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Williams: I wasn’t invited to meet with gangs
Published:
Friday, August 24, 2012
Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams
Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams says he was not invited to or aware of any meeting with gang leaders in Laventille on Tuesday evening. Williams, in a telephone interview yesterday, said he was not a party to Tuesday night’s meeting with gang leaders at St Paul’s Street Multi-purpose Facility, East Dry River, Port-of-Spain. On Wednesday, National Security Minister Jack Warner told reporters he had been invited to the meeting and while he did not attend, a representative from his ministry was sent. Williams declined yesterday to comment on Warner’s statement. However, he said: “I was not in any meeting with any gang member. I was not aware of it other than what I saw on the news flash. I was not in any meeting, no arrangement was made with me.” Williams said he could only speak of what he was doing yesterday which was dealing with flooding caused by yesterday’s heavy downpour. He also said no murders were recorded on Wednesday night which he attributed to a high police presence. There were four murders earlier that day—one in San Fernando and three in Laventille and Morvant.
Williams said: “We are trying our best to take control of the situation. Suppression is a major focus at this time. We want to give the public our clear assurance that we are using all of our resources to make Trinidad and Tobago an extremely safe place for everyone.” He said he had the commitment of all officers and “they are extending themselves by way of performance on a daily basis with one common goal: To provide quality service to the public so that citizens can enjoy Trinidad and Tobago in the way they should be able to.” Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley, also in a telephone interview, called on National Security Minister Jack Warner yesterday to disclose the details of the report he received after the meeting with gang leaders in Laventille. He questioned the legality of such a meeting, since, he said, under the Anti-Gang Act, just being in a gang was a crime.
Rowley added: “Mr Warner said he was invited to meet with 40 gang leaders. To be a gang leader is to be identified as committing a crime, just to be in a gang and be a gang member. “It is in that context I would like to hear what report came out of that meeting and what Mr Warner will be taking to Cabinet.” Rowley said he also was sceptical of this meeting since, he said, in 1996 Warner, together with then Opposition MPs, was critical of the People’s National Movement when then prime minister Patrick Manning met with “community leaders”. He added: “I am just observing. It is now a crime to be a gang leader and gang member. If he knows who gang members and gang leaders are then he knows who are the people who could be assisting the police. “That is a completely different situation to what they accused the PNM of. There was absolutely no law to identify people as gang leaders prior to the anti-gang legislation to identify those described as criminals. “They accused the PNM of being supportive of crime and being in bed with criminals and at that time it was not a crime to be a gang leader.
“Subsequent to that, the Government passed legislation (making it) illegal to be a gang member or gang leader.”
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