La Brea MP scoffs at Moonilal’s crime reduction claims

Claims by Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal that the country's crime rate has decreased in the past two months have come under fire from La Brea MP Fitzgerald Jeffery and former chief of defence staff Edmund Dillon. Speaking at the first La Brea Police Youth Club March Against Crime yesterday, Jeffery accused National Security Minister Jack Warner of “gallerying” in front of the media while no concrete achievements were being made towards curbing the crime rate.

“Maybe in the last few days in Laventille it has gone down, but when you look at the overall situation I think it’s more talk than anything else,” he said. Moonilal made the statements during a People’s Partnership round table discussion on national television on Wednesday night saying crime had decreased since Warner became National Security Minister in July. “It’s time he get down to the work and stop talking,” added Jeffery.

He said the Government was setting a bad example for young people by making them believe that corruption was the norm. Jeffrey added that the early proclamation of the controversial Section 34 was evidence of this. Meanwhile, Edmund Dillon, former chief of defence staff, who like Jeffrey was among specially invited guests, said he could not comment on the actual crime rate without having statistics at hand. He said, however, that the perception of a growing crime rate was perhaps more pertinent.

“The fear of crime alone is more than crime itself. Forget the stats and look at the fear of crime. Crime isn’t rampant in La Brea, but people still fear it and that is the barometer of crime. You need to put things in place to make people comfortable and have a sense of security,” he said. Dillon also said the ministry could not fight crime by itself.

“Crime on its own is not something that any one entity can treat with. There are several strategies needed and the more you can put into being at the different levels, organisations and institutions will have a significant impact on the crime situation.”