PM: Police not your enemy

THE Prime Minister on Thursday warned people protesting in Port of Spain not to pick up arms against the police. At a news conference at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann's, Dr Rowley said some of these people think they can engage police in a gunfight.

Telling them this is a war they cannot win, Rowley said, "The police is not your enemy." He added that many people agitating against the police, may need their protection at some point. He also announced the establishment of a national recovery programme which will address issues in at-risk communities.

The committee spearheading the programme will be led by psychologist Dr Anthony Watkins and other members include Community Development, Culture and the Arts Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, football coach Jamal Shabazz, Hans Des Vignes, Curtis Toussaint, Nicola Harvey and A. Edwards.

Rowley said many of the problems taking place in communities where the protests took place could have been averted if a programme he spearheaded in 2004, to deal with young African youths in at-risk communities, was not scrapped.

Rowley, who was planning minister at the time, recalled that opposition UNC parliamentarians called him a racist for undertaking that programme. He said some of his then PNM colleagues distanced themselves from the programme and called it "a misprint."

Rowley criticised UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar for claiming he was showing no leadership during the protests earlier this week and reminded the population about the Lifesport programme under Persad-Bissessar's administration. He claimed that some of the players involved in Lifesport were involved in the current protests.