Prime Minister Philip J Pierre recently revealed plans to meet with citizens to obtain ‘workable’ solutions to reduce crime island wide following widespread acts of criminality involving guns.
Pierre disclosed his plans last week at a vehicle handover ceremony which forms part of his administration’s efforts “to ensure the RSLPF has the operational, technical and tactical capacity” to address all forms of criminal activity.
Whilst government is trying to curtail the situation, Pierre noted that government does not have all the answers.
“Very soon I’m going to be having a discussion on crime where we’ll call everybody to come and speak and find solutions because everyone may have a solution; the government doesn’t know everything. Let’s discuss it in a balanced, disciplined (and) sensible way. Let us see if we can work together to solve this problem,” Pierre said.
“I call on anyone who has any workable solution to deal with the issue,” the prime minister stated.
Pierre also called for public cooperation, urging individuals to put their political differences aside. According to him, in some instances, colour should not matter.
“There is a scourge of crime which we have to deal with. We’re concerned and the only reason why we’re concerned (is) because it affects all of us. The government is doing whatever we can to solve this situation. We are working with the members of the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force, we’re giving them the resources we can; we’re going to be increasing these resources incrementally,” Pierre said.
“There are certain issues where our colour should not matter and crime is one of these issues. The matter of crime will follow every government so its selfish to believe that now we can play politics or we can play all sorts of gimmicks because of a situation that is unfortunate. We will fight this scourge, we’ll work with the police force, we’ll work with the people of Saint Lucia, and we call on the people of Saint Lucia to work with us. No time for idle words, political potshots, and political gimmicks to gain points, let’s work together,” he added.
