NTA leader and former Commissioner of police (CoP) Gary Griffith has labeled UNC leader, Kamla Persad-Bissessar the “local Joe Biden,” and he has dismissed claims she made that he was a failure as CoP.
Griffith made this comment on Monday, in response to statements made my Persad-Bissessar at a UNC cottage meeting in Chaguanas that same evening.
He also threw doubt as to whether his National Transformation Alliance (NTA), party will form an alliance with the UNC for next year’s general election.
Persad-Bissessar claimed that all national security ministers under the PNM between September 2015 to now had failed.
Those ministers included Edmund Dillon, Stuart Young and Fitzgerald Hinds.
She said CoPs appointed during the last nine years were also failures.
Griffith served as CoP from 2018 to 2021.
The CoPs during that period were Griffith, McDonald Jacob, who acted in the position, and incumbent Erla Harewood-Christopher.
Persad-Bissessar claimed the PNM had a habit of bypassing the most qualified candidates chosen by the Police Service Commission and hand picking its preferred candidate to be CoP.
In a statement, Griffith said, “Her comments about my tenure as CoP, where she falsely claimed I was a failure, only serve to highlight her lack of understanding of national security.”
He repeated that during his tenure as CoP from 2018 to 2021, ” public trust in the police increased significantly to 59%, and we achieved the highest reduction in violent crime in 17 years.
Griffith, a former national security minister under the Persad-Bissessar led People’s Partnership administration between 2013-2015, said this is a fact that stands in stark contrast to her baseless claims.
This, he continued, brings her political acuity into question.
Griffith asked whether Persad-Bissessar is now the “local Joe Biden.”
He recalled that one year ago, she praised him as the best CoP and invited him to speak at the first UNC town hall meeting on crime in St Joseph earlier this year.
Griffith asked, ” Will the rank and file now stand up in the same manner as Joe’s people did and ask him to face reality, or will they refuse to tell her the truth?”
Griffith said Persad-Bissessar’s attack against him provides further evidence that she “is not the leader that the UNC, or the country, needs.”
He added that her focus remains on division and destruction rather than unity and progress.
Griffith asked UNC supporters to consider the party’s future should Persad-Bissessar continue as its leader.
“If Kamla Persad-Bissessar continues to lead with this destructive attitude, the UNC will remain in opposition for years to come. It is time for the rank and file of the party to demand change, to insist on leadership that can unite, not divide.”
Griffith said he has nothing but respect for UNC supporters for their dedication to their party.
“My criticism is not directed at you, but at the leadership that is steering the party away from its true potential. ”