[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he number of recorded homicides in 2017 was a record-setting 60. So far this year the figure for murders is 40 and hopefully will rise no higher. Police say over fifty per cent of the fatalities were firearms-related. Said ACP Wayne Charlery this week: “The violent-crime rate we’re experiencing right now is something of a phenomenon. We are experiencing crime rates normally associated with much larger populations.” Charlery lays the blame on organized and transnational crime. “We have people who are associated with gangs from Latin America that specialize in drugs and human trafficking. The guns come from North America, Martinique, South America, with drug shipments. We are suffering the fallout from transnational crime.”
Charlery noted that since the late 1990s homicides and gun-related activity have kept pace with organised crime around the world. In 2000 the murder toll was 20. By 2001 it had spiked to 31. But then in 2007 the homicide rate had dropped to 27, which Charlery attributes to resources put in place for the policing of the ICC Cricket World Cup. “Richard Frederick, then MP for Castries Central, was staging regular football in the more deprived communities such as Conway, Marchand, Wilton’s Yard, Grass Street and Bois Patat. We had just 27 homicides, the lowest figure ever.”
Meanwhile Trinidad, with a population of just over a million has recorded over 500 homicides for the year. London, with a population of over eight million, this year recorded 123 homicides—as in Saint Lucia, mostly related to increasing gang activity. Recently the following appeared in the UK Guardian: “In the last few weeks, the Home Affairs Select Committee reported that under-funding risked making the police irrelevant. Security Minister Ben Wallace sounded the alarm on ‘sharp suits’ and serious and organised criminals able to swan around the capital thinking they are above the law.” According to data published by Britain’s National Crime Agency, “organised crime harms more people than terrorism.” Noted the Guardian: “The NCA’s latest figures show there are 4,629 criminal gangs and syndicates in Britain, employing 33,598 professional gangsters—numbers that become astonishing when viewed in context. The figure of 4,629 means there are more gangs in Britain than the NCA has staff members; 33,598 career criminals translates to more gangsters in Britain than belong to all three big Italian mafias.”
One year ago Saint Lucia’s Minster for National Security, Hermangild Francis, said: “If you go through the killings here, you’ll find the majority are drug-related; gangs fighting gangs. There have been a few domestic incidents but at least 75% of the homicides are definitely drug-related.” He also cited the IMPACS controversy as a major hindrance to local police work. At press time the best the government could say about a resolution of the three-year old “hindrance” is that “it’s in the hands of the DPP!”
