Crime: Francis Says Pierre Needs To Show Leadership – St. Lucia Times News

Black Immigrant Daily News

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Amid a violent crime wave that has resulted in 64 homicides this year, former National Security Minister Hermangild Francis has said that Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre needs to show leadership.

Pierre is also responsible for national security.

“The Prime Minister needs to show some leadership. You can’t just go and say: ‘ Well, it’s another homicide’ and so on. You must start to put things in place,” Francis, a former Deputy Police Commissioner, told reporters.

He recalled that when he served as a Minister, he said there was a local gang culture and the presence of hit men.

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Francis asserted that people now recognise it, although they ridiculed him at the time.

And while acknowledging that there’s legislation, the veteran former police officer questioned whether police officers have gang detection training.

“Are they sophisticated enough to know how to deal with the gang culture? We do not have that,” Francis observed.

He also spoke of organised crime, noting that some people who work nowhere own houses and have the nicest cars.

“Where is it coming from?” Francis told reporters.

In this regard, he said the Inland Revenue Department must investigate and seize assets ensuring that crime does not pay.

However, the former Minister declared that crime is paying because people are making big profits and having big houses and motor cars although they have not worked one day.

Francis believes the Saint Lucia crime situation is getting out of hand.

Nevertheless, he told reporters he consistently said that people should not blame any government for crime.

The former Minister said while in office people hammered him over his ‘incompetence’.

“Now it has come home to roost,” Francis declared.

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