Senator Chester Hughes Warns of Already Stretched Law Enforcement Ahead of CHOGM

Minority Leader Senator Chester Hughes used the closing stretch of his contribution to Monday afternoon's firearms debate to examine the machinery expected to enforce the new penalties and found a police force run on announcements, broken vehicles and borrowed time, with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting about to stretch it thinner still.

"The structure of our crime-fighting machinery is what we have to look at. What condition is our crime-fighting machinery in?" he asked. "We've come in here, and we're talking about guns and talking about this and talking about that... But I have not heard the structure of our crime-fighting machinery being brought by any member."

Stations Open Round the Clock — with Whom?

Exhibit one was the Government's announcement of extended police-station hours. "We just get up and say police stations open round the clock now," the Minority Leader said. "Do you have the manpower to carry the stations around the clock, with all the problems that occur? Police must patrol; police must [do] this; police must do that. What [are] police? They're human. They have family. They have to go home to family too."

"Are they resourced?" he pressed. "Once you go to a police station, [there's] one policeman at the guard desk, and then you have to find his superintendent when you file a complaint... because the rest [of the] officers might be taking their rest. Come on. Come on. That's how we look at it? Knee-jerk reaction." The same understaffed stations, he added, must also police community events, crowd control and traffic: "We have to do things a bit more orderly in this society and stop looking at it as just a knee-jerk reaction. Stop looking at it as quelling people's emotions."

The fleet tells the same story, he argued: "They buy 10 cars and they expect the cars to [last]... When they carry [one to the] motor pool for service, they say bring it back next week — and the car broke down... There's nothing in place. It's just cosmetic things they doing. Pure cosmetic."

The charge lands on ground already mapped by the opposition: in the Lower House, Opposition Leader Jamale Pringle cited the police's own business plans reporting that some agencies "cannot even get uniforms."

The CHOGM Squeeze

Then came the warning about next month's Commonwealth summit. "I'm very concerned. Very, very concerned," Senator Hughes said. "We have CHOGM coming, and our forces locally are going to be stretched — even with those who are coming in. We just passed legislation to get assistance for them. But those coming in [are] not going to worry about local issues. They come for a particular purpose. You think crime is going to stop when CHOGM comes? No. Police locally still have to do their work."

He coupled the concern with a striking claim about where the summit's resources are coming from: "Just the other day somebody said to me that they [the government] called for their car, because they need their vehicle for CHOGM. They're commandeering vehicles now in government. So, if your vehicle look nice... we're commandeering it from you, because we need that for CHOGM." The Minority Leader added that vehicles have been "taken from other people to give to people."

The senator's comments were to caution that the summit may consume the very capacity the crime fight needs.

Senator Hughes also returned to the Prime Minister's martial rhetoric with unease: "The Prime Minister said, 'Well, match them gun with gun. They have big guns; we are coming out with big guns too.' So, it's gun for gun. When he said that, Madame President, I started to worry — because you know what I said? What is really going to happen in this society if guns and guns start to blaze?"

The Recommendation: "Symposium on Crime"

Against the "cosmetic," the Minority Leader set out his central proposal — a national reckoning, before more legislation. "What we need is a proper symposium on crime. Let's get to the truth. Let's get to the truth of where we are as a society," he urged. "Until we are honest with ourselves, we're going to continue to live a lie as a society."

The honesty he demanded cuts in both political directions. To the government, which he accused of still campaigning against an administration gone for over a decade: "How long [have] the UPP [been] out of power now? 12 years... The UPP has been removed from government 12 years ago, and you're still blaming UPP for everything that is happening under you."

And to the chamber as a whole: "As Minority Leader, you know, I have to say this: it is time for us to stop being so partisan, because what is happening is that we are sending the wrong signal to the next generation," he said. "There are some things, Madame President, that are bipartisan that you should have dialogue and conversations on. You must have dialogue and conversation. So, when you come to the House, you're coming to the House with a view of both parties." The appeal matched Opposition Leader Pringle's call, when the bill passed the Lower House, for all stakeholders around one table.

Lack of Statistics from the Government Bench

Senator Hughes closed with a jab at the quality of the day's debate itself — contrasting his instruction to opposition senators to "do the necessary research... and they come and they debate" with what he heard from across the aisle: "I've not heard anybody on the government side bring the crime statistics as to why we're here — nothing at all."

He made one exception, commending government Senator Shaquan O'Neal "because he attempted to bring some statistics. Although they were not outlined how I think they should be outlined, he tried." The rest, he said, "come rambling," which, according to Senator Hughes, was to deflect opposition arguments rather than "structurally putting the government's case to this honourable house."