CARICOM’s Crime Wave

August 14, 2017 Crime , North America , OPINION/NEWS , South America

PA photo

By

Ricardo Swire

Regional internal security intelligence analysts have noted the recent flare up of gun crimes that overshadow CARICOM communities and raised public outcry. Evidence shows how this scourge is motivated by foreign culture adaptations, the decline of moralistic values and politically ignored social inequality. Over time this infestation transformed island life’s peaceful coexistence to sub-cultures of drugs trafficking, white-collar and gun crimes.

According to Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) statistics, for more than fifteen years the island recorded excesses of eight thousand crimes annually. The years 2003 and 2005 registered Barbados’ highest murder rates, with thirty-three and thirty-five killings respectively. 2015 and 2016 enumerated less than eight thousand crimes yearly. In 2015 listed crimes equalled 2012 and 2013 total offences. Of thirty murders committed in 2016, between ninety and ninety-five percent were prosecuted.

For 2017 to date the RBPF highlighted increased firearm related crimes and petty theft. On January 19, 2017 shortly after 2am a twenty year old male Christ Church resident was shot dead while at Highland, Foursquare in St Philip. On July 2, 2017 a double murder occurred at Prerogative in the parish of St George. RBPF crime figures added the August 7, 2017 twenty year old male resident of 03rd Avenue Chapman Lane, St Michael, shot and killed on Spring Garden Highway.

On neighboring St Lucia the National Security Minister conceded “St Lucia is facing an unprecedented crime wave. The police force has been neglected over the last few years and police stations are dilapidated with limited training opportunities for officers.” St Lucia’s Prime Minister remains challenged with the dilemma of changing America’s mind and gaining release from Leahy Law’s choke hold.

Despite engaging CARICOM’s Implementing Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) to submit findings on St Lucia’s internal security situation, successive governments have been unable to satisfy the US State Department that credible activity is being pursued to prosecute parties responsible for human rights abuses. Since 2013 Royal St Lucia Police Force (RSLP) officers have been severely handicapped by Leahy Law restrictions.

As one demonstration of the infective CARICOM white-collar sub-culture in March 2017 three St. Lucians masterminded an ATM scam at the Bank of St Vincent & the Grenadines (BOSVG). SVG police and Financial Investigative Unit (FIU) officers detained the visiting St Lucian crime trio in possession of more than EC$70,000 or US$25,764, derived from the National Commercial Bank (SVG) ATM fraud scheme. SVG’s overall crime rate is nine percent higher than the national average. On April 12, 2017 at 9:40pm a thirty-two year old Ottley Hall female resident was killed by a volley of gunshots discharged by two unidentified gunmen near a church, her murder SVG’s seventh for 2017.