POLITICAL LEADER of the People’s Empowerment Party (PEP) Phillip Edward Alexander on Friday condemned political rhetoric inciting violence a day after four young people were killed and five people were wounded in a massacre at a home in the Heights of Guanapo on Thursday.
“We said at the very start that something like this was gonna happen. I said during the Local Government Elections (LGE) that it sounds heady to say kill this one and that one and ‘empty the clip,’ until those people’s gang members or friends and family come to return the favour,” Alexander said during a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Port of Spain.
Police said just after midnight on Thursday, gunmen armed with high-powered weapons stormed into a house at Guanapo Heights and opened fire on the residents.
In the aftermath four youths – a 10-year-old girl identified as Faith Peterkin and three others aged 14, 17 and 19 were dead and two children, 14 and 17, and three adults aged 18, 21 and 25 were wounded.
While police are still searching for a motive behind the killing, a post circulating on social media suggested that the killing was a reprisal for a home invasion.
While on the campaign trail leading up to the August 14 LGE, opposition leader Kamla Persad Bissessar encouraged citizens to defend themselves against criminals.
“I’ll tell you in ‘Trinibad’ music language, you have to load up the ‘matic, pull it back, and knock it on them once, then knock it on them again,” she said.
However, she was speaking in terms of accessing Firearms Users’ Licenses.
On Friday, Alexander knocked politicians for using crime for political points.
“It (crime) should never have been politicised to this point,” he said. “Cheap PNM and UNC politics has to be in the rear-view mirror now. It is not helping and those four little children that died should break our collective hearts. We should not accept this any longer.”
He called for an immediate and total shake-up of National Security, starting with the removal of several officials.
“PEP firmly advocates for the immediate removal of key officials, namely Erla Christopher, Commissioner of Police; Fitzgerald Hinds, National Security Minister; the Comptroller of Customs; and the Commander of the Trinidad & Tobago Coast Guard. We assert that these individuals have failed in their respective roles and are no longer suitable to lead the efforts to secure our nation.”
“Fitzgerald Hinds, in particular, has proven to be unfit for his position, as evidenced by his inadequate responses and insensitive remarks. Such behaviour should not be tolerated from a public servant who is accountable to the citizens,” he said.
He shared the PEP’s crime plan, which included the deployment of the Coast Guard, using existing vessels to establish a protective perimeter three miles of the TT coast, the deployment of the National Air Guard to the southern peninsula to support the Coast Guard, locking down customs inspections so that all containers leaving the port will undergo examinations by Customs
