Port of Spain; The Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago Anand Ramlogan believe money is being wasted on the army and it needs to stop. He said it's just not practical for that amount to be spent on the Defence Force which comprise of Coast Guard, Regiment and Air Guard unit, "we are not in Siberia or Afghanistan," he expressed in the Senate yesterday during debate on the Defence Bill. A whopping $1b a year is spent on them to be on standby, idly waiting for something to happen, that may never happen. Noting there were several other Commonwealth countries who were also putting this type of legislation in place to fight crime. He emphasised the fact that criminals were well armed, dangerous and evil, which continously have the citizens living in fear. It was therefore necessary to have the joint Army and Police work together in the fight against crime.
The view was that Coast Guard officers feel as though their hands are tied because they have no power to arrest, search or detain on land, they will have to end a chase after a smuggler on the high seas makes landfall. Also what would the Air Guard officers do if they are fired upon while looking for a marijuana field or a kidnapper, because they are not precepted.
The AG believes what his Government is attempting to do should come as nothing new to the country; since it had been done before outside the authority of legislation. Examples he gave were Operation Anaconda and Operation Baghdad in Laventille, in relation to other joint army and police efforts with an attempt to curb the crime situation, he also spoke about the Special Anti Crime Unit of T&T (Sautt) which were all set up by the PNM. In defence of his government's actions, he insisted it will be unfair to have soldiers fight crime along-side the police and not have them armed for protection. He said there is a manpower shortage in the police service and precepted soldiers will give it a necessary boost.
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