- 6 hours ago
As the nation prepares to celebrate Emancipation Day on Saturday, Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander is expressing his concerns that Africans are QUOTE "an endangered species" END QUOTE.
Minister Alexander spoke on the issue in his Emancipation Day message.
Minister Alexander spoke on the issue in his Emancipation Day message.
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00:00Topping the news, as the nation prepares to celebrate Emancipation Day tomorrow,
00:04Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander is expressing his concerns that Africans are, quote,
00:10an endangered species, end quote.
00:12Minister Alexander spoke on the issue in his Emancipation Day message.
00:17I know some of us will not be impressed with what I say,
00:21because most African males do not have the testicular fortitude to say it.
00:27We are an endangered species.
00:31Not just young men, but Africans on a whole, whether we like it or not.
00:37And who is doing all of this?
00:41We.
00:42We are doing it each other.
00:44So what really changed?
00:47The Homeland Security Minister says he has more questions than answers.
00:54I have more questions than answers.
00:58Because why, after so long, we are celebrating Emancipation.
01:07But still mentally, we are still on that slave ship, making that same trip.
01:16And I say this, what are we doing differently?
01:23To change the hearts and minds of our people.
01:27To richly educate them.
01:30To prepare young men to be adults, to be fathers.
01:34And women to be able to manage their career and their family at the same time.
01:39And what are we doing?
01:42Minister Alexander also made an apparent reference to organizations that seek funding, rather, for their own Emancipation Day events.
01:52I'm of the opinion at times that every year, we celebrate the Emancipation, our culture, our displays, our heritage, our
02:05clothing, our hairstyle, our talent.
02:10We put it on display, basically once a year.
02:15But yet we say, this is embedded into us, this is who we are.
02:20But we don't practice what we talk about and what we do every day.
02:25And then we have the people who, all they want to do is to put Africa at the front of
02:33their applications, whether it's an association, an NGO, or whoever, looking for money.
02:41But the question is, every year we walk up and down the streets, dance, we celebrate.
02:49And still, we are mentally captured to the extent where I believe that we are still working in the era
03:04of a slave on the outside, fighting, killing to get on the inside.
03:13That hasn't changed one day.
03:16Well, on the line with us now is Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander to explain exactly what he means when
03:23he says Africans in this country are an endangered species.
03:28Minister, good evening.
03:30Hi, good evening.
03:31And how are you doing?
03:33I'm fine.
03:34Can you please tell us your thoughts based on those statements that you would have made?
03:40All right, well, understanding the message, I could afford to speak to it because I'm an African male.
03:47I've been here, I understand it from every angle.
03:51Coming from law enforcement, and now as a minister.
03:55If you look at what is happening in the streets, time and time again, we are killing out each other.
04:04And now we reach a stage where you're trying to kill children, women.
04:09We don't care.
04:12When you look at the numbers, when you look at the people involved, you tell me why that statement sounds
04:17so surprising to some.
04:20You see, we have been left behind in this way, believing that all we can do, as I said before,
04:28is to become grass cutters and no one, no one, even from our own, among ourselves, stand up, get together
04:39as a team, get together as a people and say, you know what, let's help this situation.
04:44Let's just try to fix it.
04:46Let's remove this thought in the minds of black men that all they can do is kill, kill, kill, rob,
04:55rob, rob, rape, rape, rape, rape, and all these things.
04:59Let us change that concept.
05:01And if we have to use emancipation to do it, then let us do that.
05:04We cannot be celebrating emancipation whenever people are doing the same thing over and over and over again.
05:13And what we're just celebrating.
05:15What are we really celebrating?
05:17Let's change that.
05:18That's all I said.
05:20And, Minister, what are some of the things that you think we need to do in order to change that?
05:27All right.
05:28I often congratulate, commend persons who look like me and have done well.
05:38But then it must not stop there.
05:41Let's give back.
05:42Let's make our ancestors proud again.
05:45Let's help those in need, not just in terms of food and clothing, you know.
05:50Let us educate them.
05:53Let us develop their minds.
05:56Let us develop people who we could be proud of later on and not afraid of.
06:01Mr. Boucher, if you see someone coming and he looks a certain way afraid because it looks like a robbery.
06:06No.
06:07Let's change that concept, that mindset that we have.
06:10And that is what I was saying.
06:12All these years has gone.
06:13And what have we done?
06:14What have we really done to change any of that?
06:16Look what I'm doing in Tunapuna right now.
06:18At first, I had 288 young women.
06:23And when you look at the composition of the persons, you tell me where I went wrong in the statement.
06:28Young, black, girls, ladies.
06:33I have another project taking place in Tunapuna again with the barbering course.
06:37Young, black men.
06:39They are coming out in their numbers because they want to be different.
06:44But the question is, they have nowhere to go and sometimes no one to turn to.
06:50But yet, again, when I said, you know, the emancipation people on a whole, you know, you say, you put
06:57Africa on to the front of the name and you say yes.
06:59But the question is, what are you doing to help the situation?
07:04You're just going to open the newspaper every day and see this one shot, that one shot, four men shot,
07:09this one on charge and thing.
07:11And that is enough.
07:12That's where you're seeing your people.
07:14But then something is really wrong with us.
07:16I'm convinced.
07:18Minister, you would have mentioned educating and empowering young people.
07:25We have programs right now like the Civilian Conservation Corps and MILAD presently suspended by your government.
07:33Statements would have been made that these programs were to give people a second chance, people who otherwise would not
07:40have had that chance.
07:42What are your personal thoughts on that?
07:44I know it falls underneath the Ministry of Defense, but what are your thoughts on that?
