NOW IT’S CODE ‘Holistic’ subway safety measures
RED IN T&T
health system that is close to collapse,
so close that the US government was
forced to recently donate two field hospitals
to bolster the severely pressured
state and private systems.
A record 23 persons died between
Monday and Tuesday, eclipsing the 21
who perished in a single day last week.
Those numbers, are of course, the highest
for a single day in any of the 15
nations of CARICOM.
That number and urgings from the
umbrella local chamber of commerce
helped PM Rowley to declare a Covid
pandemic state of emergency last weekend.
Current rules include a ban on
most mass public and outdoor activities
including gyms and parks, beaches and
other places that accommodate large
numbers of persons. A night time curfew
is also in effect but so worried is the
chamber about the situation spiraling
even further out of control that it has
asked Rowley and company to impose a
24-hour curfew on Sundays and bring
down the curfew starting time from
9.pm to 6.pm.
“In the midst of today’s serious
increase of reported cases and deaths
and following the worsening trajectory
of the pandemic in Trinidad and Tobago,
we wish to respectfully suggest that
Caribbean L 18 ife, MAY 21-27, 2021
more serious action is required to stave
off more calamity and loss of confidence,”
the chamber said.
An indication that too many locals are
not taking the health threat seriously
enough, authorities reported that a total
of 360,000 people or about a third of the
national population had dared to apply
for curfew waivers. Police Griffith said
he was forced to reject a grand total of
350,000 of those applicants according to
the Guardian newspaper.
And desperate to address the situation,
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amery
Browne told a hearing of the senate this
week that PM Rowley has already made
moves to directly contact US President
Joe Biden, pleading for a large enough
batch of vaccines to be made available
to locals.
Continued from Page 1
leaders falsely equating public safety
far too simply with policing, and
sending more officers in to solve
problems they are not equipped to
address rather than investing in
the solutions we know can work,”
said Williams, the son of Grenadian
immigrants. “Everyone has a role to
play in public safety, but those roles
are not all in law enforcement.
“Expanding homeless services
rather than trying to ban unhoused
individuals, increasing mental
health outreach rather than NYPD
response, and increasing uniformed
MTA staff rather than armed police
officers are all critical ways to maintain
the confidence in the system
that some leaders have been trying
to undermine,” he added.
During a press conference Monday
morning alongside elected officials,
advocates, and transit employees,
the Public Advocate rejected what
he labeled as “both the fearmongering
of Gov. Cuomo and others about
the state of the subway, and the idea
that additional police are the sole
solution to public safety within the
transit system.”
Specifically, the coalition highlighted:
Calls for the re-hiring of
3,100 MTA workers laid off early in
the pandemic, and addition of nonpolice
uniformed MTA employees to
promote public safety; and opposition
to the surging of additional
NYPD or state police officers into the
transit system, and a call to shift the
focus of officers currently patrolling
the subways away from minor violations
such as fare evasion, as well
as tasks which should not be left to
police such as homeless services or
mental health intervention.
The coalition also underscored
demands for an end to the efforts
against homeless people added to
the MTA Code of Conduct during
the COVID-19 shutdown which have
included banning people from taking
wheeled carts of over 30 inches
long or wide into the subway system,
banning people from staying
in a subway station for longer than
one hour, and banning people from
staying in a subway terminal after a
train is taken out of service.
Williams also stressed the importance
of recognizing “both the realities
of public safety on the subways
and the perception New Yorkers
having,” acknowledging that
each are important but emphasizing
that “actions based on false notions
of what public safety is – namely,
the default position of continually
increasing law enforcement presence
– is detrimental to both changing
these false notions and promoting
holistic public safety.”
Continued from Page 1
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister,
Dr. Keith Rowley. Photo by Nelson A. King
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