With the current surge in gun-related crime, Barbadians could not be faulted if they started to believe that authorities were losing, or have already lost, their handle on crime. This might not be the case, but in recent weeks the mounting body count at the mortuary or on operating tables at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital offers no comfort.
However, neither law enforcement nor Barbadians can afford to throw their hands in the air in resignation or defeat. Nor must our politicians and police officials try to placate the worries of law-abiding citizens with deadpan statements about overall crime being down compared to last year, or that there were two more murders in 2020 and 2021 compared to 2022.
When citizens are confronted with bullets being sprayed wantonly at boat cruises, restaurants and bars, karaoke sessions, recreational parks, in homes and on the streets, they crave assertive corrective measures and view pandering statistics as Disraeli would.
Often when we get this bloody, persistent violence, we hear and read official statements announcing “stepped-up patrols”, “robust community interventions”, “stop and search”, and a host of speeches that frequently give the illusion that everything is under control or will be brought under control. But do we see these things? Are periods of relative quiet a reflection of these stated measures, or merely a lull in activity while more illegal firearms and ammunition somehow make it into Barbados and find their way into the hands of criminal elements?
Notwithstanding the necessity for Government to foster an enabling social and economic environment for young men and women to feel they have a chance at success in this country without engaging in criminality, there is a dire need for every Barbadian to see this crime situation as his or her problem and not just that of the Barbados Police Service.
It is completely baffling that more than three years after retired Commissioner of Police Tyrone Griffith identified our ports of entry as the avenue through which guns and ammunition were entering the island, the public has not been made aware of any attempt to deal with that situation. Have there been arrests, any other meaningful intervention, any major gun hauls – anything? Where is the intelligence gathering? What is being done at the source, if supply is still seemingly reaching the streets?
The irony of much of what is happening is that Barbados is a small country where gun violence is linked to the drug trade and most, if not all, citizens know who the drug dealers are in their communities. Some might attempt to live under the radar, but on such a tiny island, when a person lives a lavish lifestyle without visible means of legitimate employment and is not known to be the heir to any particular bounty, or at some stage must deal with product, cash or intermediaries, it is difficult to remain under that radar.
So, what are we law-abiding citizens doing? What are those officers that live in every community in Barbados doing? What are those honest workers in the Bridgetown Port, Grantley Adams International Airport, and those vulnerable private ports doing? What are the parents and neighbours of these gunmen doing?
We suspect that, in addition to some of the traditional methods of intervention, law enforcement might have to pursue these criminal elements from a financial and tax perspective. There is a need to track and follow the money. Serious investigations ought to be carried out into the finances of individuals known or suspected to be involved in the illegal drug trade, who, in many instances, are sponsoring the bloodbaths on the streets while not paying taxes. We have a Money Laundering Unit in the country; how effective is it in tracking washed money into real estate, boutiques, car rentals, restaurants, and any other seemingly legitimate business? There must be a frontal attack on crime, not only on the streets but in the perpetrators’ shrouded financial network as well.
There is also a perception in Barbados that persons in the upper echelons of society are involved in crime and get away with their nefarious deeds. This view is given legitimacy when such persons are caught red-handed but are never taken before the court, or any cases filed against them are suddenly discontinued. Such instances can embolden those persons of means to continue their bloody business.
We also note with alarm that several of the recent murders and shootings are allegedly being committed by persons on bail for similar offences.
As a small country faced with multiple shootings, we must appreciate how swiftly this little island can become a paradise lost. Perhaps, it is already gone.
