The Congress of the People (COP) has expressed its outrage and disgust over the alarming crime spiral in Trinidad and Tobago. This formed the gist of a motion successfully moved at the final COP National Council meeting for 2010 at Operations Centre, Charlieville, Chaguanas, on Sunday. The motion called on all law enforcement agencies, "to heighten activity to suppress crime and to effect proactive measures to immediately better protect the society." It expressed deep concerns that in the last two weeks, there had been a dramatic increase in serious crimes, murders and said the police had reported 12 arrests related to 14 murders in 15 days.
The motion added: "Be it that the National Council of COP joins with the rest of the population in expressing outrage at this latest crime upsurge and views this as another episode of the despicable situation which threatens the lives and security of citizens as crime has become both a business and heinous culture.
"The COP calls upon the society, at large, to join it in this effort to root out all manifestations of lawlessness which support the culture of criminality in T&T."In another motion, it chastised the Patrick Manning administration for its abuse of the constitutional right of citizens to the protection of their privacy without the due process of law.
The COP also congratulated the Prime Minister and the People's Partnership for exposing the situation and for passing legislation to protect the rights of citizens while facilitating intelligence activity to protect the society from rampant criminal elements.
It said it supported the People's Partnership government in acting to protect and strengthen T&T's democratic institutions and governance and pledged to work to support and promote all steps to build the good governance with all the partners in the People's Partnership.