By Prior Beharry
THE new culture of Trinidad and Tobago is murder and pain.
Every year, there were more murders than good local songs, bright inventions, good paintings, concerts and gold medals.
This is according to Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar in her reply to the 2023/2024 Budget in the House of Representatives on Friday.
She said, “This is our paralyzed country. This is our country, where tens of thousands of parents sacrifice their personal needs to give their children a fighting chance.
“And of those thousands of parents, hundreds who are already going without must bury murdered children.
“Why don’t you all act to remove the pain these parents feel for their murdered daughters and sons?”
Persad-Bissessar said, “Murder and pain are the new culture of Trinidad and Tobago.
“Indeed, murder and pain, every day, are the new culture of Trinidad and Tobago. Blood is our culture. Pain is our culture. Everything is pain. Everywhere is pain. Everybody’s in pain.”
She made reference to the murder of four children while they slept at the Heights of Guanapo recently and the killing of 13-year-old Andrea Lallan who was killed after made a report of rape.
Persad-Bissessar said, “And as if the murder of four beautiful children was not horror enough for our families and communities; as if it was not heartbreak enough, we have seen another innocent and beautiful child murdered in her sleep. Just two weeks ago.
“A beautiful innocent 13-year-old, Andrea Lallan, at 13 years old, brutalised, raped and murdered.
“A beautiful innocent 13-year-old Andrea Lallan. She went to bed, and in the night, she went from dreaming and warm to cold and dead in a body bag.
“She went to bed to have dreams of being a great dancer, singer, doctor, or just a great human being. Sleep was her escape from the reality that she had just returned from reporting to the police that she was raped.
“Instead of having sweet dreams, this beautiful, innocent child was murdered in the ongoing saga of the nightmare that is overseen by this government. At 13 years old, brutalised, raped and murdered. A short, brutal life of poverty and pain.”
She said, “Be warned that today, the rain is falling on the home of the Lallans, but tomorrow it will be falling on yours.”
Persad-Bissessar said Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley was the only one who had confidence in National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds.
She said, “He is not even mediocre or average. He is bluntly incompetent.”
The opposition leader outlined crime plans including the revamping of the Witness Protection Programme and Stand Your Ground legislation.
Some of the initiatives she said should be implemented immediately included:
- Properly staff the E999 call centre. Currently, it’s severely understaffed 12 persons are supposed to be on the switchboard daily, but there are usually less than three, so citizens are forced to wait for over 45 minutes at times, and no one answers. Imagine, this is for emergency reports of criminal activity!
- Reactivate the community comfort patrols.
- Increase and maintain CCTV cameras throughout Trinidad and Tobago.
- Properly support the Transnational Organized Crime Unit. It is poorly utilised and understaffed now, so there are few results. Nobody hears about this unit anymore as the Government failed to equip or utilize it properly.
- Increase Covert operations at the seaports and airports.
- Enhance and fully reimplement The National Operations Centre.
- Install Security Electronic Billboards.
- Immediately provide electronic data access in all Police vehicles.
- Integrate a fully Computerized crime statistics and reporting [COMPSTAT] system to include: Computerised vehicle maintenance and service records; Computerisation of all police stations and provision of internet access via NOC data; and Equipping every police vehicles with GPS and link via NOC.
- Indoor and outdoor shooting ranges for all the protective services.
- A training swimming pool facility to train all arms of the protective services, police, fire, coast guard, and army.
- A simulation training theatre for TTPS.
- Proper health and fitness facilities for the TTPS.
- Provide Customer Service and Public Relations support for the TTPS.
- Standardise and acquire fit-for-purpose vehicles for the TTPS.
