The “stay calm” appeal from Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin, as reported in yesterday’s SUNDAY SUN, is quite understandable amid the current emotional calls for the “hanging” of murderers and the expressed fears of Barbadians over the criminal rampage.
In any society committed to upholding the rule of law, as Barbados most certainly is, Commissioner Dottin is simply doing his duty in calling for public calm while assuring that firm actions were being pursued to sustain law and order.
It is essential that the recent cases of gun-related murders that have sent shock waves across this nation, are not exploited to undermine confidence in the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF). It has, over the years, built up a sturdy reputation for enforcing the law while avoiding pitfalls of corruption and violations of the basic rights of those in their custody.
Warts and all, the RBPF has been carefully managing its reputation, at times under severe challenges, to conform with internationally recognised best practices consistent with a society committed to democratic norms and the rights and dignity of the individual.
That’s why Commissioner Dottin’s assurance of the “analysis” being made in relation to the pattern of recent murders, some quite sensational and depraved, needs to be embraced and for the shrill “hang-them-quickly” cries be tempered by the knowledge that the nation’s law-enforcement agencies are fully engaged to frustrate armed killers and robbers from endangering our entrenched rule of law culture.
To the more angry, passionate and worrying Barbadians over the multiplicity of gun-related killings and robberies, it may be irrelevant to note that Barbados has done better than most in this region in the war against armed criminals linked to illegal drugs, trafficking in persons and the illegal small arms trade.
Nevertheless, it is worth stressing that such a record was not easily achieved while some of our Caribbean Community partners remain caught up in battling a criminal epidemic that continues to waste many lives weekly, and at great financial cost in the mobilization of human resources and materials Perhaps an appropriate, meaningful response by the public to better help in sustaining the law and order environment would be a commitment to cooperate, on a regular basis, with the Police Force in the fight against criminality.
Calling for the popping of necks of murderers must come to terms with the reality that Barbados’ Constitution provides for mandatory execution, by hanging, of convicted murderers. But other societies, developed and underdeveloped, have come to appreciate that the death penalty has not proven to be an effective deterrent to the crime of murder.
So, let emotionalism be kept under wraps and conscious efforts be made, instead, to cooperate with the police in curbing the current spate of gun-related murders.
