Two Opposition MPs yesterday called for an attack and social intervention in the fight against crime.There were four murders within 24 hours in three separate incidents on Sunday and yesterday.Nine-year-old Jadel Holder and his 15-year-old brother, Jamal Brathwaite, were shot in the head at point-blank range after gunmen stormed their house. Their mother escaped.MP for Laventille West NiLeung Hypolite said:"An urgent frontal attack is required on crime by the National Security Ministry immediately." Citizens cannot accept 186 murders in 151 days, he added in a statement. He said the crime detection rate must also improve. adding: "Ongoing investigations must be improved.
Few have led to prompt arrest actions." The Government has not delivered on its promise to successfully fight crime, he said.The police must partner with communities and all stakeholders to develop strategies to frontally attack crime, Hypolite noted.He said the acting Commissioner of Police recently assured citizens that crime initiatives were working and the National Security Minister provided information showing a "false reduction" in crime.But he maintained the current statistics "indicated an unacceptable increase in crimes and murders, therefore citizens are not reassured."Hypolite said National Security Minister Gary Griffith "insists in the face of evidence to the contrary that crime is under control. It is not."
Laventille East/Morvant MP Donna Cox expressed sadness over the deaths of the two boys from her constituency.She said despite what people were saying "they were children."She said the Government should offer social intervention programmes to the relatives of those who died, adding that counselling was necessary as some would have witnessed the killings.Cox was expected to visit the boys' mother yesterday.