SoE ends, crackdown continues

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is warn­ing crim­i­nals that her Gov­ern­ment will con­tin­ue to take “harsh and bru­tal mea­sures” against those who ter­rorise law-abid­ing cit­i­zens, even as the State of Emer­gency (SoE) ap­proach­es its Sep­tem­ber 17 end date.

In a Face­book post yes­ter­day, the Prime Min­is­ter de­clared that the six-month SoE had been “high­ly suc­cess­ful”, re­port­ing that 5,802 peo­ple had been ar­rest­ed, with 3,552 charged—a charge rate of 61.2 per cent.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the wider ac­tions of the pro­tec­tive ser­vices had re­sult­ed in crime de­creas­ing across all po­lice di­vi­sions, while the pri­ma­ry threat that prompt­ed the emer­gency mea­sures was be­ing ad­dressed.