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HARRIS DECRIES CRIME SURGE, DREW’S INACTION

PLP Press Release

April 19, 2024

Member of Parliament for St. Christopher 7 and the nation’s third Prime Minister, Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris delivered a heartfelt address to the nation today, Friday 19^th April 2024, in which he expressed his profound sadness and sympathies for the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives senselessly, and also called for action from the seemingly unresponsive Drew administration in the face of escalating murders and gun related activities in St. Kitts and Nevis.

Dr. Harris decried the deplorable situation in which the country now finds itself, having witnessed 11 murders for the year so far. This includes two in less than a 24-hour period and a total of three this week alone.

Dr. Harris said that the Drew administration is failing at its most fundamental duty of keeping the people safe. He said, “It is given that the principal obligation of the government is to protect its people. The frequency of these daring murders – some in broad daylight and in public spaces – is an indisputable reminder of the abject failure of the Drew administration to keep our people and Country safe.”

The MP further insisted that it was the present government’s unwise decisions to systematically dismantle the effective structures that were put in place by the Dr. Harris-led Team Unity administration to keep the people safe.

He noted, “through strong leadership, and the acceptance of accountability by our Team Unity Government of its sacred duty to keep our people safe we, by 2022 had reduced homicides to some of the lowest levels experienced in over a decade. This success in crime fighting did not come overnight but by hard work and sacrifice by our stakeholders.  It took innovation and brave policy actions reflected in the PEACE, the Explorers’ Club, the island-wide build out of CCTV, forensic laboratories, reorganization and support to law enforcement agencies, and targeted social safety nets to assist the vulnerable families and households in our society.”

“Unfortunately, the government that succeeded us forgot that government is continuous.  It unwisely dismantled the very effective structures that we had put in place to keep our people safe,” Dr. Harris added.

Dr. Harris maintains that the people of St. Kitts and Nevis deserves a Government that understands that results-oriented solutions to the escalating murder rate are required with extreme urgency. In the meantime, he strongly urges the Cabinet of Ministers to end their globetrotting and refocus their energies towards the safety and wellbeing of the people here in the Federation.

END