00:00You cannot centralize the calling of zones in the hand of the Prime Minister and say Jamaica does it
00:06when the National Security Council in Jamaica involves the opposition when required.
00:12Senator and former Attorney General Paris Al-Rawi giving the opposition's first response
00:16during the Senate's debate of the bill for the zones of special operations.
00:20The government planned the alternative to the state of emergency in Trinidad and Tobago,
00:25which ends on January 31st.
00:27Attorney General John Jeremy recalled the opposition senator's past tenure as Attorney General.
00:33Senator Al-Rawi is not going to tell an untruth.
00:38He drafted a law which is almost on all fours with the piece of legislation that is before us today.
00:50It failed in the womb in the cabinet of the People's National Movement.
00:57Senator Al-Rawi gave his response.
01:00I've drafted this law in principle form and did not push it through.
01:04It was not killed in the womb of the PNM.
01:06If any place it was killed, it is by Mrs. Passard-Bissessa in the womb of the UNC,
01:11who for nine, eight, seven years refused to comment on the law
01:17which the Honorable Attorney General brings forward today.
01:19Attorney General Jeremy said he received the police commissioner's permission
01:23to disclose analysis of intelligence gathered in the past six months of the state of emergency.
01:29This is a police report, not me.
01:34They said that serious crime was not evenly distributed across the country.
01:41Certain areas consistently recorded higher volumes of serious crime,
01:47reflecting a combination of population density, socioeconomic factors,
01:52entrenched gang activities, historical patterns of criminal settlement
01:58and proximity to major transport and economic corridors.
02:02As for the planned zones of special operations?
02:06It has been said that these zones somehow target persons belonging to a particular race,
02:14a particular creed, and some misguided persons suggest that
02:22that might extend even to a political party.
02:28I wish to be clear.
02:31The government is targeting criminals.
02:34It is targeting gangs.
02:36It is targeting the leaders of those gangs
02:39and the membership of the gangs.
02:44The bill has a requirement of the required support of independent senators to become law.
02:51Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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