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And Kenny Anthony would put 450 more cops on the beat. Do either of these guys have a clue what causes violent crime?
“Less than one month into the new year and already there have been five violent murders, the shooting of a policeman and the robbery of guests at an internationally renowned Soufriere hotel.”
“The recent spate of criminal activity is a definite concern. Unabated it threatens to affect negatively our daily lives and our economic recovery efforts.”
The quotes come from the leaders of the two major political parties in St Lucia. But which is Kenny Anthony and which is Stephenson King? Both gave major speeches which addressed the issue of violent crime in St Lucia. But with the exception of partisan comments on the part of both, one can hardly tell the difference between them.
Their answer: The police.
Do two political leaders really have any different ideas about the solution of criminal violence?
“When the SLP was in government,” opposition leader Kenny Anthony told supporters last Sunday, “a very strategic and systematic approach to crime was instituted which included improving the physical infrastructure (new police stations) hiring more policemen, providing new police vehicles, enacting a new Criminal Code, strengthening laws, establishing a new criminal division of the High Court, constructing new forensics lab, bringing in British policemen to train our leading local policemen and introducing Beach rangers to counteract crime against visitors. It is lamentable that the UWP government has abandoned or mismanaged most of these initiative thus giving rise to the alarming national security situation that we face today.”
The prime minister must, of necessity, have a different point of view.
“The government through the Royal St Lucia Police Force will be embarking on a renewed and intensified effort to put a stop to the elements that are at the root of this problem,” he told the nation in his Tuesday night televised address. The effort has already begun with police raids and increased police presence on the streets supplemented by police trainees. “I have challenged the Commissioner of Police to end this unacceptable trend in our once peaceful St Lucia. He has assured me of his unwavering support.”
Prime Minister King renewed his commitment to ensure that all St Lucians fully enjoy their fundamental constitutional rights, adding, “I will not shirk, I will not waiver, I will not cower and I will not fail in my responsibility to do just that. Neither will I ask the criminals for “a break” in any season.”
The last comment was a political dig at the former government of the St Lucia Labour Party. It referenced an incident where a Labour minister of government openly said that government was parlaying with warring criminals in an effort to get them to give the island a crime-free Christmas.
Kenny Anthony had a reply for that two days before King even took his dig.
“The failure of the King administration to deal with crime should be hanging like an albatross around its neck,” he said. “They promised the electorate that if they were elected to office they would bring an end to crime. The promise to end crime was the chorus on every UWP platform, echoed by everyone in the present UWP administration.”
“The preparation of appropriate strategies to deal effectively with this problem takes time,” King replied. “Be assured that there will be an effective and robust response from this government.”
But for Kenny Anthony, the government has already failed.
“Allan Chastanet cannot be found to be interviewed on attacks on tourists,” he said, starting with the tourism minister and going down the line. “Richard Frederick must stop pretending that he is a shining example of a person who understands the danger of reckless use of a firearm – he had to pay damages for reckless discharge of his gun in a residential area. In the present Cabinet, criminal behavior is not unique. We all witnessed the arrests of Minister Edmund Estephane and deputy speaker of the house Marcus Nicholas…only to watch the two cases disappear into thin air. They told you it was Kenny Anthony who was responsible (for crime). So tell us why is criminal activity getting worse? Why have they not presented one new initiative to deal with the problem? Instead they have given the responsibility to a minister who does not have a clue as to what is going on. Guy Mayers has been a total and abject failure. His only solution is to meet and to talk and talk about reducing violence. He has no ideas, no imagination. He inspires no one. I say it’s time he goes.”
But what is the solution, gentlemen? How does a rapidly developing island, waist-deep in the global economic meltdown curb its violent crime rate in a sustainable and meaningful way. Obviously, deploying more police officers has not worked inthe past, as police might deter crime where they are, but cannot be expected to prevent crime where they are not.
And no matter how many police officers you have, they can never be everywhere protecting everyone. So what now, brown cows?
King has challenged the police commissioner to beat back violent crime . . .
“The responsibility of effectively dealing with crime and deviant behaviour is
not only that of the police force,” King admitted. “I appeal to each and every St Lucian to play your part in taking a stance (sic) against crime. It is my fervent belief that through the combined efforts of the police force and each and every citizen, we can deal effectively with crime.”
Anthony might have scoffed at the simplicity of this solution if he heard it before Sunday night. But what would he do about the rising tide of criminal violence if re-elected in the near future.
