Submitted by Kammie Holder

I am sad and why I am sad for the nut man has been killed by the gun of yet another thug. This is a young man who I have known for over 40 years, hard-working, a family man who was very ambitious and toiled everyday to provide bread for his two kids.

What is more disheartening is that the gun is killing more than Covid and the authorities seem totally incapable of disinfecting our society of these callous thugs. Sometimes the end must justify the means, and sometimes we must temporarily give up our freedoms for the greater good of our society.

Bigger guns for law enforcement and harsher penalties will not deter a mindless thug who has no value for life from taking the life of another. These thugs need to be flushed out of every nook and cranny, for the casual callousness and bravado exhibited is worrying.

May I suggest, better usage of the eavesdropping technology to detect the source of these guns rather than tapping the phones of harmless mouth giants makes better sense. Are we seeing a failure in some specific area of intelligence gathering that needs plugging for we do not manufacture guns in Barbados. Why do we have to always wait until it really hits home to get real action on crime.

Common sense tells me our crime fighting measures are failing and needs new brains on board, innovative strategies, public consultations and ideas from public. The police may think they have a noosphere of knowledge on crime fighting but non of us are equipped with a catholicon for crime.

 

The time is right for community policing to embrace a volunteer force similar to the US and UK model where persons up to age 60 are trained and work alongside regular police officers. Perhaps, some will arrogantly as usual knock another idea without further exploration. We are not talking about the ill treated, disrespected special constable arm, we are speaking to a properly equipped new unit with its own chief.

Covid mitigation measures perhaps will cost us more than a well established auxiliary police force. Can we ignore or quantify the cost of not acting? Decreased investor confidence, travel advisories, increased healthcare, increased critical care cost and decrease tourist arrival will all lead to less FX for Remy hair and Hennessey imports.

Crime is everybody’s problem and who better to engage to help mitigate spiralling crime other than well vetted citizens among the masses.

Rest In Peace Randy, will be the retort of many but we must also Live In Peace.