The young and the reckless are having access to guns at an “unprecedented” level, with police admitting they have “not yet touched the surface” on the issue.
Attributed to Assistant Commissioner of Police Erwin Boyce
See relevant analysis and access Barbados Murder Database @caribbeansignal.com
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Typo Saturday.
Ending exile early today.
Will try to get a few comments in.
Frank, that was an alert. Start scrolling.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2022/11/12/sir-hilary-says-level-of-enrolment-in-higher-education-tragic/
Not going to hurt my head trying to figure out what was said but did he explain if tertiary graduates will have the same or similar diversity of opportunities as those in other countries.
Reductio ad absurdum.
Suppose you lived in a country where the only job was picking grass … an abundance of degrees may be seen as ‘a good’ thing but it is not really smart or useful. It may be smarter to invest in some protection for your hands.
To those who missed the memo former CoP Griffith did mention his concerns about poor surveillance at the Ports.
I am curious about how we rank events. I saw where today will be celebrated as Remembrance Day in Barbados. Do you think that when they placed Independence Day of the chopping block that someone put Remembrance Day there as well.
I am not suggesting that they should have, I am only wondering if the idea ever crossed their minds. I am not a gambling man, but I would bet it never did.
“higher education” to what, to be the Petra Wickies, the Henry Harlots and puppets on expert masters’ strings like the nuisance
politicians…..or mindless worker drones for the tiefing corrupt subspieces on the island, steupppss…
oh please, someone tell Hilary that he and his colonial education are about to become EXTINCT…just like the dodo bird.
It looks as if I missed the memo
Then
“The reality is that where there is corruption, there will always be problems. And so, if the system is corrupt, then we are not going to get the information and support. You have to work together to break the back of those crimes. And so, even though the intelligence says that, you are not going to get that tip that breaks it…There is corruption. There must be some form…there must be corruption if you are going to have the number of firearms that are coming onto our shores illegally…then there has to be corruption”
I read and reread, but there was no mention of the ‘capabilities’ of port scammers in the post back then. Even in the paragraph above, he seem to approach the possibility of corruption as a hypothetical.
Saved rating” Failed (major)
I can only conclude that TG made it to the sacred cows list and must be defended.
Corruption! That word rears its ugly head again. A Gov’t without an elected opposition introduced The Integrity in Public life bill which subsequently died in the Senate. Despite a second 30 love victory there has been no haste in passing a similar piece of legislation again. I remember a time when after the DLP’s victory in the 2008 election the late Owen Arthur and the current PM rushed to declare their “assets” . That was then this is now, Integrity in Public life remains a chimera, if politicians won’t get their house in order, why do we expect them to demand that others put theirs in order.
I would leave them all to it, they will IMPLODE ANYWAY…that’s the trajectory..
people should be more concerned with their health.
AstraZeneca was REFUSED permission to create another of their vaccine blood clots and drop it on people. If ya haven’t yet, yall should have started real immunity therapy, as best you can….as soon as you got those vaccines, after the 6 week period where things were liable to go wrong. and if ya haven’t, well, what can i tell ya…it’s been 2 years or close for some…some have been using different things to boost that immunity from yet illnesses.
let the corrupt focus on tiefing or whatever else they do, saw a bunch of people buried recently and couldn’t carry shit with them…and some were quadrillionaires.
woke up too early, did too much, tired.
some have been using different things to boost that immunity from yet UNKNOWN illnesses.
AstraZeneca was REFUSED permission…
take note that they did not use any mRNA technology, so imagine those who did, and the other 2…. sinopharm and J&J..
your health is more important to focus on right now than sleazy, crawly politicians.
What does William say repeatedly and always get cussed or attacked for it:
ya don’t plant peas and expect to reap potatoes…
these WILLFULLY depressed neighborhoods were maliciously pauperized, oppressed, exploited and NEGLECTED all through the fake independence..because they are only seen as uneducated voters, only useful for filling the slave master parliament with TRASH..
SAY IT LOUD: ya reap what ya sow.
“Confident criminals have friends in high places
By Anesta Henry
Criminal elements in Barbados have become emboldened and Government will have to take responsibility for that situation.
Charging that the operations of the police force have become more difficult within recent years, former Senator Caswell Franklyn said this is as a result of the perception that certain drug dealers have political ties.
Franklyn said images of known or previously-convicted drug dealers brandishing invitations to important, high-profile Government events could only have created the belief among impressionable minds that they are well connected.
“The Government must really be having buyer’s remorse. Now that the thugs are taking over, the Government can’t do anything about it.”
The outspoken trade unionist told Barbados TODAY that like thousands of Barbadians, he is also concerned about the spike in gun-related murders and shooting incidents in public spaces.
Franklyn indicated that the Barbados Police Service can only do so much with its resources to manage the criminal elements in society.
He charged: “Those drug people are also community workers because the money that they get in drugs, they help the poor people in the communities and the poor people in the communities then protect them. So you can’t get them trapped so easily, the police can’t hold them so easily because the people protect them from the police,” he said.
Franklyn added: “The communities, especially in the drug areas, will not cooperate because we have a lot of poverty in those areas and the drug men pay for the light bills, they pay for the food, pay for the water and that is why you can’t hold them”.
During a press conference on Thursday evening, at Police headquarters in the City, acting Commissioner of Police, Erwin Boyce, called on persons in communities to help lawmen fight the criminal elements in society.
However, Franklyn, a former Opposition senator said the acting commissioner is asking for a huge favour, and even described the lawman’s call as “just idle talk”.
“The acting Commissioner of Police must know that by now. I know it. And that is why those fellas have so much influence at elections, because the politicians know that these people support the communities that they come from.”
Franklyn said when a gunman can open fire in a public service vehicle, as was the case on Thursday morning at Eagle Hall, St Michael, the crime situation is out of control.
“This fellow might not even be a supporter of any particular party. But he is seeing how the other criminals are getting away with it, so he wants to get away with it too because the example has been set. It is not hard for Barbados to turn back now, it is impossible”.
(AH)
“
Just heard someone break down what John has been saying for 4 years, “the government is not legitimate.”
they got an opportunity to play the bully role and grabbed it….but it will unravel..
Off topic
Lawyers complain that the delay in issuing a written judgement is hindering their efforts to appeal. The judge had assured the parties that her written decision would be available within 30 days of her October 8,2021 order.
All together now
Mañana, mañana, mañana is soon enough for me
Mañana, mañana, mañana is soon enough for me
Cops kept busy as more gunplay occurs Friday
A week of gunplay continued on Friday night with police probing another shooting incident.
Police communications and public affairs officer, Acting Inspector Rodney Inniss, told the Sunday Sun yesterday preliminary investigations suggested that shots were fired in the community near My Lord’s Hill, St Michael. Lawmen received a report around 7:30 p.m. and went to Odessa McClean Road, but no one was hurt.
“As a result of a report received from Operations Control, police responded to the mentioned area and interviewed a number of residents. There were no reported injuries, only damage to a motor vehicle. Checks will be made at the medical institutions to establish whether there were any injuries which were not reported,” Inniss said.
Police were kept busy all last week dealing with three murders involving firearms and a couple more shooting incidents. It led to the top brass calling a press conference on Thursday, where Acting Commissioner Erwin Boyce admitted that criminal elements in Barbados now had at their disposal unprecedented access to guns and that law enforcement had not yet touched the surface of dealing with that problem.
It all started last Sunday, when promising young footballer Kobe Shepherd was killed, the victim of a ride-by shooting around 10:40 a.m. According to police, he was standing in his community at Upper Gills Road, Greenfield, St Michael, when he was shot multiple times by a pillion rider on a motorcycle. The two men on the bike escaped onto Roebuck Street and Tweedside Road.
Also on that day, 47-year-old Mark Armstrong, of Hothersal Turning, St Michael, was shot and killed just after 10 p.m.
He was in Bridgetown, and after being hit, ran into the nearby Granville Williams Bus Terminal on Fairchild Street, where he collapsed and succumbed to his injuries, becoming the island’s 37th murder victim for 2022.
