00:00Minister in the Ministry of Housing, Philip Alexander outlined the government's position on the need for zones of special operations as the Senate continued its debate of the bill for the ZOZOs on Friday.
00:10There are communities in Trinidad and Tobago where the utility companies don't visit unless they are supported by police.
00:21And listening to the contributions from some on the other side, I wonder if they are disconnected from the plight of the people they call their supporters.
00:38Opposition Senator Melanie Roberts-Ragman appeared to counter that view, warning that the legislation risks criminalizing entire communities.
00:47These zones involve expanded search and detention powers, restrictions on movement, and presumptions of suspicions based on geography.
00:58So understand that when we come here in this parliament and we ask the hard questions coming from both benches,
01:06it's because we know that we are being asked to support entire communities being treated as criminal by default.
01:13The minister in the Ministry of Housing explained that the government's intentions behind the ZOZOs.
01:18Nobody in the government wants to have power to lock people down arbitrarily.
01:27We want the ability to put law enforcement to its proper job of giving the people back their rights and their freedom.
01:43The opposition senator recalled a statement made by another member of the government in the Senate.
02:02When you can have a minister of defense on record stating that a young man wearing his pants below his buttocks is a good enough start to raise reasonable suspicion that warrants police intervention,
02:16and when you have this bill, not just police intervention, but also intervention from the defense force,
02:22do I really need to say more if in this Senate, in this parliament or government ministers are profiling young men simply for the way they dress?
02:38The government hopes that once it gets the required support of independent senators,
02:42the ZOZOs can take effect once the state of emergency expires on January 31st.
02:48Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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