Opposition Leader Kamla Persad Bissessar has dismissed government’s return to the proposed Anti-Gang legislation as a “PR gimmick”, signaling that her party intends to withhold its support when the Bill returns to the Senate on Tuesday afternoon for debate.

Speaking at Monday night’s Virtual Report, Persad-Bissessar said her concerns still stand, as far as the features of the bill, which she argues has the potential to unfairly infringe on the rights of law abiding citizens. 

The bill, which was narrowly passed back in 2018, expired last year due to a sunset clause.

“So you want to bring that hasten that through and you think that is going to help. That law was there for so long and you have not convicted one person. When you had that law on the statute books you have not been able to convict one person but you continue to try to fool people. You see that as a priority, but you don’t see the law for the pepper spray as being an issue,” she said. 

Last November, following the bill’s defeat in Parliament, National Security Minister Stuart Young blasted what he referred to as dog whistling and gas lighting the population. 

“Yuh see screaming and dog-whistling and trying to distract does not take away the fact that there is a gang problem in every country of the world and we are here as Parliamentarians to protect Trinidad and Tobago and that is why I am saying, respectfully, and I’m pleading with all of my colleagues in the House, do what is right for Trinidad and Tobago. Do what it is that the police service, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, is asking us as legislators to do, which is to continue with the anti-gang legislation,” he said at the time.