Curbing gun crime: Get back to the basics

When I listen to certain people, especially the likes of Corey Lane and the clueless Attorney General Dale Marshall talk about crime and the means to deal with it, I am reminded of a conversation I had back in the late 1970s with a now deceased policeman named Cumberbatch.

He told me that the key to policing is doing the basics right, keep repeating them, and avoid people with limited or no knowledge of the job getting in the way. He also told me that it is easy to police a small country or a small space because you can scarcely commit open or street crime in secrecy.

Some of the Government’s policies with respect to their increasing penalties, making remand mandatory for gun possession, and the like, is akin to someone having a bad tooth and to ensure that the problem doesn’t recur, the person goes to the dentist and have him extract all the good ones, along with the bad, to nullify the good ones ever going bad.

Gunmen are committing crime on the streets in broad daylight with impunity. A man was shot in a van today within shouting distance of Black Rock Police Station. When last did anyone see foot patrols by uniformed or plainclothed police officers, especially the latter, in their community? It seems that feature is no longer in the police force’s repertoire.

The response to this gun violence must be robust and forceful. Murderous gunmen are not going to a counselling session hosted by Corey Lane. Staring up at a sign saying “No Bullying” or “Stop The Violence” will not send any message to paid gunmen that they should put down their guns.

These thugs must be stopped in their tracks by persistent collection of intelligence on them, relentless pursuit of them and successful prosecution of them. The country is too small; there is a gunman living beside you; you know who he is; you know what he is doing; you know his associates; he might even be living inside your home.

Why are you not providing intelligence on the criminal to the police? Are you waiting for his stray bullet to hit your mother, wife, daughter or son . . . or you? He will not be caught or stopped by Dale Marshall going to Parliament and making it more difficult to get bail.

The problem will not be solved by Corey Lane making pretty sounding speeches signifying nothing, while collecting a fat salary. The onus is on the police force to bring criminal elements to their knees and while they are doing it, tell the politicians to go take a hike.

There is no plant in Barbados that makes guns or bullets, so what is being done at the ports of entry?  I am seeing some seizures of weapons but I am not seeing any arrests, so the problem will continue.

What is the police force doing about information that suggests that in addition to persons of African ancestry, there are persons of Asian extraction, as well as Caucasians, deeply involved in the drug trade and therefore, quiet sponsors of some of this gun violence? How much attention is being paid to cargo coming into Barbados, be it clothes, car parts, house appliances, electronic equipment, and the like?

We have some upscale entry points in Barbados, especially north of the island, that are the domain of the affluent. How effective is the screening process for yachts and other vessels that might seek harbour at these facilities? We have already seen what persons can do with private boats. We have also seen what they can do with containers coming into the Bridgetown Port and how they can magically make case files disappear into thin air.

Where persons are living a lifestyle that does not match their unemployment status or outwardly employed situation, what is our financial investigators and tax people doing to track the source of their wealth? Do they pay taxes? Does anyone check?

The crime situation in Barbados will get worse as long as politicians meddle. I challenge the police force to also investigate the links between known drug lords and some of our political figures. Politicians will associate with Lucifer if it would help them win votes.

But theirs is not the only soul that will be lost. The entire country will suffer. The best way for this gun violence to end is for the police to get back to basics, hit the streets, the nooks and crannies of Barbados in their numbers. Gather intelligence and act on it.

Don’t police hang out or frequent Nelson Street, Greenfield, Chapman Lane, Deacons, Paradise Village, Gall Hill, and some of the other seedy areas where people are said to discuss such things? No one is going to get information sitting in the pew at St Lucy Parish Church or attending a men’s fellowship meeting at St Dominic’s Roman Catholic.

Go seek the source of the importation of these weapons, pursue these misguided gunmen with manic persistence and bring them to justice, dare I say, dead or alive.
– D. Goddard.

P.S. And if politicians get in the way, arrest them too for obstruction.