Barbados is on a grim track to registering its second-highest murder toll in recorded history, despite an almost six-week period in which an overnight curfew was enforced and daytime movement was heavily restricted.
Government’s chief legal advisor, in an exclusive Barbados TODAY interview has however frowned on the use of drastic measures like implementing curfews in hotspot areas. He is instead calling for more opportunities to be provided for at-risk youth.
Rather, Attorney General Dale Marshall has reported significant inroads in the fight against illegal gun importation, and is attributing the steady flow of criminal activity to the ingenuity of criminals. He also praised the work of officers in the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) as they navigate the tough climate.
“No solutions are off of the table… but certainly I cannot tell you that curfews and so on are actively being considered by me as Attorney General.
“That would be an absolute last resort for Barbados. That is something that happens in Jamaica and Trinidad. That is not the kind of thing that we are contemplating,” Marshall told Barbados TODAY.
“The last administration wanted to have legislation that amounted to curfew legislation, [but] I don’t think that we are at that point,” he added.
The shooting death of 20-year-old Akeem Cummings on Saturday night brought this year’s murder tally to 35, tying with the second highest number on record with more than two months still remaining in 2020.
Brazen daylight shootings and at least one triple murder in the dead of the night have left the country 14 murders shy of the record-breaking 49 that occurred in 2019. The year 2006 was the only other period that as many as 35 murders were recorded.
On Friday, Commissioner of Police Tyrone Griffith admitted that guns – the weapons of choice for murderers were still entering through legitimate ports of entry. He also admitted to an alarming increase in aggravated burglaries over the last four weeks, placing life and property in severe danger.
Marshall however admitted that stop and search procedures implemented under the Freundel Stuart government were still being used by the RBPF as they continue to adopt a “no-nonsense” approach to crime.
“I don’t know exactly what people are trying to say when they say they want the police to get tougher, but certainly the police have been operating in a no-nonsense way as far as the criminals are concerned and they are right to do so… but the fact is that we have a problem,” he admitted.
Marshall stressed that the current reality is in no way indicative of a failing on the part of the Mia Mottley administration. On the contrary, he argued that the progress made in police operations and numerous gun seizures at national entry points was hardly ever publicized.
“The Commissioner is quite right and it is important for us to step up and do even more. If there are any cracks, then we need to fill those. But I don’t think the fact that firearms are still coming into Barbados should be seen in any way as a failure on the part of the administration or on the part of the force.
“If you take into account the fact that we are demonstrating success at the ports of entry and you add to that the seizing of firearms, then I think we are beginning to make a dent,” assured the AG.
“Criminals are ingenious. We have had to invest in all kinds of capacities in order to be able to stop them in one form or another. They have become sophisticated and as we put things in place, they are finding ways and means of circumventing those things,” Marshall added.
Among these new measures are an increase in working scanners at ports after charges by the Mottley administration that the previous government had left just one cargo scanner operational, but barely functional.
Amid the increasing crime, the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) has been calling for more action from its successor in government and attempting to pinpoint the irony of previous calls for the removal of the country’s last AG, Adriel Brathwaite.
Marshall never-the-less expressed satisfaction with the productivity of officers as well as the measures taken by the Mia Mottley administration and has urged Barbadians to support the efforts of the RBPF.
“The police have been doing a remarkable job and I think it is important for the people of Barbados to say thank you to them,” he declared.
(kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)