Then on Tuesday, police were called to My Lord’s Hill, where a gunman with an automatic weapon fired multiple shots. When the smoke cleared, Owen Grannum, 39, became the next to die by the gun, four days before his birthday.
Mouth injury
A 28-year-old man from Barkers Road, St Michael, was also shot Tuesday night and was treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for a gunshot injury to the mouth.
On Thursday, a passenger in a public service vehicle (PSV) was shot in broad daylight at the Eagle Hall, St Michael junction.
According to reports, a man left a vehicle behind the yellow PSV which had stopped at the traffic lights adjacent to Mapps, approached from the side and discharged a number of shots into the vehicle, which led to panic, with some passengers fleeing through its windows.
One man was left seeking medical attention, having received an injury to his back.
On Friday, former Commissioner of Police Tyrone Griffith, who retired last year, suggested that efforts
by Government to curb the importation of illegal firearms through an increase in scanning equipment simply were not working.
Police did make a dent in gun importation last month, however, when 35 firearms, mostly semiautomatic handguns, and more than 700 rounds of ammunition were intercepted at the Bridgetown Port on October 24. (BA/PR)
Source: Nation
NCSA worried about new drugs on scene
The National Council on Substance Abuse (NCSA) remains concerned about new trends in substance usage in Barbados.
Substance abuse prevention officer, Paulavette Atkinson said the NCSA was currently investigating the diversification of the types of drugs being used locally.
“We are continuing to investigate this with our stake holders, so at this time I am not in a place to speak to that… We recognised some differences in terms of how children were being exposed to alcohol. So some of those traditional substances are also being combined with newer and unknown substances,” she said.
With the emergence of non-traditional substances such as ecstasy, methamphetamine
and various prescription drugs, the data also linked males and those 40 and younger to the primary usage of these drugs, as they were the individuals seeking treatment.
While males were noted as the predominant users of addictive substances, the number of females was on the rise especially as it related to alcohol usage. While exact figures could not be given, the NCSA said it hoped to collect updated data via the upcoming Secondary School Survey.
Deputy Manager of the NCSA, Troy Wickham said findings in the 2020 National Primary School Survey revealed children as young as eight years old had admitted to substance use.
“I can say the main drug is still alcohol, followed closely by what we call energy drinks. A small
amount admitted to using marijuana in their life. The main source is at home, the family and siblings and this is a concern for us at the National Council on Substance Abuse,” he said.
Further research by the NCSA has suggested that traditional drugs such as alcohol, marijuana and cocaine continued to be the main substances for which persons sought treatment. Marijuana was also the primary substance capturing the attention of law enforcement officials.
According to the findings, age-related treatment trends suggested that marijuana was particularly problematic for people age 40 and younger. Meanwhile, the trend for people seeking treatment for alcohol and cocaine remained firmly for those 41 years or older. (JK)
Source: Nation
David,
Hoping that fentanyl and other synthetic opiods have not hit Bim. But this is probably too late.
These latest things seem to shatter lives even quicker.
I heard that some children also sell drugs at schools, as agents for the dealers. Is there truth to this?
As this continues, will people start to call for a Philipine type response?
Starting to think that Singapore’s government had the right idea.
Execute for trafficking?
@Crusoe
Given prevailing behaviour, attitudes and a porous border you are hoping in vain.
@November 13, 2022 at 5:26 AM
“While males were noted as the predominant users of addictive substances, the number of females was on the rise especially as it related to alcohol usage. While exact figures could not be given, the NCSA said it hoped to collect updated data via the upcoming Secondary School Survey.
Deputy Manager of the NCSA, Troy Wickham said findings in the 2020 National Primary School Survey revealed children as young as eight years old had admitted to substance use.
“I can say the main drug is still alcohol, followed closely by what we call energy drinks. A small amount admitted to using marijuana in their life. The main source is at home, the family and siblings and this is a concern for us at the National Council on Substance Abuse,” he said.”
****
The above points to a 2020 survey, but it would not be hard to imagine the same/ a similar process was followed as the IDB survey. Forget about parents, principals and teachers. Think about your child at 8 years of age.
