Opposition leader slams tint law as distraction from rising violent crime

Leader of the Opposition Ralph Thorne on Tuesday accused the government of prioritising revenue generation over public safety, arguing that vehicle tint regulations introduced by lawmakers are a diversion from the country’s escalating gun violence and murders.

The Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill introduces new vehicle tint regulations and imposes fines of $500 on those with tints darker than the law allows.

Thorne, MP for Christ Church South, charged that within the last 24 hours, there had been another fatal shooting which was not linked to vehicle tint.

Condemning the imminent new traffic laws as “inappropriate” and tantamount to a new tax, the Democratic Labour Party leader referred to Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s words at a press conference last September, in which she stated: “I want money!” as the backdrop for his position on the amendment.

As far as Thorne was concerned, it was more about the administration exploiting an opportunity to raise revenue than making a serious attempt to address citizens’ sense of security.

“The unhappy and tragic reality is that we are losing our young male human beings,” he said, adding that the most recent murder on Monday night was a “reminder that this legislation is probably not well founded [and] not well constituted”.

He continued: “This is a debate that the public has responded to in this way—that legislation on tint is not an appropriate response to issues of law and order and it is not an appropriate response to violent, murderous death. Certainly, I consider this legislation a diversion.”

“I consider this legislation a diversion away from the really tragic national issue of murderous death in which every week we are losing young males . . . and it is a national tragedy,” the opposition leader said.

Insisting that the amendments to the Road Traffic Act represented an “inappropriate intervention” that “offers no solution . . . to the violent crimes”, Thorne said there were multiple approaches to addressing crime, including law enforcement and socio-economic responses.

Referring to the prime minister’s remarks last year about the introduction of vehicle tint laws, he noted: “Those three words, in my view, were uttered to constitute the final resolution, ‘I want money’. I think it is a matter of some regret that that has been the prescriptive resolution to the issue of violent crime. How do you reduce a debate on violent crime to the words, ‘I want money’? I think what the public wants . . . is justice; the public wants a solution.

“Is tint the cause of crime? And what is the effect of this legislation today? I say it is inappropriate, I say it is unrelated. This legislation is unrelated to the issue of violent crime in any real and meaningful way. It seems that crime is so highly organised and sophisticated that whether we have this legislation today or not, it will occur.

“That is why my position is that this is diversionary. And this is an inappropriate solution to the pervasive problem that afflicts this country on a daily basis,” Thorne insisted. (IMC1)