Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar SC is urging citizens to exercise greater emotional control and restraint, saying dozens of murders this year could have been prevented if disputes had not escalated into violence.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Prime Minister referenced comments made by Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles Jason Gordon in 2019, when he warned that the country needed to examine the root causes of violence and how everyday behaviour contributed to rising tensions.

The Prime Minister quoted the Archbishop, who said, “The violence in our country is very, very difficult to deal with and it escalates and just keeps escalating and keeps escalating. As a nation, we have to stop and ask, what’s all this anger about and where is all this violence coming from and how are we contributing to this violence? By the way we drive, our short temper at home, in the workplace, by the way that we are contributing to the build-up of tension, and I think every citizen can find a way to bring it down.”