Submitted by RUSERIOUS
On August 3rd gunmen killed a business owner and his son in law during a robbery at their residence.
Only in Barbados can you kill someone during the commission of a crime. Get charged for murder, plead guilty to manslaughter before the trial and get sentenced to 10-15 years. This although the maximum penalty for manslaughter is life in prison.
Only in Barbados can you get charged for forty armed robberies, plead guilty to all at the same time in the lower court, and receive a two year concurrent sentence on all of them.
Only in Barbados can you kill your wife and dump her body in a well and then say sorry in court and receive a ten year sentence.
Get used to old Barbados in its final days, and say hello to the new era; where armed robbers troll the streets during the night and day while unarmed Police cower in the Police stations and police vehicles. What you are seeing is the final phase in the death of a paradise and the ushering in of Trinidad/Guyana/Jamaica style criminal take over.
Until the ordinary law abiding citizen supports the police, until the judiciary passes lengthy sentences for violent offenders, enjoy violent offenders on a rotation basis as they are released in short term from prison.
March against crime and lawlessness, it could you or someone you know next.
@islandgal246: “I was referring to the decisions regarding the health care issue, where foreigners are concerned and the deportations of illegal Guyanese.
But that actually isn’t what you said.
@islandgal246: “Lawd yuh want blood man!
I want to be very serious.
And I want everyone else to be very serious.
Is that too much to ask?
@BU.David: “Tried a search of the Nation for the article published titled UPDATE: Two men killed in St George by two armed masked bandits …
The page seems to have been withdrawn?
Indeed it does.
But those who know know how to make other queries…
Google for “site:www.nationnews.com ‘two men killed’
….and then click on the “Cached” link of the first matching response.
(The latter works. As David correctly points out, for some reason the original NationNews.com article no longer works.)
Hmmmm….
http://www.nationnews.com/articles/category/news/local/.
this might be the new link
@islandgal
That was the original; story, but there was an update.
Oh ho so dat was de problem……we gine havtah wait or someone will soon spill de beans.
Looks like pretty soon we will need a Potty Ward at the QEH to deal with the onslaught of drug mules. Perhaps the MOH /QEH should bill the last port of call of these mules,for the expenses incurred.
Did they really think that the recent onslaught by the mainly Jamaica Observer and its bloggers over another issue would have intimidated the Barbados Customer officers from doing their job? Some engineer in control of these mules must have thought so.
18 Jamaicans held with drugs which are to be passed out at the QEH, causing the ill Bajan patients to not be seen. Now I said and reiterate the Chadderton family crime is consistent with the Jamaican/Guyanese profile whether you want to accept it or not. We should implement a visa restriction for Jamaicans and Guyanese. freedom of movement shite…
I still have faith in the present Commissioner of Police, he had the guts while at Bramshill Police College in the UK to seek an attachment to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in Belfast at a time when the “Troubles” was still ongoing. Belfast is no sweet bread, and I am sure that the COP have picked up a ‘few tricks’ from the RUC, but interference and non-cooperation might be hindering him in implementing some of these measures in the fight against crime.
@David
Why have you chosen to ignore my question regarding your disclaimer?
@hants.. you are totally right.. big problem indeed .. are we then the transhipment point or consumers ? either which way we got issues of either corruption or addiction
@Colonel Buggy | August 4, 2011 at 1:48 PM | What a country,when little stripling of women, have the courage to come forward and enlist in the police force , while big muscular men prefer to sell coconuts ,ackees and snow cones by the wayside.
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So why should big muscular men subject themselves to so much stress, danger, and long hours for chump change? Who’s making noise for better pay and working conditions for law enforcement officers? I’m of the opinion that people like police officers and garbage collectors should be making top dollars and living just as comfortable as any minister.
@Christoper Halsall who wrote:
@Green Monkey: “Re the copper wire tiefin that has been picking up recently about here.
As usual, GM, you are not talking “’bout here”, but away.
But you try to play it up as if it’s happening here in Bim.
Ok, Mr. Halsall, I suggest you go and tell that to Bizzy and to Lime (or to the 700 Lime subscribers that recently lost their land lines and internet connections because someone carried away Lime’s copper phone lines from right off the poles) that the tiefin of copper wire ain’t going up about here, and come back and tell us what they tell you.
Do you ever read the news or listen to any of the newscasts on the radio, or is your head just permanently fixed in that place where the sun never shines?
