Chester Sam­bra­no

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad Bisses­sar says "In the wake of an un­holy week­end of mur­ders, home in­va­sions, rob­beries and dis­or­der, it is abun­dant­ly clear that Fitzger­ald Hinds has failed as Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and must be re­moved from of­fice."

In a me­dia re­lease Per­sad Bisses­sar said ear­li­er this year, af­ter Min­is­ter Hinds presided over the blood­i­est Jan­u­ary in our re­cent his­to­ry, she called on Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley to take ac­tion and re­move the "clue­less, in­com­pe­tent and neg­li­gent Hinds from his Cab­i­net."

She said less than three months lat­er, the mur­der toll stands at 164.

"Since our na­tion be­came sad­dled with Hinds in the ca­pac­i­ty of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter two years ago, 1,134 peo­ple have lost their lives," she said.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader added that this past week­end, which was sup­posed to be one of peace­ful prayer and re­flec­tion by mem­bers of the Chris­t­ian faith cel­e­brat­ing East­er, was marred by crim­i­nals bru­tal­is­ing and trau­ma­tis­ing fam­i­lies in Cu­mu­to, Mau­si­ca, Aran­juez and Cunu­pia.

"Un­der Hinds’ watch, the crime sit­u­a­tion con­tin­ues to wors­en, and not a sin­gle idea, plan, pol­i­cy, or pro­gramme has been put for­ward to ar­rest the prob­lem, apart from prayers," she said.

"Each arm of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty is in dis­ar­ray due to Hinds’ in­com­pe­tence. The Fire Ser­vice cur­rent­ly lacks vi­tal equip­ment to tack­le fires in this dry sea­son. Life­guards con­tin­ue to clam­our for equip­ment and prop­er fa­cil­i­ties. The Po­lice do not have ad­e­quate re­sources to catch crim­i­nals. The Prison Ser­vice, the De­fence Force, all are in trou­ble," she added.

Mrs Per­sad Bisses­sar said Min­is­ter Hinds choos­es to pon­tif­i­cate at pub­lic fo­rums on what he feels are the rea­sons for the cur­rent crime cri­sis, with­out any ev­i­dence or da­ta to sup­port his claims and this PNM Gov­ern­ment has shown no in­ter­est in ad­dress­ing the root caus­es of crime and crim­i­nal­i­ty, in­clud­ing pover­ty, in­equal­i­ty, and lack of op­por­tu­ni­ties for young peo­ple.

She said a UNC Gov­ern­ment will pri­ori­tise cre­at­ing a safe and se­cure en­vi­ron­ment for all cit­i­zens.

She ex­plained that the UNC has al­ready out­lined its plans to re­struc­ture the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty in­to a Min­istry of Home Af­fairs and a Min­istry of De­fence.

"We will al­so make it eas­i­er for law-abid­ing cit­i­zens to ob­tain tools to pro­tect them­selves, such as le­gal firearms," she said.

"We have a plan, and we have a track record of get­ting the job done and bring­ing crime down, and we are ready to get to work,"she said.