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Akash Sama­roo

At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie says the Gov­ern­ment had no al­ter­na­tive but to take “de­ci­sive ac­tion” to de­clare yes­ter­day’s State of Emer­gency (SoE), cit­ing a trou­bling spike in grue­some, gang-re­lat­ed crimes al­leged­ly or­ches­trat­ed by gang mem­bers from in­side the na­tion’s pris­ons.

Jus­ti­fy­ing the de­ci­sion dur­ing a me­dia con­fer­ence at the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al’s Of­fice in Port-of-Spain, Je­re­mie said, “We were left with no choice but to take the most dra­mat­ic ac­tion avail­able un­der the Con­sti­tu­tion. We have done that, and we make no apolo­gies for it.”