People who go about settling disputes with a firearm are not only hurting their intended victims, but also themselves and the entire nation as well, High Court Judge Carlisle Greaves said today.
He made the comment as he dismissed a matter against a St Michael man.
Shamar Corey Massiah, of Reed Street, St Michael had been facing a charge of unlawfully and maliciously engaging in conduct which placed another person in danger of death or serious bodily harm on January 19, 2013.
But Justice Greaves said there has been no response from the complainant and eyewitness in the matter despite warnings and much effort to summon them.
He said “enough is enough” and the matter should end pending further interest by the complainant and the witness in proceeding in the future.
“The indictment is dismissed without prejudice to the prosecution to have it reinstated . . . within a reasonable time in the future,” the judge ruled.
Justice Greaves also cautioned Massiah. He explained that the allegation made against him was a very serious one.
“If it is true it would demonstrate that you are a dangerous man. It will also suggest that the firearm is still available to you and/or your cohorts.
“My experience with these matters is that you can’t escape all. Those who get away with it usually come back one way dead or alive. If you have done this thing you need to change your lifestyle and get rid of the gun and stop contributing to the erosion and derision of the reputation of this country,” the judge advised.
Greaves, who presides over the No. 3 Supreme Court, noted that such behaviours put a stain on Barbados’ international reputation.
“When you people go around shooting at one another it portrays a bad image for this country. People around the world who would otherwise invest in us either by visiting or by otherwise creating business opportunities and employment shy away and it puts our economy in trouble, more trouble.
“It is perhaps one of the reasons why so many of you are unemployed . . . because without the good reputation of this country the future must be dim, the present too.
“So every time you all get in your heads that you can exercise your selfishness by settling your disputes with a firearm, you hurt not only the person you have shot but you hurt yourself, you hurt the nation as a whole. You all need to focus on building up this country in whatever little way you can and not pull it down . . . Every time you fire a shot you make people feel unsafe and uncomfortable with this country.”
Justice Greaves however made it clear that Massiah had not been found guilty of any crime.
“I am just saying this in case you know that you did it and others who may have done it, or thinking about doing it; or find themselves in a situation they might think they might do it – to think stop. None of us, especially our black people who suffered so much, for so long, has any right to kill another one of us.
“No one of us has any right to walk around this country with unlawful firearms to use on other people in any form – whether you shoot at them; whether you stick them up with it; whether you threaten them with it; whether you rob them with it; whether you kill them with it. None of us has any right to do that particularly unlawfully,” he said.
