. . . Crime and violence in the Caribbean are undermining growth, threatening human welfare and impeding social development. – World Bank Report
Not even the voice of our ailing Prime Minister David Thompson on Wednesday, on the airwaves was enough to divert the attention of the public of Barbados from the horrific trauma and loss we all feel following the recent robbery and firebombing of Campus Trendz in Tudor Street in Bridgetown.
Women hold a pivotal position both in the continuation of the human species and the overall development and stability of our society. Women head 42 per cent of all homes across the Caribbean. The lost of six young women ranging from age 18 to under 30 was easily the most painful criminal act that this society has been called upon to bear.
Police Commissioner Darwin Dottin’s description of the Friday night tragedy as “undesirable brutality” is probably an understatement.
A similar kind of robbery at Chicken Galore in Bank Hall very recently is cause for concern that a new approach to robbery is now part of our criminal landscape. In spite of the Police Commissioner’s assurance that Barbados’ crime rate is the lowest in the region, a World Bank Report proclaims the Caribbean as the murder capital of the world (http://gocaribbean.about.com).
Robert Curley in an article entitled Crime In The Caribbean: Should You Worry? puts the murder rate in the region at 30 per 100 000 of the population. This contrasts sharply with that of the United States where it is seven. In Jamaica it is 49.
Statistics aside, the victims of this dastardly act, which could only be perpetrated by persons with a sick criminal mind, were innocent citizens. Three of them, unlike many of their male counterparts of a similar age, were gainfully employed and earning bread by the sweat of their brows. The others were innocent customers whose only crime was that, having earned an honest living, they were shopping, thereby keeping the other three employed.
Given the timing of the incident it is highly likely that the perpetrators of this vicious assault on our women were “unemployed bandits” who are a manifestation of the extent to which the society has slipped into the abyss of crime and lawlessness.
How does a society get to this point? Mrs Joy Henry, the principal of St James Secondary School, where Shanna Griffith, one of the victims, went to school, hit the nail on the head.
While addressing a memorial service, she is reported to have told a packed hall: “Lawlessness does not begin as an adult. The seeds are sown when you are a child. Things like greed, which is reflected in gambling and trying to get things that you did not work for . . . lead to robbery. Simple things like throwing water bombs around the school is how lawlessness begins”.
Yes, it does not begin with the throwing of firebombs. It begins when parents ignore small acts of defiance. It has its origin when parents fail to support the school in its attempts to inculcate certain attitudes and impose a measure of discipline and control and parents themselves defy, rather than support the school.
Kim Tudor, the chief executive officer of the National Initiative For Service Excellence has just proclaimed the five values that all Barbadians are to embrace. One if them is compassion.
I ask, you rob me; if you obtained my money by force why do you have to firebomb my business and kill my employees and my customers? Why? Where is the compassion?
The dynamics of crime in Barbados are not complicated. Women have died at the hands of their spouses in domestic violence; there have been crimes of passion which result in murder; we remember only too well the “deadbolt” crime wave about two decades ago; drive-by shootings were a new phenomenon and it is now accepted that feuding gangs will “tek out” members from time to time.
The combination of robbery, accompanied by firebombing represents a change in that dynamic.
Clearly, the six-death tragedy at Campus Trendz speaks to a deadly new trend in criminal activity in Barbados. It rendered both emergency personnel and all of us helpless. Cellular phones use was not maximized in the circumstances. The lives of six beautiful women were snuffed out at the hands of incendiaries and madmen.
The incident has left a gaping wound thatwill bleed in our minds and in our hearts for a long time; and the screams for help from those women will haunt their loved ones forever. As a society we must arm our leaders with the appropriate weapon of justice to deal decisively with these criminals!
• Matthew D. Farley is a secondary school principal, chairman of the National Forum On Education, and a social commentator. Email [email protected].
