Weekly Report - 29 August 2013 (WR-13-34)

A sudden mid-August upsurge in violence in eastern Port-of-Spain led to a first-ever political event: a meeting between Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and opposition leader Keith Rowley to work out a consensual approach on anti-crime measures. It also triggered a police response that was harshly criticised by the legal profession as pushing the boundaries of acceptable procedures — and there was some irony in the fact that homicide figures for the first eight months of the year are actually much lower than a year earlier.