Tourism at risk if gang legislation not carefully crafted, warns expert

A University of the West Indies researcher has cautioned that Barbados’ vital tourism industry could suffer serious damage if proposed legislation to classify criminal gangs as terrorist organisations is not meticulously prepared.

Last month, Prime Minister Mia Mottley, CARICOM chair, and her regional counterparts agreed to introduce legislation that will grade criminal gangs as terrorist enterprises, signalling an important change in the Caribbean’s way of fighting violent crime.

The unparalleled move, announced by former Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Dr Keith Rowley during a post-summit press conference in Barbados, aims to dismantle criminal networks and address the “unacceptably high” levels of violence plaguing the Caribbean Community.

Dr Rowley, the then-lead prime minister responsible for security in the CARICOM quasi-cabinet, said: “We believe that the legislation needs to be cognisant of what exactly we are experiencing now as against what the existing legislation anticipated. And to that end, heads sourced and obtained the services of a former AG [attorney general] of Belize, Godfrey Smith, who has been tasked to review our legislative templates and to come up with new legislative proposals for consideration by the Heads for changes to be made on the legislative side to treat to what we are experiencing as against what we are surprised by.”

But UWI Professor Dwayne Devonish told Barbados TODAY that while he is not for or against the initiative, Barbados and the other regional governments must meticulously consider the pros and cons before acting on any such legislation.

In his assessment, the professor of Management and Organisational Behaviour in the Department of Management Studies at UWI Cave Hill first outlined the potential benefits of the proposed law before addressing the possible disadvantages.

“I would say, the key benefit is that it would provide a stronger and broader legal equipment for the police, prosecutors and those in judiciary to combat gang violence. So, what that means, is that it could be a stronger deterrent to these gangs,” he told Barbados TODAY.

Professor Devonish, whose speciality includes emotional intelligence and strategic planning, also believes that existing and potential gangsters could be turned off, due to terrorist as the new label, being cognisant that this classification would attract harsher punishment.

He added: “The next benefit is that when you classify gangs as terrorist groups, it can also help you to mobilise greater, not just national, but international resources . . . because a lot of those international organisations that provide countries that are fighting against terrorism with resources, would donate resources. So, when you classify them, it makes it easier for you to say ‘we want help’ from the international community to fight this.”

The expert in research methodology pointed out that he understood the rationale behind the move, but sounded a sober warning to the leaders on what should be foremost in their minds.

“These are the disadvantages,” he said. “Once you classify gangs as terrorists or terrorist groups, you must remember that not all gangs are the same. This is not to say, I am condoning gangs, right. But we got to be careful that if we are going to do this, that we have good due process. If I am going to classify a gang as a terrorist group, I first have to define what a gang is. Right now, we don’t even have a proper stable definition of what a gang is. You might have a group of young people who probably follow a little association to get back at somebody, but it may not be necessarily a gang.”

The UWI professor added: “What that means is that you may have a law enforcement overreach or abuse of the anti-terrorist laws; because once you classify them under what we call anti-terrorism laws . . . if they don’t fit the definition of a gang, then they can’t fit the definition of the Terrorist Act. Because, any group of young men coming together to do foolishness, doesn’t mean that’s a gang. So, we got to first get the legislation right on how we define a gang.”

Professor Devonish contended that groups which now identify themselves as gangs under various brands, would operate more covertly and strategically: “Because, in case they get caught, you have to justify that this is a gang-related activity. What separates a group of guys coming to attack a guy because he may have taken away his drugs or his girlfriend, would that be a gang? No. so, the whole definition and boundaries surrounding conceptualising what gangs are, is going to be an important, important thing that we have to do.”

He then turned his attention to the impact which categorising gangs as terrorists will have on tourism, the economic lifeblood of Barbados.

“When you start classifying every gang as a terrorist group, what are you telling the tourists? ‘We had a report that say they had about 20 gangs in Barbados.’ That really would say that Barbados is high on certain international watchdog lists. Suddenly, you would have more terrorist groups than Afghanistan,” he declared.

The university lecturer contended that while it is going to allow people to recognise that Barbados is getting serious about violent crime, investors could stop coming.

He said: “When you say A you have to say B. It is going to affect international protection of the country . . . the country’s foreign investment is also going to be affected. So, when you start increasing the urgency, increasing the label, you are increasing the label of a terrorist place . . . ‘we have six terrorist activities . . .’ So, when the media reports, it is not going to say six gang activities, it is going to say six terrorist activities. If I am a tourist, I would not be coming here.”

Professor Devonish insisted that there must be a careful balance in how this issue is addressed because it is going to affect international perceptions.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb