Grant says government not proactive in crime approach
By Terresa McCall
Reporter-SKNVibes.com
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Lindsay Grant
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BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – LEADER of the People’s Action Movement (PAM) Lindsay Grant has criticised the government for what he inferred as its lackadaisical, reactive and nonchalant approach to matters relative to national security, more specifically - crime.
On Wednesday, during the PAM’s most recent monthly press conference, Grant told members of the local media that his party has the fight against crime as an issue of priority and has taken more proactive approaches to it while the government has employed a more “reactive” approach.
In seeking to strengthen his point, Grant spoke of a 16-point crime plan that his party developed and gave to the government. He said the government, on the other hand, seems bent on taking action only after crimes would have been committed rather than endeavouring to prevent such occurrences.
“We have been in the forefront in the fight against crime. It is my party, the People’s Action Movement, that presented the plan on February 6, 2001 at Fair View Inn…the 16-point crime plan to the government. It is the government that formed a crime committee that met once. What I am trying to get at is the government only reacts to matters. Right now there is a kind of lull, nothing is happening in terms of being proactive in the fight against crime. Why? Because we probably haven’t had a murder in two weeks, but if we get a murder tomorrow they start to be proactive again.” ~~Adz:Right~~
PAM’s leader said the government must consistently and constantly view crime as an issue of high precedence and put measures in place to ensure that those on the forefront of the battlefield are equipped with the tools necessary to fight successfully.
“We are saying ‘No!’. There has to be a constant, constant, constant fight against crime. We are saying that the police needs to be equipped in the fight against crime. We are saying the police needs to be properly armed in the fight against crime. We are saying we have to get the police on the beat, visible to fight against crime.”
Another area that Grant said the government needs to be more proactive is the development of a rehabilitation programme for juveniles who were released from prison back into society. The PAM’s leader said if these juveniles’ time is not positively occupied, it can lead to an increase in crime and the breeding of repeat offenders.
“We’re saying we have to get out of the situation where we have juveniles in the prison system becoming hardened criminals. We are saying you need to have more rehabilitation for those who come out. Just last week three of them came to me in Market Street…they just came out of prison. They can’t find any work. Nobody wants to employ them because everybody’s afraid of them. We can’t have that. The government has to be proactive!
“The government has to have a system in place whereby we get those individuals back into mainstream society, because if we allow them to be on the street under the genip tree in Market Street and continue there, the devil will find work for the idle hands and they are going to be back where some of them don’t want to be. But they want a chance in life and they are begging me. Many of them I have found jobs for.”
Grant called on the electorate to effect change by putting the PAM “in government and let us put people back to work…If I were in government I would have been able to find more jobs, and that is why I am saying the people have to elect the People’s Action Movement.”
