Bajans ‘becoming numb due to rampant crime’

Democratic Labour Party (DLP) member Dr Elvis Wickham is warning that Barbadians have become “numb” to violent crime, and national desensitisation is setting in due to rampant murder and trauma.

Speaking on Sunday night at a DLP political meeting in Sion Hill, St James, Wickham urged citizens to resist the temptation to reduce violent incidents to mere statistics, insisting that each act represents real human loss and lasting psychological harm.

“We are talking about someone’s brother, father, son, nephew, uncle, sister, mother. And long after our hardworking police service has caught the perpetrators, they’re prosecuted and jailed, the trauma for them continues—and sometimes it continues for the rest of their life,” he said.

Drawing on his professional experience in medicine, Wickham said he had treated elderly patients still deeply affected by childhood traumas, warning that the cycle of violence leaves a legacy that extends beyond the headlines.

“It is not just another crime. We are talking about people whose hearts matter, whose lives matter,” he emphasised.”

According to Wickham, the erosion of family structures and a hands-off approach to parenting are partly to blame—but so too is the shift in political leadership.

“Parenting changed, but something else also changed. And I am calling it out tonight— the government changed,” he said.

Citing official statistics, he drew a stark contrast between the ten years prior to the 2018 general election and the years that followed.

“Between 2008 to 2017, we tragically lost an average of 26 persons per year to murder. Between 2019 and 2024, we tragically lost an average of 40 persons to murder in this country—and that includes 50 last year. Fifty families forever traumatised by violence.”

He questioned the logic of the government’s position on gun violence: “I ask the question—if the guns were here before 2018, why did the criminals wait until after 2018 to start using them?”

Wickham was also critical of what he described as the government’s use of “distraction” tactics in the face of rising crime, including last year’s controversial suggestion that heavily tinted vehicle windows contributed to gun violence.

“We were told that vehicle tint was the problem. For an entire week at least, the country was distracted talking about the stupidity of vehicle tint being the cause of the problem, and the government got a break from the attention on the crime situation. The art of distraction at its best. Get them to talk about what you want them to talk about, and not the real issues afflicting our country.”

Turning to government policy, Wickham criticised the controversial peace programme.

“Thousands of dollars were being paid,” he said. “When this matter was raised by Ralph Thorne in the House, pointing out the thousands . . . being paid, not a man or woman on the other side could rise on point of order and say that he was lying. Not a man or woman could.”

Wickham said that while the attorney general later admitted that “mistakes were made,” he found the core premise of the peace initiative indefensible. 

(SZB)