“Results matter” maintains Jamell Robinson in row over interim Police Commissioner

Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer 

#TurksandCaicos, February 23, 2024 – It doesn’t matter who gets the job of police commissioner as long as they produce results according to Jamell Robinson, Minister of Physical Planning.

“We need the additional skill set to get the masterminds— so if somebody from Timbuktu or Singapore has got to come down here to solve these crimes, then come,” he said speaking during the House of Assembly on February 15th.

Robinson was responding to video from the comments from Edwin Astwood, Opposition Leader that maintained a local should have been chosen for the top cop job.

Minister Robinson maintained there was more to the current crime issue than just shootings and the engineers of the gun trade needed to be brought to justice.

“We are too focused as a people on the symptoms of what’s taking place in our country, which is gun violence by young men, and not focusing on the actual cause,” he continued, “ we need to get to who are the brains, the masterminds behind this activity because it ain’t the children! Ain’t no young men just under twenty trying to figure out how they’re going to get illegal weapons into our country.”

Robinson maintained that, while the effects of gun violence were far reaching and terrible, there was someone who was making money off of it, and those were who the governments needed to focus on putting behind bars.

“I have lost three cousins in the last few years from gun violence, and I know others in the House who’ve experienced the same thing,” he explained.

The minister says that everybody should be given a chance, but once a chance was given, and results were not coming, the government had a responsibility to make a change.

“We have a right because we’re losing our sons and daughters.”

He maintained that no matter where the help came from it would be held accountable.

The issue of supposedly decently employed young men, taking part in criminal activity, was one that Robinson spoke on as well

“The truth is you have persons who come from decent homes, supposedly who have a good upbringing, who are educated and making money who are involved in this too, so when I say we got to get the masterminds we gotta get them, whoever they may be; related or not, we can’t cover up for them!” he said, to the pounding of desks by his colleagues.

The All Island member of the House of Assembly maintained that gunmen were now moving into areas patronised by everyday citizens referencing the February 1 shooting which occurred next to a restaurant, he himself frequents.

The response was prompted by calls for a local member of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force to take up the position of Interim Acting Commissioner.