Nation News May 31, 2011:
You got it wrong Mr. Managing Director McDonald. It is not becoming more and more of an issue. We know so because Mr Halsall, who apparently knows everything about everything, assures us it isn’t. Mr. Halsall, who knows everything about everything, tells us It is only an issue for people living overseas. Or then again, maybe it is becoming more and more of an issue for us in Barbados as well, and Mr. Halsall is just displaying his ignorance by talking through his hat.
I will leave it to the BU readers to decide which is the most likely of the two options. They might want to read this editorial as well:
Nation News Editorial July 15, 2011:
@David
Ignore my comment regarding your disclaimer…we dealt with it under another thread.
Sorry “these” not “theses”
Andrew
@Sayed, I have been the victim of violent crime.
I was angry , I felt powerless and resented the invasion of my property and the threat to my female companion.
My experience still tells me that rather than getting upset every time there is a disgusting crime we need to intervene in the lives of our young people.
This does not mean being soft on crime,it means finding genuine strategies to prevent it.
So many of these crimes are committed by kids raised in trying circumstances often 17-21. When I meet their mothers -because fathers seldom show , I am not often surprised as they are struggling to raise these kids and are quite often dropout kids themselves who our society has called “duncy” .
How many of our high schools are producing students with no chance of employment, no certificates and no skills or trades to rely on.
With no life skills to counter the anger and violence we display in high places and drugs and guns readily available……… Our answer is ……..LOCK THEM ALL UP ……..KILL THEM ????? NO REHAB !!!
Do we as right thinking people really believe this to be the solution????
Just an aside , not directed and anyone in particular-If you are willing to talk tough and attack people you should be willing to sign your real name in full and be accountable for your comments.
Andrew
@str8 up
What profile is Guyanese and Jamaican – violent and stupid?
I cannot say the nationality in this case but I assure you we are breeding our very own little rascals. Though I think we can still reach them.
When I travelled in Zambia ,it was the Zimbabweans……in Frisco it was the Mexicans ……. In Egypt the Sudanese……
I hope we enjoy blaming others all the way while we see the symptoms all around us that say our young men have no direction , no leadership and no clear example.
Let’s keep out all foreigners-kill all robbers and keep only good pure Bajans here!!
Andrew
@Andrew
BU appreciates you taking the time to share your views.
@ Zack,perhaps if the big muscular men who are selling ackees, coconuts and snow cones and earning a bit more than chump change were made to pay the necessary taxes, then maybe we would be able to pay the police and sanitation workers a bit more.
@the person purporting to be AP
I seriously doubt that you have been the victim of violent crime. Criminals will laugh at you and your attempts to set them straight. They would welcome your counseling.
Not all are beyond redemption but the majority are, it’s way of life they have chosen and determined to live by, not simply crime, but life in the gang and committing crimes as part of that life, it is their job.
And would you suggest that while persons are robbed/raped/mutilated/killed that we just sit down and devise ways to counsel them?
If that is the case you should seek to have the RBPF disbanded now and replace it with a staff of doctors and psychologists.
Statistics show here and everywhere that the majority of persons released from prison re-offend. Regardless of what counseling they received in or out of prison, regardless of supervisory probation and parole officers assigned. You tell the public what to do?
Lock and throw away the key? If it protects innocent people why not. Career criminals have demonstrated time and time again they will not be deviated from their chosen path.
Our own notorious past criminals have shown this. The little bits of prison some of them are receiving just gives the general public a brief respite from their activities.
Soon there will be total anarchy, as society decays because people cannot leave home to do ordinary work. People stealing copper and shutting down entire economies, in Jamaica the scrap metal trade has been halted as a result, what do you think is going to happen here?
The police can’t even protect their own copper. Very soon as soon as you hinder or obstruct criminals from doing their ‘job’ they are going to knock on your door and shoot you down. Or they will do it in the street.
You my friend are one naive individual, and you have no idea of the scope of criminal intent our society is up against. Even if you are the real AP and deal with criminal cases in court, you still have no clue of the general disregard for the sanctity of life that these criminals have.
Soon we will be like Palestine and other Eastern countries in the world such as Afghan and Iraq and Iran. Where life is cheap and worth nothing and another murder/rape is just an accident in the road to be driven around.
What would you suggest we do with the perpetrators who killed Chadderton? You think they need counseling to know that guns are dangerous? That they should not take what does not belong to them? That they should not shoot people?
Would you recommend we wag our finger at them, counsel them and put them back out there.