“A new Labour government would, once and for all, put an end to the cry by police that they do not have resources,” he said. “A new Labour government would increase the man power of the force by at least 450 new police officers. This time, however, Labour would link the recruitment and promotion of senior officers to their performance in containing and reducing crime. We have to hold to account those who are charged with managing our affairs. We need different approaches for a different and difficult time.” More police.
More police stations, laws, courts, forensics labs, rangers and raids. That’s what both political leaders have in mind as the palliative that will bring calm to the fearful St Lucian psyche. Neither one mentioned that corroboration between unemployment
and crime, the inadequacies of the education system or the social and economic inequities to be widened over the course of the economic crisis. Neither one acknowledged that street criminals are not the problem but symptoms of the problem, not the enemy, but victims of the enemy. And neither could acknowledge his own complicity in getting things into the state they are in. Furthermore, neither even seems to recognize the strain they put individual police officers and the force as a whole under when they saddle what is a law enforcement organization with the job of crime prevention.
By the way, to answer to the question of who said what in the two quotes that began this article is: It doesn’t matter. At least not as long as crime remains a political football and not as long as crime prevention remains a matter of policing in the minds of politicians.
RSS
Crime should not be a political blame, remember we are a developing state and with all developing states, you must get the rising crime. Remember too that the USA and UK are deporting most foreign criminals back to their homeland and so those criminals are returning with all the criminal sophistications which they learnt overseas back to St Lucia.So this is the reason why we have lots of drive by, hits and execution style murders here. So the government and the opposition need to come together and fight this. The only way violent crime will be eliminated, is if all parties come together and fights this.
Maybe we are looking at crime from the wrong angle, the moment you create them and us, all solutions disappear. The line creates a division which breeds a vicious system of victimization on both sides.
Those politician are doing everything necessary to solve crime. The increase in rank and file, the new stations, etc. are all geared towards solving crime. There is one solution to this crime issue in St. Lucia and I know it as a former police officer, and Regis knows it and those politicians should know it. And if they don’t know it, then Regis, as COP, should advise them:
GIVE THE YOUNG PEOPLE HOPE, A FUTURE, A JOB AND YOU WILL SEE A DECREASE IN CRIME.
The people of the community should play a major role in the crime spree.First by reporting any crimes happening in their community because there is no perfect crime.There should also be a safe hotline that people can call to report those crime because peolpe tend to be afraid for they safety ,with good reason because sometimes the cops cannot be trusted.Crimes happenning with teens,make the parents responsible.REPONSIBLITY starts at home.If none of those work you can also try money, people tend to talk for any amount as long as it cannot be traced to them.
I personally believe that in a small island like ours of just over 160,000 people we shouldn’t be having such a problem with crime. After all the advances made in technology today where could one possible hide on this small island of ours, where are the criminologist, behaviour analyst, forensic scientist, computer scientist, where is the forensic lab? Which is vital in crime solving, do we have a fingerprint database, a facial recognition database, are our policemen solving crimes or committing crimes?
To the police force i ask the question, are we trying to prevent crime or solve crime? Because from my point of view we ain’t do either.
simple situation put some bad boy police on the beat in all areas 247.stop and search should TAKE PLACE EVERYDAY. HAVE A NEIBHBOURHOOD WATCH.st.lucians stop being stupid and work with the police.mother and fathers if you know your sons and daughters in crime activities shop them to the police.anybody caught with a gun 5yrs in prison.let the police petrol the schools.send uncover police in the hotels and beach around the island.any police who is corrupt should be removed from the force.we want hard working officer who want to bring back our sweet island.all politician should come togather all parties let fight this crime situation on our island.tell those gunster or wanster we gonna get them. london
during the last election cycle, the UWP’s blamed all crimes on Kenny. all you heard from them was kenny, kenny, kenny……….now St Lucians are saying nothing. the crimes in st lucia today are more deadly and frequent………who is to blame.crime has and will always be a political football
I couldn’t agree with you anymore.Just last evening myself and another St Lucian residing here in the US was alluding to the very same thing.The Politicians in St Lucia are just as criminal minded as the those guys commiting those crimes around the country.As an ex-police officer with the Royal Barbados Police Force I am willing to come back to St Lucia to help my country.But the Commissioner of Police has to re structure the Police Force and take control of his men before he can arrest the situation in the country.
We MUST equip the police and put them at the heart of any initiative to fight crime. This problem hasn’t just emerged recently, it has evolved due to of course lack of development in the crime hotspots, lack of training for our law enforcement, a corrupt police force and corrupt politicians like Frederick and Bousquet who themselves are openly involved in white colour crime and also overtly abet the criminals.
We need both a long term strategy which would have to involved dismantling the slums at Hospital Road, Grass Street , etc, modernising the police force and infrastructure, and an immediate short term approach which would have to involve the police patrolling the hotspots, stopping and searching suspects and random and most importantly apprehending criminals who commit crime. We have an awful record of solving crime. We have more unsolved murders pending in the last five years than solved crime.
We may not have jobs in abundance but what we have in this small developing country is opportunity in abundance. We need to stop making these trivial excuses which we’ve been making for over a decade; that the solution to the crime problems, is to find jobs for the perpetrators.
crime need not be a political fotbal but if i recall carefully, it was the hotest campaign issue pushed by the current government. they played the ball very cleverly hitting Kenny and company as the reason for the high crime rate. although crime was at a dangerous level during Kenny’s tenure, it is now at an all time high due to the diversity and frequency of crime now being committed.
furthermore, i listened to Guy Mayers say that building new police stations cannot be cuurve the crime situation. Mr Minister, need i refresh your mind about the three murders that took place in one night, in one house under your watch as minister of internal security.
crime my dear friends will and to this day continuesto be a political football which both parties have used many times to degenerate the viability of the other party
we are planing a trip to St. Lucia in Febuary of 2011 and now wonder if this a safe place to visit? We usually go to US or British Virgin Islands without any saftey concerns or at least very little, the crime rate is a concern on St. Lucia after reading this artical, don’t know what to do now.
Here goes the fingerpointing again! Poli-Ticks sickens me. I couldn’t agree with you more Andy. Both parties need to collaborate on resourceful means to combat crime. Also each and every citizen of St. Lucia has a responsibility to uphold the law. The Police cannot do it all nor can the government .
These robberies are obvious related to unemployment and the citizens are hungry.
I agree…Crimes are not a political blame…it’s the lifestyle, blame it on us as parents for not guiding our children properly. Babies having babies, parents condoning common-law relationships between young teens under the age of 16. Selling drugs to support that young family… parents, worse yet, grandparents themselves are selling the drugs, encouraging their children to do the same for the 5.00 EC. Parents allowing their young children to have possession of a firearm, knowing that child may one day look death in the eye in the “heat of the moment”. Hot Lucian tempers flare easily. Young ladies allowed to dress scantily at the age of 12 or 13 upward..Cousins having relationships with cousins, aunties, uncles. A promiscuous, confused and ill-guided society that thinks nothing of killing another human, for what? A pair of glasses, a gold chain, your camera? I saw too much while I was back home for a year. Police cadets offering me a gun for my own protection. You need about 100 Canadian Police officers and then you might see some change. Don’t get me wrong, not all police are on the dirty vibes but the Force needs to screen the applicants better also…Don’t just accept them for lack of qualified applicants.
As Jean-Baptiste said” Victimization on all sides”
Broken homes ,unemployment,etc etc etc……I say put the relevant ministeries under scrutiny to curb the resulting symptoms.As far as “crime” remains the primary subject , law enforcement will forever be the most effective counteraction.Though i’m not a strong advocate of adding just numbers to the police force but rather quality.Bottomline , there no one solution to this situation.The question remains…… ARE WE REALLY USING ALL THE RESOURCES THAT ARE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AND IF SO ,HOW EFFECTIVE ARE THEY?……. We need to start somewhere [ I say the police force ].
Lucians, Countrymen and Lovers, lend me your ears: A certain minister has suggested this very night on Timothy Poleon’s Newsmaker Live that we “should consider” legalising narcotics as a way of combating crime in this country, and says that he would consider raising the matter with his cabinet colleagues. He cites the revoking of prohibition laws against alcohol in support of his idea. So look out folks for cocain and heroine in the supermarkets or pharmacies if the minister has his way, and additional revenue perhaps through vat and custom duties on the drugs imported from Colombia, Mexico, Afganistan or wherever. And just think of what it does to our balance of trade when we can re-export to Martinique, the UK, USA or Canada. Think of the junkie tourist we may well attract. (Hello ms Winehouse!!!). To hell with the international furore that might cause and the thought of becoming a pariah state. We might actually achieve Social Transformation.The minister has fathered an absolute stroke of genius!!!! So why am I suddenly afflicted with arachophobia????
All this garbage about giving young people hope and employment is making excuses for those muttts out there. It really pisses me off when i hear talk show hosts and other people who suppose to be intellects make those inferences as to lack of employment is the cause of crime. Bottom line is those goons out there do not want to work. They are a bunch of lazy bastards who wants nice things but dont want to work hard for it. They want easy money. Some of the gilligans emmulate what they see on t.v with the bling blings and the nice rides going along with the ganster attitude and they think its cool. It brings me back to my school days and make me realise that its the same set of people who do not take schooling seriously and drop out for what ever reasons are those plaguing the society today. And lasty for crying out loud get rid of those illegal foreign elements like the guyanese and other who are living down here and most of the times are the perpertrators of those crimes. For god sake there is work people so stop making excuses.
Crime is some type of sickness in a persons mind which can be psychologically corrected. No amount of blame or punishment will fix this illness, and building more jails will just be a hugh burden on the society. Now, St. Lucia is on the right track in building and investing in such a mega mental hospital. Most criminals need psychological help, we need to rebuild their self esteem and to deprogram their minds. All our problems stem from being stuck in thinking which relies on the past, so we keep making the same mistakes over and over again. You will be shocked to realize that the past has noting to do with who you are now, this is a big misconception that we are chained to our past, just know that with the right type of thinking your choices become endless and your life new and beautiful. Criminals are humans just like you and me, the difference being only that you have attached a deviant label to them, persona non grata.
Some time ago Richard Frederick weighed in on the crime situation with his infamous peace and love initiative and that has now gone down the rubbish chute of history as idealistic, naive and an insult to the intelligence of Lucians who voted for the UWP because of Labour’s perceived impotence at handling crime. Now our Minister of Social Transformation, Youth and Sports, Lennard Montoute, offers a new twist to the discourse that I can only describe as surreal when, on the News Maker Live program, he offers as a possible solution to the problem of the escalating crime situation, the legalising of narcotics: a most absurd, indefensible and dangerous idea. And he says that he is prepared to take it up with his Cabinet colleagues. I hope that Stephenson King distances himself from any discussion of such garbage. If this is where Minister Montoute’s search for creative solutions and thinking “out of the box” takes him, I hope the rest of us don’t choose to follow this fatalistic pied piper.
ST. LUCIA SECURITY PROBLEM
LEVERAGE LEVERAGE LEVERAGE
Because we may not have the financial resources to tackle this problem head on, we must BORROW to invest in this problem.
We cannot continue to deal with the problem of crime in a piece manner. Five cars, two boats, 450 officers a camera.
This creates a baloon effect you squeeze one end and the other pops up. and hence makes the problem more expensive long term which probably is the case if you do a coast benefit analysis of past efforts.
Police Men and women have family too and should not be asked to protect us without sufficient resources.
Here is what is needed
(1) STRATEGIES
No need to waste time and money developing strategies, Some of the crime we are seeing in St. Lucia is no different from the crime that takes place in big cities like New York, Philadelphia, L A etc. Millions of dollars have been invested, and crime experts have studied those crimes for decades, we can copy some of the proven techniques that have been developed and adjust them to suit our circumstances. They just might be available on google for free.
(2) PERSONNEL ASSESMENT/DATA
Do we even know how many cops per person we have in St. Lucia? this is an easy number to come up with. Knowing this will help us determine how many cops are needed to help control and reduce the problem within a stated period of time, and will help the Government come up with projections for hiring new officers. Lets assess each district on a needs basis. So instead of developing strategies which are already available, lets assess our situation. Where we are, where we’re going and how we intend to get there.
(3) EQUIPMENT
Once again an assessment is needed to determine
- What’s available, whats needed and in what areas.
- What areas the focus should be on for example surveillance, response community policing. Lets spend on the area/s that will net the best results.
The investment needed here is minimal. Next…
(3) MANPOWER
This is the area which requires the most funding, and rightly so.
Here is what needs to be done
-Wide spread hiring of police officers, based upon the numbers of cops per person needed for effective policing. This can be achieved over a period of time say 5-10 years.
- Offer an attractive entry level salaries with benefits and pension plan, to attract quality applicants.
Salary increases for veterans , health benefits and pension plans
BENEFITS
- A large presence of cops on the beat, makes people feel safer reporting crime .
-A larger presences of cops on the beat will deter criminal activity because of increase response time.
-More cops will result in better intelligence gathering and inter departmental co operation.
-Increase Morale. Important in deterring corrupt cops.
While the idea of borrowing to invest in this problem may not seem as an attractive option, an evaluation will probably prove it to be less expensive than the current approach.
Economic Benefits
-Job Creation. More jobs in mean more people with money to spend and as a result increase economic activity, with some of that money working it way back into the economy.
- More cops on the beat results in entrepreneurs and business owners feeling safer to conduct business activities, thereby increasing economic activity.
More cops on the beat means consumers feel safer going out and spending their money, increasing economic activity.
We can tout St. Lucia as one of the safest places to visit in the region to visit
In the end this bill will be a long term debt which will have both an immediate and long term economic impact. There are also many ways to pay for this bill.
We have to take donors like Taiwan to task. If they are really interested in helping St. Lucia develop. They must be challenged to go beyond offering just development. What we need is sustainable development. While five Toyota Cars are welcomed that’s just squeezing one…
Jean-Baptiste and al kudos to both of you for your well written comments.You two think before you all write. Keep up the good works more love to you both.
what work those people talking about,those criminals dont want to work for peanuts in st.lucia.the country dont pay enough to make a decent living on the island,you build all those hotels and pay staff rubbish take home pay.
we just need law and order in the place.put more police officers on the beat,put them in the petty criminal faces 247.
patrol grass street,marchand,leslie land in twos nite and day.we need HARD working officers in our police force.GET ST.LUCIA CRIME FREE AGAIN,ITS HARD WORK WE WILL GET THERE IN THE END. LONDON CALLING.
Do you see anything fi smile bout?
I support fully the statements below.
More police stations, laws, courts, forensics labs, rangers and raids. That’s what both political leaders have in mind as the palliative that will bring calm to the fearful St Lucian psyche. Neither one mentioned that corroboration between unemployment
and crime, the inadequacies of the education system or the social and economic inequities to be widened over the course of the economic crisis. Neither one acknowledged that street criminals are not the problem but symptoms of the problem, not the enemy, but victims of the enemy. And neither could acknowledge his own complicity in getting things into the state they are in. Furthermore, neither even seems to recognize the strain they put individual police officers and the force as a whole under when they saddle what is a law enforcement organization with the job of crime prevention.
CRIME SHOULD BE A POLITICAL FOOTBALL. The game only stops when the ball is no longer in play and as such if one party can put a serious bite into crime, then that party deserves to be remain in power. Until then St. Lucian should place as much blame for crime as possible directly at the doorsteps of whoever is in power! Guilliani was able to stop alot the senseless murders and corruption which existed in NY. He cleaned up the city both in terms of the garbage and decay and also in terms of those breaking the law! The politicians are too often afraid to take charge of their responsibilities. Are the politicians afraid????
To the armed masked criminals last week who held to ransom 2 elderly St Lucian retuenees in their own homes for the whole weekend, you had then tied and beat them !!!! Then you forced the wife to draw out all her savings from the bank and give you, otherwise you say you will to kill her 70 year old husband. I hope you feel proud of yourselves !!!!
You may have hidden your faces, but God Almighty knows exactly who you are, and you will face judgement. You are acting like low life misguided scum !!! Give yourselves up, turn your lives around, and submit your life to Christ !!! That is the only way out for you, because the way you are going now is a one way ticket to hell.
Please, do not make me feel ashamed to associate myself as a St Lucian. Sort this crap out. St Lucia is dependent on tourism, tourist do not like crime. If the situation does not improve rapidly, the tourist and returnees will abandon St Lucia in droves.
Government WAKE UP !!!!!!
Stop electing complete idiots and little children to do mature and grown up work. If you go on the Lucian website, http://www.Luciantalk.com, you will see sensible solutions to our problems. It is political football when the yardfowls like you and from all the parties blame the other parties saying ‘we always had crime’. Kick the ball down the field and let it be the dirty job for the next government to fix. Keep on making children but do not know how you will feed them. See how many more criminal savages you can breed and can come out of you, and your grandchildren. Then go ahead blame the idiot government you and your family elected, made up of even more little children, when you breed criminals instead children. St. Lucia is a Godless and unprincipled society that is whay there is so much crime.
Honestly i would support a law where people can have a certain amount of weed on them. Just legalize it and tax it. Most US states are heading that route anyways.