Former Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee has criticised the new government’s initiative to curb the sale of alcohol after 2AM, saying there is no evidence that suggests the hours of operations of nightspots have any correlation to crime rates.
Rohee lashed out at Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan’s drive to enforce the law that is over 70 years old and stated that without an anti-crime plan, which he said the government does not have, the “curfew” is useless.
“I never did it when I was there, my friend, so why must I do it now? This country is a very opened and relaxed country. There is a certain culture which we share with the Caribbean as Caribbean people and I have never ever noticed during my tenure as Minister of Home Affairs that bars and clubs remaining open after 2 ’o clock led to any spike. There is no scientific data that anyone could provide,” Rohee told reporters during a press conference held at the PPP’s Freedom House headquarters on Robb Street.
Rohee was asked questions in his capacity as the former home affairs minister.
“What you need is not necessarily exclusively an anti-crime plan, because fighting crime is part of violence prevention, so we need to look as the wider dimension,” he said, before adding, “That’s why we always say the police alone cannot fight this social ill.”
According to Rohee, both Ramjattan and President David Granger seemed to have had the solutions during the last Parliament and as a result he expected that when they got into office they would have the
