ST KITTS-Nevis' Deputy Gov­er­nor Gen­er­al Eu­stace John warned against calls by the Con­cerned Cit­i­zens Move­ment and the Peo­ple's Ac­tion Move­ment to de­clare a state of emer­gency in the fed­er­a­tion. While John said the in­creas­ing in­ci­dence of crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties in the fed­er­a­tion was a se­ri­ous threat to peace, sta­bil­i­ty and eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment, he said de­clar­ing a state of emer­gency like T&T has done could do more harm than good.

Ac­cord­ing to him, an emer­gency de­c­la­ra­tion could se­ri­ous­ly dam­age the fed­er­a­tion's tourism in­dus­try and in­vest­ment cli­mate. He added: "We will give full sup­port to the new Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice and work with the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment to im­prove the mo­bil­i­ty, sur­veil­lance and in­ves­tiga­tive ca­pa­bil­i­ties of the po­lice force. "Ul­ti­mate­ly, our ef­forts will be fu­tile un­less the po­lice be­come more ag­gres­sive in ap­pre­hend­ing crim­i­nals and root­ing out gang vi­o­lence."