ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell has signaled his intention to desk laws to cope with escalating prison actions in Grenada, significantly gun-related crimes.
He instructed a information convention Tuesday that whereas, for essentially the most half, crime in Grenada “has been trending downwards,” gun-related crimes have been rising.
“In whole, we’ve got 18 homicides for the yr, lots of them are gun-related, and as I’ve stated repeatedly, firearms are deadly, they’re meant to kill, and I daresay, maybe in a few of these cases have been firearms not concerned, a number of the victims might very properly have survived.
“We intend to take a really strong response to this, and the Cupboard intends to pilot laws to amend the Firearms Act to introduce way more important penalties for individuals present in illegal possession of a firearm,” stated Mitchell, a lawyer.
He stated the ceremonial opening of the brand new parliamentary time period can be subsequent week, “and we definitely intend to file the required laws earlier than we go on the Christmas break…in order that it may very well be enacted into legislation to sign our view that the possession of illegal firearms, using illegal firearms, the buying and selling in illegal firearms won’t be one thing that can be tolerated”.
Mitchell stated, as well as, the federal government has appointed a nationwide safety advisory council and that it intends to have the board constituted, “and the primary order of enterprise it will likely be mandated to do is to hold out a sequence of nationwide consultations which we hope to begin in October.”
He stated the consultations would enable for a complete evaluate of nationwide safety and the implementation of packages that guarantee “as a nation, we don’t do violence as a way of conducting ourselves or resolving our disputes.
“We intend to again this up by contracting with a specialist“ within the space of behavioral science,” he stated, including, “as a result of one of many clear issues that’s apparent is concerning the acts of violence, usually the perpetrators and the victims know one another.”
Prime Minister Mitchell stated that the federal government will even be constituting a challenge group to advise it on implementing CCTV cameras in important public areas on the island.
He stated the federal government already possesses the cameras and that his administration will undertake a deliberate coverage of investing extra within the Coast Guard.
“We definitely acknowledge that we don’t produce firearms in Grenada, and they’re coming into Grenada from outdoors of Grenada. We proceed to work with our companions within the area and North America, particularly, to deal with how we are able to impede the stream of firearms into Grenada and into the realm.
“As soon as they get into the area, then we too are weak for the chance of it moving into Grenada, and lots of cases, the firearm commerce is tied with the narcotics commerce, and it’s also a major problem for us as a result of whereas we assist lots of our companions to stem the stream of narcotics to the north, we have to guarantee that they’re working assiduously with us to manage the stream of arms to the south and into our respective nations, Mitchell instructed reporters.
Final Tuesday, Grenada police stated they weren’t ruling out the opportunity of cross-border prison actions after a 51-year-old St. Vincent and the Grenadines nationwide was shot and killed as he sat in his automobile.
The newly appointed head of the Prison Investigation Division (CID), Superintendent Esau Pierre, instructed a information convention concerning the homicide of Dexter Probability “that as a result of Grenada has porous borders, one can by no means eradicate the probabilities and motion of individuals linked to the underworld.
“And as such, we are going to all the time up our guard… regarding cross border criminality. Regarding this explicit case, we proceed our investigations, and we are going to decide the place the assailants originated from.
“However our investigations will reveal the data subsequently. However I can’t at this stage enterprise to say whether or not it’s native or regional, however it’s a concern for us the place the criminality is imported and just like the firearms, firearms are imported,” Pierre instructed the information convention.
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