Akash Sama­roo

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is chal­leng­ing the Gov­ern­ment to pro­vide ev­i­dence that its re­peat­ed use of States of Emer­gency (SoEs) is ef­fec­tive­ly re­duc­ing crime, ar­gu­ing that cit­i­zens are be­ing asked to sup­port ex­tra­or­di­nary mea­sures with­out ac­cess to the da­ta need­ed to as­sess whether they are work­ing.

Speak­ing on her way to Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day to de­bate a pro­posed three-month ex­ten­sion of the cur­rent SoE, Beck­les ques­tioned the Gov­ern­ment’s crime-fight­ing strat­e­gy and said the pub­lic de­serves greater trans­paren­cy.