You wreak of nativity and its the real stalwards and guardians of our society in secret organizations who over history have guarded the society at whole against the corrupt few who would seek to destroy our way of life. By making the hard decisions and taking the necessary actions.
As for who I am, I am the voice of many, I am the voice of the law abiding citizen who is harassed and whose ordinary daily life is destroyed by brazen criminals who have no redemption in the eyes of God, King or Country.
@Sayed: “As for who I am, I am the voice of many, I am the voice of the law abiding citizen who is harassed and whose ordinary daily life is destroyed by brazen criminals who have no redemption in the eyes of God, King or Country.
Were you voted in?
Or did you assume this position?
(A sincere question.)
Well said Sayed.
The time for counselling would have been for when those criminals were young children – it is too late now.
When you allow too much ‘lax’, indisciplined behaviour to gradually develop in your society and you turn a blind eye to it because:
1. You have some misguided, colonized mind-set that it is not as bad as it seems or that it is part of “we culture”, or:
2. It does not affect you directly so you are not concerned…
Well this is what you get (murderous thugs terrorizing communities and no proper laws or societal efforts to deal with them.)
Even now, look at our ZR culture, for example. These “road terrorists” break every law and do as they like on the roads every single day, and refuse to self-regulate their profession; yet our leaders consistently refuse to clamp down and remove the offenders permanently. I guess they are waiting for the day when Heaven forbid a few tourists get killed on the road by them (and I pray this does not happen) then the authorities will do something.
The only solution is for the ordinary citizen to take a stand. Instead of putting up more burglar bars and living in constant fear, we have to demand our leaders start enforcing stricter laws for drugs, gun crime and other offenses. And we ourselves have to set up moral boundaries and start being extremely intolerant when it comes to indisciplined behavior in our society.
After rereading a previous post of mine I must unreservedly apologize to Mr Andrew Pilgrim, attorney at law. In the heat of the moment, I suggested that attorneys (and thus Mr Pilgrim) in the course of doing their job of providing legal defense of an accused person are “evil”. This is wrong. I have been called out on this issue by G.C. Brathwaite before but I think it proper to correct myself. The ‘evil” to which I had in mind are those arguments that seek to deflect or reduce the culpability of killers for their actions. I am intensely skeptical of arguments that suggest that it is the society that has failed when a murder occurs and that the killer is as much a victim as the deceased. That said, it is not reasonable nor helpful to good productive debate to vilify a person who may present an opinion contrary to my own and for that I apolgise.
That said, I again concur with the sentiments expressed by Nia and some of those expressed by Sayed (minus those involving personal characterisation). I again call for some review of the laws that make it difficult or impossible to convict a person of murder (not manslaughter) who rapes and kills an elderly woman or someone who shoots a person in the back of the head after robbing them or someone who causes the death of six women by setting fire to their place of work after a robbery. Further I am upset that the length of sentence for such persons so convicted has not exceeded (on average)12 years.
Is it unreasonable for Barbadians to believe we don’t have the system/capacity to rehabilitate many of the deportees which the USA and other developed countries have been foisting on us over time?
The answer has to be no therefore logically we have to remove them from society.
Come on Bajans we have to get active of we want to protect our scourge from the scourge of crime.
I was voted in by default by people such as Chadderton’s brother who wishes for hanging to be resumed.
By the lady in Westbury Road who was shot in her stomach and in the ICU by a man just released from prison for manslaughter upon completion of his less than 15 year sentence.
By the family of the taxi driver who was shot in the back of his head during a robbery and whose perpetrators received four years in prison prompting the DPP to appeal the sentence.
By the family of the Canadian lady whose killer was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
By the families of the Campus Trendz girls who were murdered, who in less than 20 years will soon see the men who killed their daughters in public again.
By the family of the Guyanese woman Bibi I believe her name was whose husband killed her and dumped her in a well and then got 15 years in prison. Back out in time to probably kill off the rest of the family’s new generation.
Just but a few. But Barbados is so small and crime has touched so many probably more than half of the population, you can bet it would be a lot of people.
Hey but they haven’t killed anyone I know or that you know right, so why should we care, it will never happen to us.
Yes rehab is certainly working in the USA, with the highest prison population per population in the world and all the greatest rehab and work release and parole programs.
Yes rehab certainly worked well in Jamaica, the murder capital of the world, I am sure there were a lot of naive people like AP and you people there who said let’s rehab them, they can be saved, poor youths, now look what your lack of preventative and protective measures have done. A poor depressed country with a few rich areas.