Can you imagine having your child’s name documented with drug use from the age of 8. Even, if your child became a saint at the age of 9 and onwards, there is information that could be use to the detriment of your child. That is why the IDB survey in all formats should be destroyed.
Hopefully, you get it this time. Don’t wait until the disrespect comes to your loved ones to start seeing the light.
@Sargeant
Taylor remanded on gun, ammunition and drug charges
https://www.nationnews.com/2022/11/14/taylor-remanded-gun-ammunition-drug-charges/
@David
https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/01/16/different-outcome-for-two-accused/
Is this the same guy?
Was this previous case concluded or is it still awaiting trial and he was out on bail?
You think the police could be pleased if he was already out on bail waiting for a case?
@David
Thanks for the update
Same guy CA. Same old.
When will we change it up?
Maybe it is time people on bail for theft, drug, murder and gun crimes be required to wear the COVID monitoring devices as condition for bail.
Maybe that will keep them from committing fresh crimes if it is know they are tracked 24/7.
@David
If I was a police, I would done wasting my time trying to catch perpetrators.
The media need to do a check and state clearly at the top of the article ‘Already on Bail’ whenever someone brought before the court on fresh charges is out on bail.
@CA
This is a worrying matter. The lawyers will tell you if a person charged does not pose a flight risk or sone other factor to prevent to prevent bail allowance the presumption of innocence must prevail.
@David, I know that you are aware that the BAIL process is a very difficult one PARTICULALRY when it is within a very slow judicial case management system like in Bim!
This comes back to your ‘draconian’ remark earlier: maybe there should simply be NO BAIL allowed, period! But then that may disadvantage truly unfortunate Bajans who get caught in a legal problem through misfortune, right!
Or maybe simply stated, absolutely no bail for any offenses where a gun is involved; where there is serious personal injury caused by any weapon like machete, knife etc; where drugs over a certain quantity is found … the list can be quite precise as it has been DONE many places previously and maybe already so in Bim!
This bail thing has become too progressive (certainly in other western nations) with too much attempts to appease ; its hurting society and needs to get back to commonsense !
Bail is allowed, of course, not just because one is “presumed innocent” but also re the seriousness of the offense, possible further danger to the original victim and what you mentioned among other factors….. So the question here is what were the risk factors associated to the ‘bail assessment’ on this perp … not just flight risk!
Damn sure he will not now be issued bail again … so nothing stopped a serious and proper assessment initially that may have determined that he should have been remanded!
@Dee Word
Didn’t the incumbent AG introduce an 18 month period if a person charged fell within couldn’t be eligible for bail and it was shutdown by the appeals court?
Get a grip on gun crime
Threat seen to Barbados’ safe tourism brand
by COLVILLE MOUNSEY colvillemounsey@nationnews.comAUTHORITIES ARE BEING URGED to quickly get a lid on Barbados’ spiralling gun crime, as it has the potential to tarnish the country’s tourism brand as a safe destination.
This concerned is being raised by chief executive officer of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association, Geoffrey Roach, in the wake of multiple brazen shootings last week. One of the more troubling was the shooting of a man in broad daylight while aboard a public service vehicle.
Roach said that while there is no evidence to suggest the recent spate of shootings was having an impact on arrivals, the situation needed to
be carefully monitored.
Very troubling
“Any crime is always a concern for us. However, what we are seeing now as it relates to shootings is very troubling because safety is a big part of Barbados’ brand. Any crime that tends to make headlines, especially headlines that can be seen internationally, is something that we must keep a very close eye on because it can certainly have an impact on arrivals and this is certainly one challenge that we do not need,” he said.
Expressing similar sentiments was former chairman of the Barbados Tourism Marketing Incorporated, Roseanne Myers, who has 35 years of experience in the industry. Making it clear she was speaking strictly within her capacity as a concerned citizen, Myers told the DAILY NATION the problem was much larger than tourism considerations.
