in this country, somehow the criminals believe that they own it and it is the best place for shelter for them.”

Rowley said he was the only Commonwealth Prime Minister barred, by court order, not to tell the country of danger regarding National Security.

Rowley claimed the supposed mishandling of firearms and ammunition under the police service while Griffith was in charge was a plan to militarise the country. He added that it was no wonder that the NTA was teaming up with the UNC to contest the 141 seats up for grabs in the August 14 elections.

The UNC has publicly called for more citizens to be armed. He said Griffith’s exponential increase in the granting of FULs coincides nicely with the UNC’s plan of arming citizens, which he claimed, coupled with a proposal to introduce stand your ground legislation, is just a dog whistle for racial violence.

“They are going to give people of a certain race gun to shoot people of another race because they are saying that the crime in this country, which we know is across the board, is one race attacking another.”

He said, while that was happening, Griffith was advertising that crime management would be through gun distribution. Gun sales he said was the end game with Griffith increasing the number of permits given to gun dealers.

Reading a Newsday article, Rowley said under Griffith, one dealer was authorized to import 3.6 million rounds of ammunition and the increased importation of military grade arms and ammunition for civilians. He said the article quoted an affidavit from Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher of an increase in ammunition to the extent that for every person there was 14 bullets.

He said according to the affidavit, in 2016 there were 81 import licenses granted for 55-gun dealers to import 1620 guns with 6.1 million rounds of ammunition. By 2020 import permits jumped to 306 dealers importing 64,553 guns and 57.1 million rounds of ammunition.

Rowley said with that level of ammunition in the country, and some dealers claiming to have been robbed of ammunition, it was no wonder criminals were able to fire more than 50 rounds at their targets.

“Every little punk in every street corner, every drug dealer could fire as much as they like because ammunition is not in short supply in Trinidad and Tobago, and we don’t make one bullet in this country.”

He asked the population not to fall for “schupid talk,” as they were in “grave and mortal danger.”

Rowley also read from a Ministry of Finance audit report into the police, where he claimed Griffith changed policies that allowed civilians to not only own high-powered weapons, but have in their possession, outside of a shooting range as it once was, unspecified amounts of ammunition to take home.

He said the report accused Griffith of splitting contracts above $1 million, which as an accounting officer was his threshold, into smaller contracts to bypass scrutiny of external state bodies. Rowley said it was done on multiple occasions and questioned what Griffith would do, if he had access to a larger piece of the state’s riches.

“I am saying to you tonight, when this Not That what yuh call it, come to put up candidates, you have a responsibility to make sure that every candidate under this man’s leadership lose their deposit. Because if they could turn a blind eye to this and wants you to vote them into office, they are irresponsible.”

Rowley said Griffith became embroiled in too much scandal as police commissioner and would “cuss” those on Facebook who disagreed with him.

“I had to speak with him on a number of occasions to say to him, ‘That is not how you treat with members of the public.’”

Rowley recalled a meeting he had with the National Security Council and invited Griffith who gave a report and was later informed that what Griffith told him was not true. He questioned why now, “all of a sudden,” Griffith seems attractive to the UNC after he was fired from the Cabinet after threatening to expose criminality?

He answered his own question saying: “After three years of commissioner, where Stanley John talks about a well-oiled criminal enterprise (in the Firearms unit) the UNC get excited and they want him back. You can have him because the people of Diego Martin and Port of Spain want no part of him.”

After spending most of the 55 minutes he spoke addressing Griffith, Rowley ended saying: “I don’t intend to spend any more time on a PNM platform talking about this, the garbage bin is close by. Dispense with that trash and let us get on with local government reform.”