CASTRIES, St Lucia (CMC) – The St Lucia government says there was need to tackle the emergency of criminal gangs “head on” as legislators late Tuesday amended sections of the Anti-Gang Bill.

The legislation will be debated in the Senate on Thursday.

Prime Minister Dr Kenny Anthony said it was important for criminals in St Lucia to get the strong message contained in the legislation.

“We have to tackle this matter head-on. It cannot be that this is occurring in our society with impunity: that people are being murdered by gang members,” Anthony told legislators, noting that the bill was not intended to persecute innocent people but, rather, to make people think twice about joining criminal gangs.

Anthony said that the judiciary would determine whether or not suspects accused of committing an offence were indeed members of a gang.

He said that while citizens have the right to assemble, they do not have the right to assemble and form criminal gangs.

“I’m not saying that this piece of legislation is perfect. As a matter of fact (Opposition legislator Richard Frederick) may be right that the lawyers will have a field day (with it).

“But I would prefer that the legislation be in place and they have a field day than it is not in place to deal with the problems that we have,” Anthony said, adding he was not opposed to any adjustments to the bill.

Newly appointed Opposition Leader, Dr Gale Rigobert, said that while steps needed to be taken to curb crime, the definition of “gang” in the bill appears to be ambiguous.

“We on this side recognise that we can no longer continue in an environment where the criminals appear to have their way. That is precisely that we, too, want to live in a safe environment that we have gone through this bill very thoroughly to highlight its shortcomings. And we recognise all too well that legislation is crafted in time and space that it speaks to the context of the day.

“But it also has in-built some kind of capacity to anticipate that which is likely to occur tomorrow. So we must ask ourselves the question: what kind of society are we creating when we introduce a bill such as this in its current form?”

Rigobert warned that the Anti-Gang Bill could result in some of the rights to which St Lucians were entitled being infringed upon.

“This piece of legislation, in my opinion, will entrap most of the young men in our communities who simply sit on the block. So the question must be asked, therefore: is there an inherent class or geographic prejudice in here that the form of recreation that some persons, depending on their social circumstances can afford, is really to sit on a block?”

Frederick said the bill was likely to attract a litany of litigations from people who might think they are being victimised.

“I see this piece of legislation as a lawyers’ paradise. Lawyers will make a lot of money off this piece of legislation because there will be challenges left, right and centre. I know they will challenge it, Mr. Speaker, (because) quite a number of the sections are indeed too draconian,” he added.

Late last month, Prime Minister Anthony told the nation that his administration would pursue its agenda against crime relentlessly and that efforts would be made to enact the Anti-Gang Bill at the next sitting of Parliament.

The Anti-Gang bill is seen as one of the measures being pursued by the government to deal with the upsurge in criminal activities here. The others include a review of the legislation that allows for the remission of sentences for convicted murderers as well as revisiting the Bail Act “to tighten up on the grant of bail to accused persons, especially those convicted of gun related crimes”.