Trinidad, same thing 227 murders so far for the year, and their population is only four times our size. They had 17 in one week recently. Because people can shoot rob rape and kill and be in and back out before five years has gone. And the hardened notorious criminal laughs at your ‘bring them to justice’ mentality.
Mexico, allowed to foster criminal elements and corruption for as long as ever, now look at it.
But continue, bring them to justice, give them rehab…soon this paradise will be lost, the tourists will stop coming as crime against them is up over 300% in terms of theft/robbery/rape/burglary think we’ll get many repeat visitors once our reputation grows? Soon we’ll be jamaica, guyana, trinidad dominican republic and unlike those three countries we have no natural resources to speak of so once the tourism sector plumets and unemployment rises to about 60%, then you will see desperate people.
You are so naive because you have no idea that this is how it all starts and how it all started in those countries, and where it all ended for them. It’s a domino effect, tourism and foreign investment gone for us is like Trinidad’s oil drying up. Economy gone, we’ll be like Somalia.
But keep thinking that this is exaggerated as it happens around your eyes in other countries.
good luck.
Here is and earth-breaking announcement by the police force:
Police turning to social sites
Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin
Sat, August 06, 2011 – 7:26 PM
YOU WILL SOON be able to log onto to the Internet to find information and communicate with the Royal Barbados Police Force.
Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin disclosed today that the Force will soon be joining the website Facebook and Twitter.
“Our communication with the public is that we try to be factual and avoid undue panic and we have taken the decision that the police will use the new site, Facebook and Twitter for communication with the public.
“We will also provide more information to particular communites that may be affected by crime from time to time,” he said. (TS)
I’ve been fortunate ,or unfortunate, to have lived in what at the time was one of, if not the most, violent cities on earth, where death and destruction were commonplace multiple daily occurrences, but never once did I see the people of that city cowering in fear , or spreading alarm and despondency as I have seen setting in in this society. When we cower in fear the criminal has won. There are 250 something thousand of us ,and only a hand full of criminals.Who are at a disadvantage?
They don’t really use rehab much in the US or in Jamaica, so it’s a bit silly to cite it as a failed method in those countries.
Germany, Sweden and Norway use much more rehab and have seen their crime rates plummet as a result.
Too much emotion, not enough fact in these conversations.
Not much rehab in US? USA is the inventor of rehab. They have rehab for everything.
Anyway Saturday evening. COP SAYS ” DONT PANIC ”
Hours later…two police officers shot on duty while on patrol in a residential district.
But all is well drew, we’ll just give the gunmen some counseling and hope for the best that they won’t decide to live a life of crime anymore, buy a gun, leave home with it intending to commit crime, prowl a neighborhood looking to do said crime, see the police, take out the gun, prepare it, aim it, shoot it at them.
Nah we can counsel that away! Community service should do it. Just make sure it’s 24 hours a day, with a chain and padlock tied to their foot at some pole and they can keep some drain in need of clearance clear.
But panic not! For it will never happen to you or anyone you know. Certainly will never happen to any business own- oh wait…shoot no that happened already. Certainly won’t ever happen to lawy- shoot wait no poor Barry Gale, he got hit too.
Well it definitely won’t happen to the Chief Justice because we don’t have one.
But yeh, cuh dear poor young boys just want a dolla…Let’s get out our time machine and go back in time and discipline them when they were young and……
On a serious note I hope the Police that were shot will recover to live normal lives…..
A number of guys on the block are saying that all the drugs are getting seized and that it gine be a war- these murders are just the tip of the iceberg? is there any sense in the reasoning
that we should allow some drugs to come in. It may sem a bad idea but some times you have to give a little take a little.
The problem is only the criminals have guns and they know it. What the Commissioner of Police needs to do is stop blocking decent hard working citizens from acquiring licensed fire arms. Imagine while your firearm license is being denied an intruder who does not need permission to carry a gun can walk into your home, hold you at gun point, rob you, rape your wife, daughter and maybe you too and just leave. If you protest you are shot palin and simple. If this would be intruder know that you have a gun and is prepared to use it he skips your house and goes to the next. If they have guns we should have too.
Str8 Up wrote “A number of guys on the block are saying that all the drugs are getting seized and that it gine be a war”.”some times you have to give a little take a little.”
All the gains from the Rihanna concert will be wiped out if these criminals are not dealt with.
Andrew Pilgrim can recommend a long term solution.
Barbados needs short term action.
@ Sayed
So having said all that, what are your suggestions to counteract the crime spree that seems to be engulfing the country?
