De Peiza: BLP reactive, sloppy with crime

Former Democratic Labour Party (DLP) leader Verla De Peiza has accused the Barbados Labour Party administration of reactive politics and “sloppiness” in the face of rising gun violence and fear among Barbadians.

Speaking at a DLP political meeting in Sion Hill, St James, on Sunday night, De Peiza dismissed recent government claims that a lack of container scanning under the previous administration had contributed to the importation of illegal firearms.

“I heard a snippet that I can’t get to make any sense, about how under the last administration there was no scanning of containers and that is how the weapons and the firearms get into Barbados,” she said. “You told Barbados that you know who the gangs are. You told Barbados that you were negotiating with them. We saw some of them on the front page of the newspaper saying you still owe us money—and you mean to tell me you know who got weapons and you give them money and you ain’t even say in exchange for the weapons?”

De Peiza declared, “That is on you. That is not on any administration before you. That is your sloppiness, and it makes no sense.”

The attorney asserted the country’s crime crisis was not a recent development, but began in the latter half of 2018.

“The crime spike in Barbados started in 2018, and that year we thought was a horrible year. Let me tell you—it wasn’t the first half of the year; it was with a fury in the second half. And we thought that year was bad. But last year? Last year, 50, 52 if you check the international agencies, we are looking at our own statistics, but other people are looking on and doing their count—and their count says 52.”

She stressed that the statistic referred to murders alone, not accounting for other serious crimes, and reminded residents of the emotional toll on communities.

“You live in Barbados, you people of St James North, and you know what you feel. You know the fear that you feel, and you know that it is not just a feeling because up to today (Sunday), we watched it—the videos are going around—we watched the heist in Six Roads.”

In a pointed jab at Attorney General Dale Marshall, who recently claimed the authorities had “the criminals nervous”, De Peiza retorted, “Let me tell you how nervous the criminals are—one of the men that I watched on that video going into that supermarket today (Sunday) had on a high-vis[ibility] vest. They are that nervous. And they don’t care who sees them.”

She said this level of brazenness was emblematic of the broader “disappointment that the present administration has visited on the people of Barbados,” noting that even the son of the business owner in whose car park the meeting was held had been a victim of serious crime.

Turning to crime prevention, De Peiza urged a shift away from reactive strategies.

“Those of us who know a little bit about criminology—and those of you who don’t need to know about criminology because it is your lived experience—will know that it is better to nip something in the bud than to put a plaster on it.”

She emphasised that her criticism was not aimed at the Barbados Police Service, but called for greater investment in its welfare and infrastructure.

“We would love for them to be paid properly. We would love for them to get some insurance. We would love for them to get the equipment that they need. We would love for them to be able to put intelligence gathering into place. And we would love for community policing to be spread across Barbados because that is how you bring down crime.”

De Peiza also challenged the notion that longer sentences and more judges alone could deter crime.

“It is all well and good to talk about how you have beefed up the courts and you have three new judges—I will have to tell you, though, that three also retired, and they didn’t tell you that part. But it is more than beefing up the court system. You can only lock up a man for what he did. Nobody is convinced [that] the increase in punishment… has had any impact on crime in this country.”

Citing the recent attack on 65-year-old Jeffrey Barrow, who was robbed and beaten in broad daylight along Belmont Road, as evidence that punitive measures are failing, De Peiza added, “We have seen otherwise. So we know that those are just plasters on sores.” (SZB)