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  • 1 year ago
Chief Secretary Farley Augustine is not at all happy with the TTPS in Tobago and the fight against crime. His comments come in the wake of two murders within two days in Argyle Tobago, pushing the murder toll to twenty-four. More in this Elizabeth Williams report.
Transcript
00:00And allow me to be quite candid, I was pretty annoyed, probably more than annoyed, probably
00:07angry when I saw the murders happening in quick succession in that Agile area.
00:14Because in my mind, the Tumehoso Assembly, we are spending gargantuan sums on security.
00:25Mr Agustin said, THA monies have been shifted from various projects towards Tipeko's fight
00:32against crime, yet he is not seeing tangible results.
00:36Monies we don't have, we're moving from other projects and putting it to the national security
00:42apparatus.
00:43When they come and say we don't have vehicles, we find new vehicles.
00:44If we have to rent it, we find new vehicles and give it to them.
00:45When they come and say, look, we don't have accommodation and we need to accommodate three,
00:46four, five different units of land, we don't have it.
00:47When they come and they say, look, we need to motivate the officers, we provide anything
00:54that is asked for, we find a way to provide it, and I feel like we're not getting the
01:09results we want.
01:12Mr Agustin is asking, what is the point of licensing officers shutting down the streets
01:18of Tipeko routinely when the escalation of crime continues?
01:21I don't know, licensing and myself, we don't have the best of relationships.
01:27But I have to ask whether or not the strategy where we come once in a while and shut down
01:35the island and this mass operation, if that is effective, if that is actually working.
01:41Because it has not proven to stop the tide of criminality that we are experiencing.
01:48Agustin said religious leaders' priority should be more than just the collection of tithes
01:54and offerings from members.
01:56But I wonder sometimes, and I know I will get some political licks with that, but I
02:00say anyway, I wonder sometimes if the efforts from some faith-based organizations aren't
02:08heavy on how much we collect in the seeds we ask people to sow, and not so much on
02:16the social outreach programs.
02:19Agustin made reference to a primary school student he spoke to in Tipeko East who told
02:25him crime does pay and has its rewards.
02:28He said to me something that I never thought I would hear from a primary school child.
02:35He said to me that he has a relative, an uncle to be precise, that is involved with the sevens.
02:44His uncle, he tells me where he lives, he tells me his uncle does robberies and so on,
02:48but his uncles make more than that a month, right?
02:53And it dawned on me that perhaps while we are thinking crime does not pay, for some
03:03in our community, they see it as paying, as bringing dividends that support their families
03:10in one way or the other.
03:12He said communities must do more.
03:15I am saying we have to go back to a place where families take responsibility, because
03:22how can we have in a home a young man being told and taught that, look, I am profiting
03:31from my crime proceeds, this is what the profits look like, it's a good thing, and that's happening
03:37normally in a family.
03:39What happened to the days when if you carried home a pencil that did not belong to you,
03:43you got licks to take it back because it's not yours, or if you took home a copybook
03:48that was not yours, you had to account for why it was in your bag.
03:52Elizabeth Williams, TV6 News.
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