“I would say that in relation to Barbados’ brand as a destination, that as citizens we all must be concerned for our own safety. What we are seeing is really not the norm for Barbados. The expectation is that the authorities will try to give force to the issue. I believe it is very important for all of us as citizens first to get that right, and then we will be able to project the type of image of the destination that we are trying to market,” she added.
When contacted, new Minister of Tourism Ian Gooding-Edghill said he was not able to comment on the issue raised by stakeholders as he is overseas.
Acting Commissioner of Police Erwin Boyce, speaking during a press conference last Thursday, assured the public that despite the recent surge in gun violence, lawmen were “on top of
the situation”.
Four shooting deaths were recorded last week. On Sunday, November 6, in two separate incidents, 22-year-old Kobe Shepherd was killed at Upper Gills Road, Greenfield, St Michael, and Mark Anthony Armstrong, 47, of Hothersal Turning, St Michael, was shot dead in The City. Odwin Ryan Grannum, 39, of Licorish Village, My Lord’s Hill, also in St Michael, died on Wednesday, while on Thursday, the body of 72-year-old Simion Carlisle Legall was discovered with gunshot wounds to the head. Barbados has now recorded 39 killings for the year, the second highest amount in recent history.
Chairman of the Barbados Private Sector Association Trisha Tannis said she was hard-pressed to say that the situation was under control.
“Clearly, we do not have the situation under control, and I think the faster that we as a country can look ourselves in the mirror and be truthful, the faster that we may get to solutions that may actually work. We clearly do not have the situation under control and the prescriptions for this problem are very complicated.
“Clearly the plan to address this has to be a multi-dimensional one that will involve a whole-ofsociety approach. This has to move beyond speaking to these issues, to having real and tangible impact on the ground. We also have to be very careful in how we measure success and that we are not naive in how we define it going forward,” Tannis added.
Source: Nation
A few days ago, there was a an article with lamenting the fact that too few students were enrolled in tertiary education. Here is one area that is not ‘suffering’.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2022/11/15/new-attorneys-told-journey-has-now-started/
As I saw the above article, I recalled that there was another recent article where a large number of ‘lawyers’ were admitted to the bar.
Is Barbados producing 50 or more lawyers every year?
If it is, how are they supporting themselves?
This would explain the need to drag out cases for year and to cheat clients of money awarded to them. The grazing area is becoming overcrowded. Interestingly, one would think as the field becomes crowded that the price of legal fees would drop, but I saw a notice informing us that the fees for legal advice were recently increased.
I seem to recall that the fees for a lawyer with QC designation were higher than those of a lawyer without the designation. That a lawyer’s bread and butter is affected should explain the reluctance to abandon titles such as QC and KC
PM MIA SPEAKS
Buers like to congregate in Carmetta’s Corner Garden
so using a Gardening metaphor to explain a calling in divine consciousness
Seeds are placed in a store deep within and there are good and bad seeds
the bad seeds or thoughts of the mind have to be suppressed
and the good seeds nurtured to manifest into beautiful flowers
This is part of the first 8 exercises of Mindful Breathing as taught by Buddha
Never trust a Yank
Come Here Come Here
I go reason now
Come Here Come Here
It is dry season now
Too much bad weed is in the garden
I man go weed them out
I don’t want to be hypocrite
I want to know what you are dealing with
East West North and South
Jah Jah a go weed them out
@Dee Word
You recall the discussion about drastic interventions?
See article Nation article.
‘Heavy hand’ call
BURGLARY AND GUN VIOLENCE are two of the major crimes that worry Barbadians.
However, to combat the latter, heavy-handed measures might be needed to fight the current crime wave.
Senior research officer at the Criminal Justice Research and Planning Unit Kim Ramsay made that suggestion yesterday after highlighting findings from the Public Opinion Survey on Crime and the Criminal Justice System (2021).
While acknowledging that the importation of guns was a major issue, Ramsay suggested that a programme similar to the United States Department of Justice’s Weed and Seed community-based programme could be useful.
“We have to start with cleaning up all of our borders, airports, and seaports, and it has to be a major operation. We need to tackle the issue. We need to stop the haemorrhaging of guns at the border and the inflow of guns. Clean up the streets, do the patrols and sometimes we need heavy-handed tactics,” she said.
