WE?COULD, if we cared to, take much comfort in the Prime Minister’s bold boast to our families and friends in Washington this week that homicides in Barbados are the lowest in the entire Caribbean.
Bajans living in the American capitol, and fearing for what was happening with crime back home, will have had some relief from Mr Freundel Stuart’s assurance that the killings making the news of late were not the kind where people were breaking into the homes of others and gunning them down. And we may attest to that.
As Prime Minister Stuart explained, this spate of killings in recent weeks could have been characterized as “crimes of passion” or the result of “domestic violence”: homicide among lovers and fatal parting between feuding father and son.
Domestic homicides they may be; but their happening nonetheless is chilling. And given the romantic fervour of Barbadians and an ancient proclivity to quarrelling over land by family members, the spectre of the “domestic homicide” ever haunts us in this environment of growing impatience and instant rage.
The Prime Minister would not say we are having sleepless nights – and we may agree – but it would only take a tragic twist to worsen our fears.
Those fears may come to be founded in the very illegal activity Mr Stuart does however admit poses some challenge: “crimes against property”.
The crime “monster that has raised its ugly head” in Barbados (and the rest of the Caribbean), the Prime Minister has said, may be traced directly to some young people’s “rapacious demand” and “hunger” for stolen gold and copper. He told the Bajans in Washington that that in turn had triggered an upsurge in burglaries.
And therein lies the rub. Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin has himself expressed deep concern about the copper stealing and more seriously the prevalent cash-for-gold exercise, and has been urging Government intervention.
It is therefore encouraging to learn from the Prime Minister that he and the police have been discussing means of tightening legislation and the operation of the export of metals.
It is a disquieting challenge, by Mr Stuart’s own offering, but he insists the circumstances of crime have not spun out of control. While the Prime Minister has sought to allay the fears of Barbadians abroad – and, by extension, of those at home – about security and safety from crime on the island, he seems not unmindful of the thoughts of citizens.
He has acknowledged that there is enough concern – not only in Barbados, but in other parts of the Caribbean – that we all feel the need to pay more attention to this circumstance.
The overall crime picture in Barbados may not be a major source of worry, even though “one crime in a society in a year is too many”. And for that alone we dare not rest on our laurels.
