Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne has welcomed Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley’s intervention on the issue of crime, but says the analysis underpinning her proposed measures remains “deeply flawed” and out of step with the structural realities facing Barbados.
In a statement responding to Mottley’s press conference on Thursday at Ilaro Court – where she outlined the latest crime plan that includes new legislative tools such as truth verification technology and wiretap legislation to target corruption and illicit networks across critical public agencies – Thorne said the country could finally be “somewhat relieved” that the Government now appeared to be taking the crime crisis seriously.
“We are therefore happy for the Prime Minister’s more sober intervention,” he said. “While [it] appears to be more sober, the Prime Minister’s analysis of crime remained deeply flawed when she suggested that the root causes of crime are mental health issues, drug abuse and lack of social grounding.”
The Democratic Labour Party (DLP) political leader argued that such a view reduced crime to behaviourist explanations, while ignoring the deeper socio-economic and structural conditions that create an environment conducive to violence and disorder.
According to Thorne, the country has witnessed the “frightening emergence of garrison communities and gangs” that have not only spread fear but are being “exploited as having existential political value”.
“Crime appears to be highly organised and we continue to challenge the Government to engage serious paramilitary, legislative, socio-economic and cultural interventions to attempt to dismantle these empires of criminality”.
He added that while the Prime Minister may have “unwittingly” acknowledged the presence of gangs by linking gun violence
to organised groups, the DLP had long been calling for anti-gang legislation.
“We commit to passing such if it should be God’s will that the people ask us to form the next Government,” he pledged.
Thorne also responded to Mottley’s call for national consensus on crime. While acknowledging the importance of collaboration, he cautioned that such overtures must not muzzle dissent or blur the constitutional role of the Opposition.
“As to the kind invitation, the Prime Minister is sufficiently experienced to understand that the voice of the people must not suffocate within these gestures of political consensus,” he said. “She will also know that under our system of Government, the Opposition is given a specific constitutional and political role to scrutinise the Government.”
Thorne said it was regrettable that the Government had only now “discovered the crisis of crime long after the rest of Barbados”. Nevertheless, he reaffirmed the DLP’s commitment to offering solutions and engaging the public constructively.
“The offer of consensus is as cleverly political as the implied accusation that the Opposition Democratic Labour Party has been political on crime,” he noted.
“We remain humble and responsible in reminding that we have established our Commission on Crime, and that the Democratic Labour Party will continue to offer suggestions as to the appropriate strategies that ought to be pursued against crime in our beloved country.” (CLM)
