Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne has voiced strong criticism of Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s recent focus on vehicle tinting regulations, accusing her of shifting national attention away from the pressing issue of violent crime.
Thorne, during a public briefing held by the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) on Saturday, outlined his concerns about the government’s handling of crime and its focus on “peripheral issues”.
On Thursday, Mottley announced a quartet of new policies aimed at curbing the island’s escalating gun violence. Among these new regulations are penalties for non-compliant vehicle window tints. The Prime Minister also introduced measures targeting number plates, mask wearing, and the use of 3D printers, all part of a broader strategy to enhance public safety in light of growing public concern over gun-related violence.
“Persons who are not having tints that are compliant … will be fined. I’m not interested in prosecuting them… I want money,” Mottley declared then, outlining her plan to impose financial penalties on those failing to adhere to the new tinting standards. “If you are involved in behaviour that leads to those tints still being there, such that the police or anybody passing by can’t see you … start paying some fines.”
However, Thorne sharply criticised this focus, arguing that it detracted from the far more urgent matter of violent crime, which he said should be the government’s priority.
“A lot of people came away from [the Prime Minister’s] press conference on Thursday disappointed that they did not hear the government speak as to the crisis of violent crime in Barbados. Everybody has come away discussing tint,” he said, suggesting the discourse had been misdirected.
Thorne said Barbadians were expecting the government to present concrete solutions to the crime problem, but instead, the conversation centred on less critical issues like tint regulations.
“It scares them when somebody of the high authority of a Prime Minister says to them, ‘I am going to fine you sometime in October if you don’t remove the tint from your car,’” he remarked, highlighting how citizens, already facing financial challenges, now felt threatened by the potential fines. “So that a national discourse on violent crime that’s afflicting this country becomes a discussion on the question of tint on cars.”
The opposition leader further contended that the Prime Minister had no legal authority to impose or collect fines for vehicle tinting violations, calling her announcement a breach of constitutional boundaries.
“The Prime Minister has no business dealing with the Road Traffic Act. The Prime Minister has no authority to collect any fines… She does not have that power,” Thorne declared, questioning the legal basis for the Prime Minister’s statements on tinting fines.
He explained that any legal proceedings related to vehicle tinting fall under the jurisdiction of the courts and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), not the Prime Minister. Thorne warned that Mottley’s statements represented a dangerous overreach of power, accusing her of attempting to exercise arbitrary authority over an issue that is clearly governed by existing laws.
“It threatens an arbitrary exercise of power, which she certainly does not have,” he concluded, reiterating the national conversation should be focused on addressing the root causes and solutions to violent crime, not on peripheral issues like tinting. He argued that by centering the conversation on tint regulations, the government had effectively sidestepped the real issue that Barbadians were most concerned about — escalating violent crime.
“Everybody has come away discussing tint, not because it is trivial but because the Prime Minister has threatened Barbadians to collect monies from them,” Thorne said, stressing that such discussions had distracted the nation from the critical issue of public safety. (RG)
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