Ramsay, however, cautioned that any militant approach had to be balanced with positive projects in hot spot communities.
“However, in line with those heavy-handed tactics, you need to be planting seeds of growth; education,
beautifying and, empowering communities, and working with marginalised and at-risk youth,” she said.
The public opinion survey was carried out to examine the knowledge and attitudes of Barbadians on crime and the criminal justice system.
It was undertaken via telephone and cellphone interviews as COVID-19 protocols were observed between October 2020 and February 2021, with 1 232 participants surveyed.
Based on the findings, 42 per cent said they were victims of burglaries; 21 per cent, theft; sexual offence, four per cent; other assault 11 per cent; fraud, two per cent; domestic violence, three per cent; threats, two per cent; wilful damage, one per cent; while three per cent did not respond.
In addition, 33 per cent said they never feared being shot, 28 per cent said “rarely”, 24 per cent answered sometimes, while 13 per cent said “frequently”.
Fourteen per cent said they frequently feared their homes would be burgled when they weren’t there; 25 per cent said sometimes; 28 per cent said rarely and 32 per cent, never.
Ramsay also said many people had improved their security systems.
Although many of the respondents believed their communities were “safe”
and commended the police, Ramsay said there was a need for more community police and youth programmes with input from community leaders.
“Barbadian’s views on the criminal justice system have remained fairly constant over the past 14 years. They are mainly concerned about the economy and the cost of living as they were in 2008 and they are also very concerned about gun violence and crime. They gave the police a fair grade and rated them highest among criminal justicefighting professionals.” (TG)
Source: Nation
Looks like the policymakers are catching up.
Senator: Criminals recruiting schoolboys
INDEPENDENT SENATOR Reverend Dr John Rogers is charging that some young Barbadian schoolboys are being recruited to carry out violent gun crime by syndicates on the island.
Speaking in the Upper Chamber yesterday in his contribution to the debate on the Fire Arms Amendment Bill 2022, Rogers said: “I understand that there are some syndicates on this island that recruit young schoolboys, put them on the payroll and put a gun in their hand. ‘I will pay you on a monthly basis, but when I say shoot you shoot,’” said Rogers.
He added: “All of this is taking place at community level and somebody knows what is happening somewhere.
“… Once people have guns in their hands you can set all the legislation you want, if I feel I need to take out a man I will take him out. That is the general thing on the ground. We have to get serious about finding those shadows who are putting these guns in our children’s hands. These little boys don’t import any barrels. Somebody is bringing these things and putting them in their hands,” said the independent senator.
He cited an earlier statement he made in the Chamber where he was worried that Barbados’ election campaigns were no longer about issues, but who had the “power of spend”.
“And once our campaign
becomes about who has the power of spend, there will come a time when you will not have enough to buy votes and you will have to start eliminating them. Don’t think that it cannot happen to us just like what you heard . . . ,” he said.
“And if there are untouchables in this society, if there are some people who are too big in this society that we cannot touch them, perhaps we need to look at leadership and justice in this society. No one in this society should be untouchable because at the end of the day the only people we will see dying are the little small fries down on the street,” he said as he expressed concerns.
Referring to a recent gun seizure at the Bridgetown Port, Rogers said: “If those things had gotten on the streets in the hands of people who tend to do lawless things, the results could be detrimental to us all,” said Rogers The cleric noted “that as brilliant as this amendment may be…there needs to be something more and it is not something that can be brought about by legislation. It has to be brought about by a desire for change and transformation in the minds of our people”.
Rogers said Barbados was facing a problem of leadership at several levels which included the home, the church and civic leadership. He, therefore, called for discussion.
“It is not a political problem. We can call for
the resignations of attorneys-general in every administration that will not solve our problem,” he said.
In supporting the amendments, Rogers, however, said he hoped “the only people who go to prison are not the little chickens down at the bottom. If we are going to implement legislation like this we need to see some big boys, we need to find some shadows who are bringing the guns into this country.” (JS)
Source: Nation
Can’t bail also be determined by the strength of the evidence against the accused? I know that is a factor in some jurisdictions.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2022/11/18/invest-in-crime-fight/
This is a different from an article that I read yesterday.
