AS MY FRIEND Smokey says, I may be wrong as I usually am, but I still cannot help feeling that many of us, including our Attorney General (AG), are still unable to differentiate between a deterrent and a penalty.
On a recent call-in programme the AG was at pains to point out that despite a mass hanging (Dole Chadee and eight members of his gang in 1999) in Trinidad there are still many murders in the twin island republic.
That is indeed true, but in the aftermath there was a long, quiet period.
Similarly, when Justice Elliott Belgrave ordered that some convicted criminals be flogged with the cat o’ nine tails, all of a sudden Barbados went quiet as the proverbial mouse. However, when defence attorney Miss Mia Mottley got that sentence to be ruled as against the constitutional rights of the guilty parties all hell broke loose because the criminal element realised that instead of having to deal with a cat with dangerous claws they were confronted by Old Toothless the Lion.
A deterrent is an instrument of prevention whilst a penalty is a punishment. If the penalty deters someone from committing a murder or other criminal act that should be considered a bonus, but what is certain is that no one who has ever been executed for murder has ever committed another one.
If we follow the argument that the death penalty is not a deterrent should we not therefore consider not wasting our time and the nation’s finances in prosecuting the myriad number of repeat offenders and recidivists at HMP Dodds since their convictions have not been effective deterrents?
Recently there has been an upsurge in violent crimes and murder in Barbados. This is an alarming occurrence for all of us, and since tourism is the industry on which Barbados has now hinged its chariot, such incidents would necessarily raise some concern in those quarters.
I have often stated that Barbados has gone soft on crime and criminals, not because the members of the Royal Barbados Police Force do not effectively carry out their duties but because their efforts are often frustrated in the courts and by some of the treaties to which we have appended our signature.
These treaties and the urgings of the same metropolitan countries have de facto outlawed the death penalty in Barbados and if we attempt to reinstate it they will in all probability consider all manner of sanctions, financial and otherwise, to bring us to heel.
Similarly, I am surprised that to date not one of the metropolitan countries has issued a travel advisory to its citizens since it seems that they view crime in this part of the world out of all proportion to what obtains in theirs.
My concern, however, is that if this upsurge continues such an advisory will come and the possibility therefore exists that there could be a decline in tourist arrivals, which will not benefit the economy.
If we try to control crime according to our laws which are not consistent with those of the metropolitan countries, they will seek to ostracise us. If it appears that crime is rampant, they will also advise their citizens not to visit us.Â
Barbadians will have to decide which path we will choose, but we must remember that our first obligation is to our own citizens, and by protecting them we shall by extension also protect visitors to our shores.
If we make it safe for ourselves, it will automatically be made safe for our visitors.
This is our home.
– ROLLINS HOWARD
