Beckles: ZOSO return shows Govt has no real crime plan

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has slammed the Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to bring the Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions (ZOSO) Bill back to Par­lia­ment, ar­gu­ing that its re­vival as the State of Emer­gency (SoE) comes to an end next week shows the Gov­ern­ment has no ef­fec­tive al­ter­na­tive strat­e­gy to tack­le crime.

In a state­ment fol­low­ing Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der’s an­nounce­ment in Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day, Beck­les de­scribed the leg­is­la­tion as a “failed and com­pro­mised” bill.

“The an­nounce­ment mo­ments ago to bring the failed and com­pro­mised ZOSO Bill back to Par­lia­ment rais­es se­ri­ous ques­tions about whether this Gov­ern­ment has any re­al in­ter­est in ad­dress­ing crime in this coun­try,” Beck­les said.