Last week Acting Commissioner of Police Tyrone Griffith revealed there was a link between the increased number of domestic violence cases and non-nationals.
Griffith said the Police’s Family Conflict Intervention Unit was “kept busy” by cases of this nature. While only a few had come to the public’s attention, there were many instances where the victims opted not to press charges.
Very few online readers, mainly women, were in support of Griffith.
Some said it was a trend they had noticed in other countries where domestic violence was so commonplace, it had become “just another crime” and feared the same would happen in Barbados.
But others called for empirical evidence. They said Barbadian men were also guilty of striking or killing their partners. They argued such a stance was xenophobic, and Griffith needed to apologize.
Here is a sample of their views.
Carl Harper: When are we going to address the core of the problem and stop looking for scapegoats?
Sandrea Butcher: I actually noticed this a few months ago. Many of the non-nationals who commit “femicides” are in the lower income group of society as well. I am sorry, but they bring their uncivilized, uneducated behaviour to our shores. We have spent years building up this society and they (by their actions) are looking to tear it down.
Thora Jones: Bajans are now witnessing the result of changes in migration policies. A growing number of people from violent societies are migrating to Barbados and doing what they learned to do in their homelands in Barbados.
Daniel Christian: Where is the empirical evidence? This seems like the Commissioner is playing to a gallery. Did the non-nationals include those that have been killed by locals?
Kevin Rey: Before we jump to a definitive conclusion, where are the stats to support such an anti-immigrant sentiments? We do not want create a xenophobic society by intimating “foreigners” are barbaric with some outlier where statistics are concerned.
D. Stoute: Managed migration is not the answer to women being murdered in Barbados, because migration is not the problem. The problem is domestic violence, and the answer to this problem is a serious effort by all involved at dealing with anger and poor conflict-resolution skills.
Randy Bridgeman: Instead of focusing only on who is committing crimes, it may be much more productive to research instead, why these crimes are being committed.
Kaila Headley: I don’t think hanging will solve anything . . . . Preventative and corrective measures need to be taken. Start in schools. Conflict resolution sessions, many children grow up seeing DV in their own households and then grow up and repeat the pattern of behaviour, let us tackle it from young.
Peggy Stoute Morin: [It] Seems like the Acting Commissioner is grasping at straws. I also believe he owes the non-national community an apology.
• Sherrylyn Toppin is THE NATION’s Online Editor.
