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  • 6 hours ago
The country has more or less been under a State of Emergency since the present government took office.

But with just over a year down, has it been effective in relation to the crime situation?

It's the question that people in some sectors are asking.

We took that question to the streets of Port of Spain today.

Reporter Alicia Boucher and Cameraman Shiva Parasram bring you the details.
Transcript
00:00The government is set to return to the Parliament on Wednesday, seeking a further three-month extension to the present
00:06state of emergency.
00:08Now issues such as national security, criminal enterprises, murders and other serious crime continue to be in focus as it
00:16pertains to the SOE.
00:17We are here on the streets of Port of Spain to find out what is in the mind of citizens
00:22and if they think that a present state of emergency has been effective.
00:26No, not at all, not really. The complete SOE, yes, but that is only because nobody was allowed to go
00:34out.
00:34But with this kind of half a SOE, it's not really making any difference.
00:38Because as you can see, every day is something new, somebody going to shoot, just finding missing children, dead.
00:46If you can bring people, independence ready, and hang them everywhere you can see, crime goes down top.
00:55I hang them when I pray when everybody is drunk and drinking rum. Hang them there.
01:00Emmanuel Ragunanan believes at the heart of the problem is corruption.
01:05And if a corruption going from that level to this level, how are we going to get the proper equality?
01:13How are we going to get proper things done?
01:15Children have not been spared, although the SOE is in effect.
01:18In fact, over the last month, three of them were killed, the latest being 12-year-old Mercedes Lane.
01:26Many have expressed their sadness and outrage via social media.
01:30But with protests seen over the past few weeks pertaining to the Joshua Samaru-Kaya Sealy matter,
01:36we decided to pose this question to the people as well.
01:40So do you think that people should be out protesting about something like this?
01:45They should be out protesting for everything, because right now the country is a total mess.
01:49They come back to our mindset again, and people, we are putting our interests sometimes in the wrong place,
01:55and we are focusing on the wrong things.
01:58The things that really matter, like children.
02:01The little child in Tobago that went missing.
02:04No, I am not surprised, because it's just, you know, it's not going to generate as much of a buzz,
02:13because people are kind of desensitized at this point.
02:16And commenting on the recent peace walk, Anisha Lackan questions why it was shut down,
02:21as she shares an unorthodox opinion on the police.
02:25Put on all their guns on them, they don't put on their guns.
02:27Be the biggest example.
02:30So if the police put down their guns, though, you really think the criminals are going to put down their
02:34guns?
02:36The example comes from them.
02:38And with rival gangs in Port of Spain now being encouraged to form a truce in the name of peace,
02:44Tishon Colreo doesn't see the need for the SOA extension.
02:48But is it sustainable?
02:50I feel like I could go stay for a year, because everybody were peace.
02:54Everybody were peace. Everybody was one.
02:56I love it. I could go anywhere.
02:58But Kelvin Tum calls on certain criminal elements to pay up.
03:02Now, the children who get killed in the war, they need to compensate the family,
03:06because somebody rising and study the laws of the loved ones.
03:09Before you come and shake a next man and study, compensate the family for the laws of the loved ones.
03:13Finally, we bring you the perspective of Philip Black Sage Murray on the SOA extension.
03:19Well, I have to tell this lovely lady, I don't agree with the state of emergency.
03:25In fact, I think it is a disgrace.
03:28There are still too many murders in the place.
03:31And there you have it.
03:32The voices of the people in words and ex-tempo.
03:36Reporting from downtown Port of Spain, Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
03:43You
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