Solutions to crime Part ll

By Stephen Walwyn

Yet, the biggest threat we face as a nation is not crime at all. It is not even the government’s inadequate response to it. Notwithstanding all that have been said about our politics potentially destroying us as a people, it is not our politics. The most serious threat we face is insidious and often not even noticed. It is OUR LACK OF SHOCK AND OUTRAGE as a society. We have become desensitized to the violence. We are paralyzed by our fear yet we hardly notice that. We live in hope that the next gunshot will not be us, our sons or daughters, our partners. And if somehow neither we nor our families are at the end of the next set of bullets fired off, then perhaps it will all just go away as a problem. Our apathy or our complacency, which expresses our magical thinking, denial and fears, really are spiritually our largest threat as a nation. 

We need solutions to our growing crime problem, yet we don’t demand them! We can no longer afford to bury our heads in the proverbial sand of denial and fantasy. We dream about being discovered by a columbus investor team that will appreciate our beautiful vistas, our ‘friendly citizens’, our coveted literacy rate, our sun, sea and sand and then inject billions into our economy so we ironically, never again have to be dependent on the outside world. It seems that our cultural, racial and national pride have been burned beyond recognition. Our spiritual ethos no longer distinguishes us from other nations. We have traded the soul of the nation, its character and values, for the appearance of a vibrant economy - one that brings universities, large world-class resorts, mighty cruise ships that enter our ports daily to nurse our ailing spiritual health and observe our deficient spirit. This is tragic indeed! 

There are several things that our political leadership should cease and desist from doing as well as a number of initiatives that they could undertake immediately. Instead of focusing on our political leaders however, we need to turn the lens on the rest of us - the political opposition and the communities in the Federation. Every entity has a role to play in the fight against crime.  Government’s role is to provide the resources and leadership on the issue. The citizenry has a vital role to play in terms of the level of tolerance, demanding change of government from the status quo, and significantly reducing the amount of potential criminals.

In her work to turn around inner city youth in the United States by taking a group of them to serve the disadvantaged in South Africa, Malaak Compton-Rock, a Philanthropist and wife of the Comedian Chris Rock, says it all in her book titled, “If it takes a village, then build one”. Each community in the Federation should start building a village against the rising tide of not just criminality but, even more importantly, tolerance and indifference. 

The political opposition can do a lot more than it does. Beyond ceasing any rhetoric that can be construed as obstructionist and opportunistic, it can certainly do at least a few other very specific things. Firstly, the opposition should come up with a list of alternative strategies and present them to the Administration through the media, creating a bonanza exposure to these measures.  They could then speak to their constituents and assist the government in a campaign to educate the public on crime, sensitizing the community on a number of things that it can and MUST do if the tide is to be turned. Every opposition leader should, for example, charge its constituents with the responsibility for reporting crime regardless of the consequences and fears. Finally, the opposition parties should unite, speak with one voice and then request a hearing with the political directorate on this issue of security and crime. 

We need influential groups such as the Bar Association, the Lyons Club, the Christian Council and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (to name some of the key ones) to dig a little deeper and do more to apply pressure on the Administration. They could do much within their respective bodies to bring about change. They could do even more if they all came together and spoke with one voice, demanding change from our leaders, calling it any name but one that reflects, ‘civil society for change’. 

The Bar Association alone could do so much more than it presently does, as once a significant number in its ranks were rallied, it could uniquely get the attention of the political directorate by simply demanding it. While this may be easier said than done, undoubtedly the only other group in our culture with more power and command more respect than do politicians, are lawyers. Yet, as a group, they are the most under-utilized in terms of their civic responsibility and potential to bring about change. There are a few individuals at the Bar who do more than their fair share of sacrificing their personal comfort for the greater good, but not nearly enough and outside the power of the larger cadre.

We need in the Federation a military style ‘youth challenge academy’, similar to that of the United States National Guard. It is critical to deliberately target and intervene with at-risk and troubled youth who are high school age but who either drop out of school or who function at the lower end of the scholastic achievement range. There should be a program that teach these youth employable skills and discipline, while combining strong counseling interventions, instead of simply blaming their parents for (what we all know) not doing what they were really supposed to have done in the first place.

Finally, every parent in the Federation has the grave and distinct obligation to provide adequate supervision for their charges, comprehensive moral training and full accountability for the actions of their youths. We must find a way to hold parents fully accountable, while at the same time provide them adequate support.      

If we are spiritually bankrupt as a nation and our crime rate is out of control, we will only attract those investors who love us for our vulnerability. They will come because it is easy to do so since our negotiation powers, our ability to be competitive and attract others would have significantly waned. They will come to exploit us and then leave us more destitute than before, while allowing our politicians just enough proof to convince us all that we are prospering as a Nation.