UNC chides proposed 'vetting unit' for police

OPPOSITION MP Dr Roodal Moonilal says the United National Congress (UNC) will continue to speak about crime until the last day the Prime Minister occupies office.

Moonilal was addressing comments Dr Rowley made at the People's National Movement (PNM) south candidate launch for the local government elections at Harris Promenade, San Fernando, on Saturday night.

At the party’s weekly Sunday press briefing, Moonilal said the Opposition planned to call for an urgent emergency meeting of the joint select committee on national security to deal with the murder rate.

TT was heading for a record murder figure, having passed 300 murders, he said.

At Saturday's PNM meeting, Dr Rowley said part of the UNC’s campaign strategy for the elections was to focus on the crime problem.

Moonilal said crime was on the front page of every newspaper and every citizen was consumed by crime, and Rowley could not intimidate the party to stop talking about it.

To address crime, Rowley planned to “propose and effect the establishment of a vetted unit in the police."

“That unit would be a small unit of police officers who are paid more than normal police officers. Paid high, big salary and so on, and their job is to police the police,” Moonilal said.

Moonilal said the establishment of the units was “undemocratic and unconstitutional.”

“It is very clear: the Constitution determines the role and function of critical institutions. It is the Commissioner of Police who has complete control over the police service and the CoP has the sole authority to establish units in the police service, to conduct the business of policing, according to law, not the Prime Minister,” he said.

Moonilal asked who Rowley wasgoing to select for these units and what roles were going to be given to them.

He added that Rowley was proposing a 21st-century Mongoose Gang. The Mongoose Gang was a group under Grenada’s Premier and Prime Minister Eric Gairy that targeted critics of his regime.

Moonilal said the vetted units were like an implant in the police guided by the hand of the politician.

He said all police deserved increases in salaries, and not just a small select group being put to “police the police.”

He also spoke of Rowley’s criticism of the UNC’s plan for a "Stand Your Ground" policy.

He said the policy did not mean people could shoot anyone who threatened them or jumped over their fence, but that they had a right to protect themselves and stand their ground.