3 weeks ago
5
Senior Reporter
Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles is again calling for a serious national reckoning on crime, warning that fear, poor detection and delayed justice are eroding public confidence and worsening the country’s security crisis and its reputation internationally.
She made the comment yesterday, as she drew attention to growing international concern, travel advisories, and the country’s damaged reputation abroad.
“I just returned from the United States, attending a conference speaking about climate change, setting up a disaster fund. And every single person who has any association with Trinidad and Tobago, people are expressing fear of coming home because they are reading what’s happening in the newspapers and the fear is there,” Beckles said during an interview after signing the condolence book for Independent Senator Deoroop Teemal at Parliament yesterday.
She argued that the recently declared State of Emergency (SoE) and proposed stand-your-ground legislation may not be sufficient to address these deep-rooted problems.
Addressed the Government’s latest push for self-defence laws and controversial rhetoric around the use of firearms, she called for a more measured and systemic approach, cautioning against the importation of policy models from the United States without properly considering local realities.
“It has not resulted in what they (the US) expected. In other words, you have developed a situation where people just feel that for any situation you’re going to shoot,” she said of the stand-your-ground laws being utilised in the US.
She pointed out that T&T population of 1.4 million cannot be compared to the scale or dynamics of larger nations, and warned that loose interpretations of self-defence laws, as detailed by Defence Minister Wayne Sturge at a public consultation last week, could lead to dangerous outcomes.
Commenting on the SoE as a countermeasure, Beckles reiterated: “The State of Emergency simply is not sufficient. It’s every single day that you are seeing murders taking place all over Trinidad and Tobago.”
While affirming that the Opposition supported the SoE as an emergency measure, Beckles argued that the Government continues to operate without any clear or strategic crime plan to tackle the root causes of violence.
She also linked the rise in crime to the dismantling of several youth-focused initiatives established under the People’s National Movement (PNM), including the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Military-led Youth Programme of Apprenticeship and Reorientation Training (MYPART), and On-the-Job Training (OJT) programme. The closure or stalling of these programmes, she suggested, has removed valuable intervention pathways for at-risk youth.
Beyond policing, Beckles highlighted deeper issues eroding public trust, namely the justice system’s long-standing failures in detection, prosecution, and timely resolution of cases.
“We are not good at detection, our detection rate is poor. Our conviction rate is poor. So, as a society, we need to look and see exactly what is the problem. We know that people are now very much afraid in terms of coming forward, giving information, providing evidence. People are afraid,” she said.
“We also know that a number of the cases are simply taking very long. Most of the times, you see a matter taking 20 years, even longer than that.”
She called for bipartisan collaboration to bring about long-overdue reform and restore public confidence in the justice system.
“So, how do we address those issues and give a certain level of comfort to the population that as Government and Opposition, that we are prepared to work together in the interest of the country so that this crime situation could be addressed?”
Despite her critique, Beckles reiterated that the PNM remains committed to working with Government on crime if a proper, actionable plan is presented.
English (US) ·