BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - CRIME took center stage recently in the National Assembly as a war of words broke out on which Administration is responsible for the unabated criminal activities being perpetrated in St. Kitts and Nevis.
Addressing the House shortly after Leader of the Opposition, Dr. Hon. Denzil Douglas had risen to begin the Debate on the 2017 Budget, Deputy Prime Minister Hon. Shawn Richards chastised the former Prime Minister for painting a picture in his speech that nothing of significance was being done by the Team Unity Administration to address the increased crime wave.
Dr. Douglas, in his address, charged that “the Budget Address has done nothing to arrest the fears of our people”, noting that “there were no new ideas” included when it comes to the fight against criminal activities.
“The K9 dog and the CCTV initiative are projects that started in the latter part of Labour’s term in office and were not fully implemented by the so called Team Unity regime after nearly two years it has been in office.
“Everything he [PM Harris] said about crime has been repeated over and over, but people continue to die and criminals become bolder. They say they have the answers to crime...go back to their own Unity Manifesto…”
In criticising Dr. Douglas, Richards read from clippings of various reports of homicides that occurred under the Labour Administration from a now defunct local newspapers.
“He comes in here this morning saying there is no hope for the young people in this country. He says that we have a thousand murders so far, all kinds of statements about crime. And you wonder if he wasn’t the Prime Minister and the Minister with Responsibility for National Security.”
The outspoken Deputy PM pointed to an article which indicated that St. Kitts and Nevis is among the 10 cities with the highest murder rate, highlighting in that piece the country was ranked number one.
“What did he do to deal with this situation? And then he come in here to try to fool people and blame us for the crime in this country,” Richards said.
He noted Dr. Douglas had indicated that the Government must bring into being the greatest amount of resources to deal with the problem, adding that “we have been doing that”.
In fact, in the 2017 Appropriations, the Government had allocated some 10% of the $712.9 million Budget to deal with the crime situation.
But, Dr. Douglas took umbrage at the fact the Government still has not replied to the Opposition’s invitation to hold a national stakeholder meeting to deal with the problem.
“He speaks of crime, not as a matter of concern to him or his Government but to Queeley and the Police Force. I said this more than once on the topic of fighting crime is all of our responsibility, all of us responsibility. But he is saying that it is with the Commissioner of Police and the Police Force,” Dr. Douglas said.
Currently, there are on record some 30 homicides and a large number of robberies, larcenies and break-ins of homes and commercial buildings.
During the course of last night (Dec. 11) or early hours this morning, there were reports of a break-in at the Polo Company on Fort Street in the vicinity of The Circus.
