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alexk
Guest
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley says there is no question that Trinidad and Tobago has been “and continues to be assailed by an unacceptable level of criminal conduct,” but he is also concerned about a small group of citizens who were spreading lies about criminal conducts on social media which were traumatising citizens further.
And he is also hoping the country will have a new police commissioner in the not too distant future.
Addressing a gathering at a ‘Conversation with the Prime Minister’ in Mt. Lambert last night, Rowley said there is a “small minority of people” who were not satisfied with the level of criminal activity in the country “so they go on the internet and they import other people’s misconduct and ascribe it to Mt Hope, Tunapuna, or Enterprise and traumatise people in their homes.” He said very frequently citizens have to rely on the police to send out bulletins “to tell you don’t take that seriously, it is not Trinidad and Tobago.”
Rowley prefaced his concerns by saying in doing his job as Prime Minister, he’s doing so in a”unique period” where it’s extremely difficult to get information to the public without battling “against a mountain of either naked lies, misinformation, mischief or just outright nakedness.”
He said it’s not that it made the job harder but “it makes the population’s ability to discern fact from fiction harder. It makes the population experience trauma, where no trauma exists.”
Responding to concerns raised by Petit Bourg/Mt Lambert councillor Darren Winchester about the process for appointing a CoP, Rowley said there was a time when the process was simple and the service commission would select someone and the PM would have a veto. But he said that system was changed to give the Police Service Commission the power to appoint one and what is currently in place “is far worse.
Now it is subject to naked partisan politics.”
He said the current arrangement “costs millions of dollars and reputations”, but made it clear “Government and the Prime Minister have no say on the matter.”