Criminals turning away from illegal activity under Intervention programme

A Government-led programme aimed at eliminating gang feuds and reducing retaliation killings is already bearing fruit, with some people turning away from criminal activity.

That is according to Minister of State in the Office of the Attorney General with Responsibility for Crime Prevention, Corey Lane who asserted on Tuesday that lives were being saved under the one-month-old Direct Intervention programme.

Individuals working with the initiative that was approved at the level of the Security Council and Cabinet about four weeks ago were engaged in “street outreach” and forming relationships with gangs.

“A part of that is non-aggression agreements and they’re starting to do non-aggression agreements with the two main gangs,” Lane said in an interview with Barbados TODAY.

“Another part is looking at the various feuds and retaliations. Some of the retaliations come from homicides and some of the feuds are being stoked from something as simple as IG [Instagram] wars….”

The minister said another component of the programme is the Exodus initiative which provides safe passage to people who want to get out of a life of crime but feel their lives are at risk if they remain in Barbados.

“We have two, three, four persons that said they want to get out of this life because they feel as though hits are on their head and they want to be facilitated to even leave the country. That is success.

“We have persons who said they were going to retaliate and now they are in a programme and they have not committed retaliations as yet and hopefully, with fingers and toes crossed, we can continue to keep that trajectory going. That is success,” the minister said following a tour of the Bridgetown Port.

Lane said the Direct Intervention programme offers a proactive response to dealing with crime on the island.

“We have a record of all of the persons in homicides over the past 12 months, over the last five years, and beyond. We actually have a team of persons going out there and working with survivors of homicide [victims] and persons who we believe may be inclined to get involved in retaliations,” he said.

“So, no longer are we waiting for crime to come to us in the society and then ask, ‘where is the AG [Attorney General]?’ but what we are doing is we are going and being proactive and actually having discussions, counselling, pivot programmes, remedial programmes, mental health initiatives with people who suffer loss in their families and may be inclined to commit a heinous crime in this society, and that is just one example.”

Lane also announced that the Gaining Stripes programme was in the process of being rolled out.

He explained that under that programme, awards of $1 000 would be given to persons recognised as going above and beyond the call of duty.

The minister said the employee at the Bridgetown Port responsible for the seizure of 37 guns last year would be among the recipients.

“When we do wrong, when we do poorly in this country, we are quick to criticise and quick to punish. I think we must be equally [quick], or more so, to reward when we have positive results happening. It is called positive reinforcement and that is something I am going to see happen and happen quickly, in the not-so-distant future,” Lane said.

“You would be familiar with the guy that returned the money to the lady recently. You would have watched some viral videos of school fights and seen adults getting involved and parting those fights. All of those people we will track down and we will be giving them various types of awards beyond monetary awards.”

randybennett@barbadostody.bb