I once lived in T&T, a long time ago and I remember that country as a place with funloving, enjoy a fete, jovial sort of people. Now look at what is taking place today, at least one murder per day maybe even more. WHY? Is it now our turn here in Bim? I sincerely hope not. The government had better wake up and smell the roses and give the courts, the police and whosoever the wherewithal to get a strong grip on the situation and reverse the current trends.
But what do we expect with the remuneration for police officers as it is? The reason the RBPF cannot attract the required people with the skills and dedication is simply because those people would prefer to go do something else (sell on the wayside, lime on the block?) rather than risk life and limb for the peanuts being offered as remuneration to law enforcement officers here in Barbados at present. So go figure.
“two police officers shot on duty while on patrol in a residential district.”
Hopefully while Andrew Pilgrim and like minded citizens are working on the long term solutions the Police will use short term methodologies.
This “crime spree needs to end now”.
Barbados is a Tourist destination and news don’t travel by sailing ships.
ANDREW and these big-head boys, are too academic. They keep their heads buried in books. They do not understand reality.
The authorities have been burying their heads in the sand for too long. The sand has blown off and they are still trying to fool themselves about the crime situation. I Remembered a minister saying some years ago the “We do not have any gangs in Barbados” and Police saying “Crime is down”.
Colonel Buggy | August 6, 2011 at 10:32 PM | I’ve been fortunate ,or unfortunate, to have lived in what at the time was one of, if not the most, violent cities on earth, where death and destruction were commonplace multiple daily occurrences, but never once did I see the people of that city cowering in fear , or spreading alarm and despondency as I have seen setting in in this society. When we cower in fear the criminal has won. There are 250 something thousand of us ,and only a hand full of criminals.Who are at a disadvantage?
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We the law abiding citizens are at a disadvantage. The criminals have guns and we don’t, and the COP decided that he’s not issuing any new gun licenses. Now if you want to be a brave hero and tackle gunmen with big rocks go right ahead…I’ll read about you.
I enter this discussion late…
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Guard_killed_during_supermarket_hold-up-127143133.html
Criminals walk up to a guard, shoot him in the head, take his gun and proceed to rob the place.
Boy we gonna need psychologists who are as good as defense lawyers in getting off criminals.
Defense lawyers like Pilgrim are nasty, they will do ANYTHING to get their client freed of charges, they are not concerned with whether they are guilty or not. Unlike prosecutors who withdraw cases when there is not enough evidence.
I remember a time when a lady who had been gang raped, during the trial her testimony at what she suffered at the hands of the perpetrators was not questioned. All of that was accepted and not challenged, the persons got off though because the police made a mistake in their investigations.
A mistake that was not critical to the guilt of the accused as seen in the trial, but nevertheless the accused was set free. So AP I say you are nasty individual.
Criminal rights are greater than victims rights. You heard it from Andrew Pilgrim first.
Andrew Pilgrim who said the Police pushed a man they have never had dealings with before off of a cliff. Well Pilgrim if the police would do that to a man who never gave them trouble, why would they arrest the ones who shot the police the other night?
Yeah the police have them according to Nation. You are just a nasty disgusting human being with no moral scrupals.
Go and snort some more you know what.
The latest incidence involving the gunning down of a police patrol underscores the need for our police men and women to undergo basic military tactical training. Three police officers on patrol and two were shot. Assuming that one officer was armed,he/she should have been in a secure position covering the other two while they were questioning the suspicious persons,and be ready to open fire if necessary.
I just read the first five pages of Barbadostoday.
There iare enough plots for a few episodes of New york undercover.
Sales of Dobermanns and Alsations are going up.
Notice how our illustrious leaders have all gone into the silent mode? Perhaps we should send them on a trip to New York, where they would have no qualms about opening up and shooting off at the mouth to who they assume to be the “more intelligent people”.
Not that appointing a new chief justice will have any impact upon the current state of affairs in Barbados but one cannot help but notice that while we were promised the appointment of a chief justice “by the end of the first week in August”,today is August 8,2011.Could it be that it was meant to be August 2012?Is it any wonder that the CCJ has found that the system here shows little for time limits ? no wonder criminals are not afraid…they know it will take 10 years if not more for their case to be heard,5 years for it to get to the CCJ and in the end,they may serve little or no time regardless of the seriousness of the crime.Murder ? Forget it !Have no fear ! They won’t be hung ! Rape ? They’ll be free to continue on their rampage !