This past weekend, the Ministry of Home Affairs declared a State of Emergency in the St Martin's area following a flare up in inter-gang rivalries. It's the second SOE under the PUP, who have made it clear that they don't believe SOE's are a viable solution to gang crime.
And it seems the St Martin's area rep isn't too happy with it either. He told us today that the "one fits all" approach hurts more than it helps since innocent people get caught up behind bars as well. He also added that there needs to be a lot of thought and effort before just jumping to an SOE - which he believes should only be used as a last resort.
Cordel Hyde, Minister of Natural Resources
"On principle, I don't like state of emergencies and for practical purposes I don't either because the truth of the matter is you are isolating the very people you need to corporate with the police to curve crime. It's a broad sweep, a kind of big round duck that of all on -. Including innocent people because the truth of the matter is, the 60-70 people that you round up are not going to go together to kill anyone or commit any crime. So, you are really taking up innocents in that process too, innocent people are being rounded up also within those 50-60 people that you are dealing with. So, can you imagine how their families feel, their children feel, their friends and the community? They are really pissed that you are isolating them. In Lake I it is a difficult process for us because not everyone commits crime and not everyone is involved in that. Every time you do a state of emergency in our communities, you are really stigmatizing us, you are really stereotyping our people. If you do that, then who is going to want to come invest? Who's going to want to go live there? Who's going to want to engage with our communities? So, we really need to think long and hard before we go to that level. That has to be an absolute last resort, you cannot just willy-nilly decide 'okay we are tired of this, these guys are not listening, we are going to have a state of emergency'. That has to be a last resort mien, and the people at Lake Independence are the best we have in the country."
The UDP called four crime related SOE's - the PUP now have two under their belt.