07:49Everything that is not present at this time will be, will be reformed and returned in one way or another.
08:00But here it is.
08:02Those programs existed all the time.
08:03But has the problem been addressed?
08:08And this is what I'm saying.
08:10Now, we can invite someone to come and participate.
08:14But you know and I know we have to go deeper into the minds of these youths, no more than
08:18ever.
08:19This is not in my time when it was easy and mommy said, go and do this.
08:22Now, we want to come, but they want to know what it is for them and a set of questions
08:27that we have to answer.
08:29But there must be persons there who could shape and mentor them into being perfect human beings and not just
08:36running about the place, headless all over the place and causing issues until they are branded by their own.
08:42And then let us go even deeper.
08:45How often do you see a black man progressing well and other black people supporting and celebrating that?
08:52Go ahead.
08:53Minister, I believe that it was in the 2022 cohort.
08:58It was stated out of the over 1,600 graduands of my last.
09:04About 200, over 200 of those would have opened up business.
09:09Do you not consider that success?
09:12Of course.
09:15I have done it in Tunapuna already.
09:19A very large number of them have already opened up business in the area and out of the area.
09:24Call duty and all of these things.
09:26What I'm saying to you is this.
09:28If we continue to hide, then we are not helping out the black community at all at all.
09:35We are just waiting and waiting.
09:37And every year, we will check the statistics and so we will be going over and over and over and
09:42over.
09:43Why is this?
09:45That we as a people cannot come out and say, listen, let's target Lavantel.
09:50Let's target the Beaton.
09:51Let's target Maloney.
09:53Let's get together.
09:54Let's see if we can bring them out and have a good conversation with them and a meaningful one to
09:59help guide them and think, why these things are not happening?
10:02It's always an individual effort.
10:04One person is doing it and he's trying and another one person.
10:07But when you get together as a people, then success is almost assured.
10:14Thank you so much, Minister, for sharing those thoughts with us on the eve of Emancipation Day and for clarifying
10:21those statements that you would have made delving deeper into it.
10:24Well, that story takes us to our People Meter.
10:27We ask, do you agree with the Homeland Security Minister that Africans in this country are an endangered species?
10:42Well, to vote, you can text yes or no to the number 766-4886.
10:48That's 766-4TV6.
10:51We'll have the results for you at the end of the newscast.
10:57The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service continues to be unfairly criticized in its fight against crime.
11:03This from Police Commissioner Alistair Guevara.
11:05As he spoke in Tobago on Friday at a Shevon Road police station.
11:09Guevara said when it comes to murders, the statistics continue to trend lower.
11:15More in this Elizabeth Williams report.
11:18And now for the same comparative period as for last year, we are still trending lower.
11:25So, even though it is marginally lower, what I want everyone to consider is that the last time Trinidad was
11:33seen homicide and serious crime rates this low was in 2011.
11:40Talk for that!
11:46221 murders have been recorded this year, compared to 226 last year, down by 5.
11:53The Police Commissioner spoke during a commendation awards function at the Shevon Road police station on Friday,
12:00where officers were awarded for their attendance and care for duty.
12:05Guevara hailed the SOE and PDO initiatives.
12:08When the homicide rates climbed to 626 in 2024, the police were blamed as if we were outside killing people.
12:20But when we utilized the measures implemented and powers given to us by the states of emergency,
12:29which we know as war and death entry and preventative detention of us.
12:36And we increased our operational posture and executed what I would consider some of the greatest operational and strategic plans
12:47that the TTPS has ever done.
12:49We reduced that mode of figure by 42% in 2025.
12:53He said members of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, TTPS, continue to be criticized, despite going beyond the call
13:02of duty.
13:04But guess what?
13:06They're still criticizing us!
13:09And they're not only criticizing us,
13:12they're even criticizing the same videos and the war and death entry
13:15that we are using
13:18to keep the crime figures low.
13:21And we are getting this criticism from persons
13:24who have never had to confront, as we call it in local palace,
13:28as a gunman!
13:30They never had to secure a crime scene with people's brains all over the ground.
13:35They never had to face the dangers that you face everything.
13:39And they never had to deliver
13:41adept notice
13:42to our father, mother,
13:45brother, sister,
13:46niece, nephew
13:47to say, hey,
13:48your loved one is coming home tonight
13:50and you'll never see that person again.
13:52They never had to do that.
13:54But you know what they will do?
13:55They will go on Facebook,
13:57Instagram,
13:58and they will criticize the police.
14:00He said house arrest
14:02is now the latest task,
14:04seeming to refer to Star Sabga,
14:06who is under house arrest.
14:08They're calling for more patrols,
14:10more prisons in schools,
14:12they want prisons and police in every street corner,
14:15in every shopping area.
14:18Now they even want us in the prison.
14:22And the latest task that they have given to us now
14:24is that they want us to put people on house arrest.
14:29Yeah, let me hear you correctly.
14:32So people now want to make the jail in their own house.
14:36Elizabeth Williams, TV6 News.
14:39Just a bit of correction to something I would have stated
14:42in our interview with Minister Alexander,
14:45as it pertains to the 2022 cohort.
14:47Those statistics in terms of those
14:49who would have opened up businesses,
14:51that is attributed to the Civilian Conservation Corps
14:54and not my lot.
14:55Coming up in the TV6 News,
14:57the finance minister speaks to the tax on hybrid vehicles.
15:02We'll tell you more after the break.
15:04We'll tell you more after the break.
15:05We'll tell you more after the break.
15:05We'll tell you more after the break.
15:06We'll tell you more after the break.
15:06We'll tell you more after the break.
15:06We'll tell you more after the break.
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