Yesterday, it was businesswoman stating that crime is up and it will soon affect businesses and tourism. I read the article as if she was saying “if we can get ‘the criminals’ in a corner just killing themselves and not affecting our businesses then everything would be OK”
I am trying to remember if the same joker referred to a US DOJ program ‘seed and weed’. Barbados must be careful in how it copies any justice program from the US. Let us hope that those who employ/follow these programs have the sense to weed out the in-built racial component. Barbados is not the US. Justice in the US is not blind.
I copy a lot of BT stuff.
But I must admits that it seems as ideas generated on BU spawn contributions to other sources of media in Barbados
👍@blogmaster 👍
I may be mean at times, but he is one of my favorite guys.
🙂 He may be incapable of criticism, but there is brain activity 🙂
But I must admits that it seems as if ideas generated on BU spawn contributions to other sources of media in Barbados
The homicide crisis
THE PERSISTENT NEWS of weekly homicides in the Eastern Caribbean represents a deep development crisis on several levels.
To date, the number of homicides for 2022 in St Lucia had reached 63, Barbados 40, St Vincent and the Grenadines 30, and Dominica 15. Beyond the numbers, the surrounding features of these homicides point to deeper psycho-social challenges for the Caribbean.
First, is their brazen nature, with the perpetrators showing little concern for secrecy, concealment or, more worryingly, the lives of uninvolved fellow citizens. In Barbados, a drive-by shooting has taken place on an occupied public vehicle in broad daylight, while in Dominica, a homicide took place in a hospital room after an earlier attempt at murdering the victim had failed.
Another troubling feature is the associated evidence of public desensitisation to these killings.
Several videos have circulated depicting young Caribbean males taking their final breaths on sidewalks, with scores of cellphone-wielding onlookers milling around, giving unsolicited “personal verdicts”, and with the voices of sobbing relatives and friends in the background.
Significantly, several Caribbean leaders, including Barbados’ Prime Minister, have cautioned against our diminished capacity to be shocked and outraged by these homicides.
Youthful perpetrators
Equally problematic is the youthful nature of the perpetrators and the ease with which handguns and automatic weapons come into their possession.
When the broader socio-economic circumstances are taken into consideration, such as the increasingly challenging economy, the failures of the education system in which 11-year-olds are parcelled into successful or failed lives, and the growing erosion of social-safety nets for the majority, then the complexity, depth and scale of the crisis confronting Caribbean society become apparent.
It is troubling that while we have had total and sustained governmental responses to address, for example, the COVID-19 pandemic, we have not had a similar coordinated, planned, and multi-sided set of policy frameworks to confront homicides which occur within easily identifiable demographics and communities.
To my knowledge, there has never been a special CARICOM meeting to fashion a common response to crime. There has not been a special sitting of a Caribbean parliament to address gun-related homicides, and there has not been a specifically coordinated national policy framework to address homicides.
Long-term adjustments
While there have been knee-jerk announcements and approaches which focus largely on policing, missing are the interconnected socio-economic long-term adjustments that offer alternatives to marginalised youth, whose socialisation
places them at variance with the wider society. Similarly, opposition groups opportunistically politicise the crime issue, given its negative impact on otherwise successful governments.
However, our policymakers can no longer go on shuffling and hoping that the moment will pass. What is required in the coming months is a deliberate, concerted, carefully thought-through set of policy frameworks which move away from end-point detention, punishment and policing but approach the problem from its economic, sociological, psychological and historical dimensions.Tennyson Joseph is a political scientist at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, specialising in regional affairs.
Email tjoe2008@live.com.
Source: Nation
Another senseless shooting death.
https://www.nationnews.com/2022/12/03/update-police-identify-shooting-victim-20221203-2114-430110/
Vi et armis
“Around 10 000 troops have surrounded the city of Soyapango in El Salvador as part of a massive crackdown on gangs, “
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.