debut: 2/16/17
38,886 runs
PM: Treat gang, gun violence as acts of terror
Speaking at the closing media conference of the Caricom Heads of Government Meeting in Barbados on Friday, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said the Caricom summit spent a lot of time discussing, strategising and taking decisions on the unacceptably high level of violent crime, focusing on legislation, law enforcement and the public health aspects with respect to the legislation.
“We agreed that notwithstanding social considerations, that the changing nature of crime is such that actions or acts of violence in the public space in certain instances must now be regarded as acts of terrorism. We are talking here about indiscriminate shooting in a public place where the perpetrators endanger all and sundry. In order to address that, we believe that the legislation needs to be cognisant of what exactly we are experiencing now as against what the existing legislation anticipated,” he said.
Rowley said Caricom expects that these acts of violence, using the tools of trade of the criminals at large in Caribbean communities, from The Bahamas to Suriname, St Lucia to Trinidad and Tobago, will be deemed to be acts of terrorism and viewed in this way by the executive and the judiciary.
Speaking at the closing media conference of the Caricom Heads of Government Meeting in Barbados on Friday, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said the Caricom summit spent a lot of time discussing, strategising and taking decisions on the unacceptably high level of violent crime, focusing on legislation, law enforcement and the public health aspects with respect to the legislation.
“We agreed that notwithstanding social considerations, that the changing nature of crime is such that actions or acts of violence in the public space in certain instances must now be regarded as acts of terrorism. We are talking here about indiscriminate shooting in a public place where the perpetrators endanger all and sundry. In order to address that, we believe that the legislation needs to be cognisant of what exactly we are experiencing now as against what the existing legislation anticipated,” he said.
Rowley said Caricom expects that these acts of violence, using the tools of trade of the criminals at large in Caribbean communities, from The Bahamas to Suriname, St Lucia to Trinidad and Tobago, will be deemed to be acts of terrorism and viewed in this way by the executive and the judiciary.
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