Limited states of emergency fail to get Cabinet’s approval

A proposal by the Commissioner of Police, to have an amendment to the
legislation to allow for the declaration of limited states of emergency in certain
circumstances, has been denied by the Cabinet.
Chief of Staff in the Office of the Prime Minister, Lionel Max Hurst, reported that
the Cabinet ‘was not persuaded’ that such a move was desirable for Antigua and
Barbuda.
Hurst said the members felt that declaring a limited state of emergency, in a
particular area, was unnecessary for a country as small as Antigua and Barbuda.
The Chief of Staff was addressing Thursday’s post-Cabinet press briefing in
response to a question on gun crimes in the country. He said practically all
Caribbean countries are dealing with the issue, noting that guns are not produced in
the region and Antigua and Barbuda with its many beaches and coves makes it
easy for these items to be smuggled into the country.
“The issue therefore is whether this justifies having states of emergency that are
confined to small areas of the country at a time. What the Cabinet concluded on
Wednesday, was that given the small size of our country; and the fact that we are a
microstate; we are one hundred times smaller than Jamaica and fifty times smaller
than Trinidad and Tobago. We are so much smaller than many of those countries
that are experiencing the problem, the Cabinet felt it was not a suitable
methodology to fighting crime,” he explained.
Recognizing that the proposal was mooted by the Commissioner of Police, Atlee
Rodney, Hurst said whilst the government does not like to publicly disagree with
the Commissioner, the Cabinet was also concerned about the suspension of
people’s rights as would happen under a state of emergency.
“We don’t like states of emergency as they are a deprivation of rights during that
time. Nobody wants their rights squashed even for a short period of time. It is also
something that is hardly ever used here in Antigua and Barbuda,” he declared.