In recent weeks Barbados has experienced an uptick in gun violence resulting in several young black men killed. These shootings have occurred in blue collar neighbourhoods fuelled mainly by a combination of a lack of economic opportunity and delinquent parenting causing ‘youts’ to retreat to drugs and other lawless pursuits.
The blogmaster and members of the BU family have posted too many blogs which have sliced and diced the escalating crime situation in Barbados. For the boomers who have frequented BU pages over the years the spike in crime has come as no surprise. There is no pleasure to post a Homicide Tracker on the blog’s sidebar to be a reminder of the enormity of the problem. How can a 20 by 14 island justify the number of murders recorded on the Homicide Tracker since 2017 and it does not provoke the mother of all outrage across all strata of society?
Given the rot that continues to naw at the social and economic underbelly of our society and the lack of meaningful interventionist strategies, it is difficult to be optimistic the situation will be improving anytime soon. There is the label ‘lost decade’ tagged to the tenure of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) from 2008 to 2018. There is justification to discuss if the period 1994 to the current should be dubbed the ‘lost generation’.
It is a no-brainer given the state of lawlessness in Barbados the situation demands an all hands make light work approach. While prevention is imported for sending a message that transgression of the law will not be tolerated, how can we achieve this with a judiciary and police service woefully undermanned?
Attorney General Dale Marshall’s assertion that the Barbados Police Service (BPS) has been doing an excellent job notwithstanding that it is counted as being undermanned by 300 makes no sense. Why in 2024 the capacity at the training school to accommodate females would be inadequate?
If Prime Minister Mottley feels justified to support a padded Cabinet using the argument – many hands make light work – then the same should be true if we are serious about eradicating the level of lawlessness afflicting a 20×14 island. Sitting on the block is a way of life. Leaving our windows opened is a way of life. Liming in a shop playing dominoes at night and ‘firing one’ is a way of life. Walking from the bus stop to our door is a way of life. Listening to the sound of crickets after 9PM is a way of life. So many activities we take for granted are threaded to define who we were. If we allow the current level of lawlessness to continue doesn’t it change the type of society we want?
The leaders in civil society need to prioritise an action plan which in all likelihood will have to be draconian to stop the rot. Commissioner of Police Richard Boyce spouting irrelevant analyses at staged press conferences does nothing to arrest the growing problem of crime in Barbados. The Barbados Police Service represents a piece in the puzzle.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.