BARBADIANS have been taken to task for using the Internet as a tool for rumour, gossip and hurting people.
Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin in condemning the practice, referred to a recent email making the rounds and telling of a Barbadian family who had returned home for holiday but were robbed, beaten and raped.
The Internet posting also related some gruesome details about the alleged raping of a 13-year-old girl, saying she had to be flown out of the country by air ambulance for medical attention.
Referring to the article as “grievous”, the police chief said: “Now the person who has posted it has to come back and retract with egg all over his face.
“It was absolutely untrue. You are playing fast and loose with the economic foundations of the country.”
Noting that some local blogs were not for the faint-hearted, Dottin added: “Barbadians are using cyberspace to wound and hurt people and the country as well, rather than use it for productive good.”
The police chief, who was addressing a nationally televised Press conference on Tuesday, also hinted that the culprits who robbed and torched the Chicken Galore outlet at Bank Hall, St Michael, two weeks ago could be the same people who caused last Friday’s fire tragedy in Tudor Street, The City.
“There was a similar call in Bank Hall, an attempted robbery and then the use of an incendiary device at that location, and so we have asked the analysts to look carefully at what occurred at Bank Hall and what occurred at Tudor Street to come up with a comparative analysis,” he said.
Dottin referred to the findings as “interesting” and noted the modus operandi of the perpetrators was similar. (TS)
