SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Ch­agua­nas May­or Or­lan­do Nages­sar said he wants the po­lice to is­sue li­censed guns to busi­ness­men. Nages­sar yes­ter­day told the T&T Guardian that for too long the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty had been vic­tims, cry­ing out for the means and mea­sures to pro­tect them­selves from crim­i­nal el­e­ments.

"Busi­ness­men are at­tacked, killed, in­jured and maimed be­cause they have no de­fence. From feed­back I am get­ting, busi­ness­men be­lieve they should get firearms to deal with the crim­i­nals. If they are qual­i­fied, they should be giv­en guns. "I have seen busi­ness­men in Ch­agua­nas with firearms who are ready to de­fend them­selves. Busi­ness­men have com­plained to me that they have been in­ter­viewed and are still wait­ing some sev­er­al years to get firearms," he said.

Nages­sar said the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice and the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty should se­ri­ous­ly con­sid­er is­su­ing firearms for per­son­al de­fence, be­cause crime and il­le­gal ac­tiv­i­ty need to be curbed, es­pe­cial­ly in Cen­tral. He said Busy Cor­ner at the Ch­agua­nas Main Road and the Old South­ern Main Road has proven to be a prob­lem area at nights be­cause of a lack of po­lice pa­trols. Nages­sar said he wants a thor­ough in­ves­ti­ga­tion by the head of the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion to de­ter­mine why po­lice pa­trols can­not be seen af­ter dark.

Nages­sar al­so said he wants the po­lice to keep a close eye on DVD ven­dors along the main road be­cause they clut­ter the side­walks. Nages­sar said he sup­ports Stephen Williams to be­come the next po­lice com­mis­sion­er. "He was ear­marked for the po­si­tion. He is the best can­di­date, but he was re­ject­ed by the PNM," Nages­sar said. The may­or al­so said the 21st-cen­tu­ry polic­ing ini­tia­tive, in­tro­duced by CoP Dwayne Gibbs and his deputy Jack Ewats­ki did not bear any fruit in Cen­tral.