It is with intense regret the following blog is being posted. News broke overnight of a 12 year old girl shot after a masked gunman sprayed two houses with bullets located at Silver Hill, Christ Church.
Drive-by shootings, killings execution style have become a routine occurrence in Barbados in recent years. Sometimes one has to stop to ask if this is Barbados and if with all the renaming of buildings these days if Barbados should be renamed Guntown.
The blogmaster does not intend to be prolix on this matter, it has become clear even to a blind man on a horse, our people have become untethered from our moorings of the past. We find ourselves in the current state as a result of negligent parenting, incompetent enforcement and a people riddled with corrupt tendencies.
For the first time the blogmaster is able to recall, an innocent child has been shot as a result of the level of lawlessness currently afflicting our society. An innocent child shot from all reports sitting in her home doing what children do no doubt.
In previous posts on crime this blogmaster has indicated that Barbados government needs to declare a state of emergency at the earliest time before the situation gets worse. Of course the blogmaster feels no pleasure in making the suggestion BUT on the current trajectory it is obvious where we are headed if relevant stakeholders refuse to escalate intervention strategies.
Governments in the Caribbean have previously declared ‘violence’ a public health crisis. When Covid 19 reached our shores the Barbados government was quick as lighting to activate state of emergency laws which authorised it to bypass established protocols to fight the pandemic. Isn’t it obvious violent crime is escalating and requires a similar urgent response unshackled from the normal bureacrartic process?
A glance at the sidebar indicates we are up to 30 reported homicides for the year, tracking the highest number of 48 in 2019. Government data collection system is not robust therefore the public is unable to access number of shootings, stabbings, and other forms of violent crime at a glance. However, there is sufficient evidence to support what is being reported represents the “tip of the proverbial iceberg” of violent crime in Barbados.
A 12 year old child sitting in her home was shot – what will it take to trigger a sense of urgency from Barbados authorities and citizens? How many more must be shot? How many more must die?
The piecemeal namby-pamby measures being rolled out to combat our high level of crime- reported and perceived by the public- do not accord with the declaration by regional governments violent crime is a public health crisis. We have to take the hit to our pride today to save our small society from falling over the precipice tomorrow.
A word to the wise should be sufficient.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.