UWI lecturer says urgent action needed to arrest gun crisis

Barbados is on the precipice of a public health crisis related to gun violence and gang warfare.

That warning has come from University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus Professor Dwayne Devonish who said that if urgent and strategic action is not taken, there will be devastating economic and social consequences for the country.

Speaking against the background of a spike in gun crime in recent weeks, the Lecturer in Management and Organisational Behaviour contended that there is a need for a multifaceted approach to tackling the issue.

“There are two things you have to consider: One, police have to be stronger on cracking down on locating these illicit firearms and apprehending these offenders. They have to be quite strategic, using their intelligence on the ground.

“Remember the guns are not manufactured here. So they also have to be equally vigilant and resolute in cracking down on the ports of entry through which guns flow into the country. So, this has to be multifaceted. It can’t just be cracking down in communities only, because we are going to confiscate guns and firearms in communities but if there is a flow coming in we have to deal with it at the source. So, find out exactly who is bringing these guns and tackle it from the root . . . . I imagine there are multiple sources,” Devonish explained.

He warned that failure to act decisively could have a negative impact on families, the island’s bread-and-butter tourism industry, and the entertainment sector.

“It is absolutely urgent, extremely urgent, because we are on the precipice of a public health crisis when it comes to gun violence and gang warfare,” Professor Devonish warned.

“Clearly one of the things this is going to be impacting is general fear in society. People are going to be quite reluctant or even disinclined to go out to socialise. We can see the impact on some events already. So, nighttime events where there are potential risks of threats of gun violence, that is going to obviously affect the economy in that way. By extension, we know that crime impacts tourism. Tourists are going to make decisions as to whether they will come to a country in light of its crime situation.”

Devonish’s comments came in light of the recent flare-up in gun violence which has seen several people either killed or injured.

Attorney General Dale Marshall disclosed at a press conference last Friday that of the 17 murders recorded in Barbados up to the end of June, 12 of them were gun-related. He also disclosed that a total of 465 illegal guns were seized over the past six years, along with several thousand rounds of ammunition.

According to Marshall, part of the strategy to stem the flow of firearms into the island is to work with countries where the guns originate, as he acknowledged that criminals were finding ingenious ways of shipping these weapons.

Last Friday, social activist and former Minister of Social Transformation Hamilton Lashley suggested a bottom-up approach to dealing with crime, recommending that Government representatives and members of the police force talk with “block” leaders to find solutions.

He recalled a similar approach was used in the Pine, St Michael several years ago when he led an open-air meeting involving gang leaders, community practitioners, and police officials, and there was a significant improvement in the crime situation there.

Devonish told Barbados TODAY that while there have been some pockets of community policing, with the Pine being one such example, that seemed to have faltered over the years.

He said the time had come to look at those existing structures and see where enhancements were needed, adding that “we got to go beyond town hall meetings”.

“We’ve got to get to the root of it,” the university lecturer insisted.

In addition to enhancing community policing, Devonish said authorities must exercise more vigilance at the island’s ports of entry, as he highlighted that the weapons were not manufactured locally.

The behavioral specialist said police also had to build greater trust within communities to encourage residents to speak out about crime.

He said there was evidence that many residents were “quite reluctant and even fearful” of reporting crimes in their communities because of “fear of reprisal and lack of trust in the police”.

“What we are seeing is that, clearly, the police cannot do this alone. If we are going to tackle violence at the community level or at the national level it has to be a whole-of-country approach – the communities have to work closely with the police,” Devonish argued.

“So if we can enhance community policing in a way that residents feel comfortable with the police and they are able to trust the police, then you will have a higher incidence of reporting crime [and] the police will have a better handle on criminal activity at the community level before it can escalate.”

“I think what communities are looking for is police action and better trust in the police. So the police have to be more trustworthy, the police have to be more strategic and the police have to build better connections with the community,” Devonish added.

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb