How we fight crime almost encourages more crime!

When it comes to the crime situation, 2019 has not started well for Saint Lucia. Nestled among several burglaries and armed robberies are three homicides and several shootings. The country seems no closer to getting out of the mire that plagues us on an annual basis.

One caller to a talk-radio show posited that what we have is a social problem, not a crime problem. Wishful thinking? He suggested there aren’t enough measures in place to properly rehabilitate our off-the-rails young people. But if this line of thinking were to be followed to its logical conclusion, it would be the equivalent of Nero fiddling while Rome burns. Even though the root of the crime problem in Saint Lucia is anti-social behaviour, and while it is true we lack rehabilitation centres, this does not negate the fact that we have a serious crime problem. Pretending the situation is otherwise, only feeds the plague.

Speaking of institutions to steer the youth away from crime reminds of two recent school-related incidents. One involved a student of the Corinth Secondary School who took a firearm into class; the other involved two Clendon Mason Memorial Secondary School students who allegedly posted on social media at least one picture of themselves holding guns. Police claim they are investigating.

Dr. Virginia Albert, former President of the St. Lucia Teachers’ Union, told reporters: “I am of the view that the time is right for initiatives to be taken to ensure that we maximise and ensure school security.” She suggested the installation of CCTV cameras in the island’s schools but neglected to mention the feasibility of such an initiative, keeping in mind the cost. As the Jamaica Observer recently reported: “Security Minister Robert Montague says nearly $3 billion will be needed over the next two years for the full roll out of the national Closed-Circuit Television System.”

Writing on the local crime situation in the STAR two weekends ago, Rick Wayne observed: “It is a dangerous ignorance we demonstrate when persistently we dump on our local police for their inability to solve crime . . .When the exaggerations we see on American TV are daily shoved in their faces.” Coming up with impossible remedies for what ails us is like prescribing surgery for a paper cut. The problems that today overwhelm us, crime in particular, did not spring up overnight. Truth be told, we nurtured them when we should have nipped them in the bud.

Just in the last week there have been several shootings in Vieux Fort—one of them fatal, two of them in Bruceville. Castries has been the scene for two shootings as well, and when all of this is added to the recent armed robberies that have taken place at Serenity Park and elsewhere, it is glaringly obvious that criminals here do not fear arrest, nor do they fear our other legal reprisals. These are dangerous times for the country, despite the Security Minister’s suggestion that Saint Lucia is not as dangerous as people are claiming it to be.

One of those armed robberies was committed against a minibus driver named Ignatius Jn Baptiste. Claudius Joseph, President of the Gros Islet Minibus Owners Association, spoke about the incident, noting the obvious: “Crime in Saint Lucia is on the upsurge,” which is commendable at a time when so many are in denial. “In the case of the minibus drivers,” Joseph added, “I think it is time we bring in the cashless system so that drivers will not be walking around with a lot of money.” Not a bad idea but it doesn’t directly address the criminal elements. Even though bus drivers would no longer be carrying cash around, what’s to stop criminals from attacking the rest of the citizenry?

While the police are the perpetual whipping boys for every crime committed, others in authority get away scot-free. Failing to address the shortcomings of our justice system will not ameliorate the crime problem. National Security Minister Hermangild Francis hinted at this problem in our judicial system at the recent launch of a Counter-Trafficking Public Awareness Campaign. He spoke of the need to “strengthen the legislation on the punishment for those found guilty of human trafficking”. He hoped to see fines replaced by prison sentences. Of course, as Francis noted, “We would need the concurrence of the judges and we do hope that the judges will understand the magnitude of the problem and hand down the appropriate sentence.”

The launch itself was emblematic of the way we deal with our crime issues. The number of victims of human trafficking worldwide—provided by the International Labor Organization (ILO) as 20.9 million—was easily cited. In fact, it’s just a Google search away. Another figure that easily rolled off the tongue at the launch was the US$6.3 billion earned annually by human traffickers in the Latin American and Caribbean region. For human trafficking in Saint Lucia, however, figures were unavailable. The best our Crime and Intelligence representative Wayne Charlery could do was refer to the “very few” reported cases. So far as I can tell, they never made it to the courts.

Talk alone has never deterred violent criminals. Refusing to call a spade a spade is also an exercise in futility. In case some have not noticed, this is 2019, not 1920. Nothing is as it used to be. Certainly not crime in Saint Lucia. Either our alleged protectors of life and property readjust their opposition to crime or, as we say, “all fall down!”