BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – AFTER placing principal focus on the preventative aspect of combating crime, Operation Future (OF) is branching out and seeking to reach an often neglected part of society - adolescents and parents.
Since January, 2008, 31 individuals in the Federation have been murdered, eight of which took place this year, which is just in its third month.
OF, a programme which educates students about the benefits of living respectable lives as opposed to criminality, has to date visited all primary and high schools – both public and private – on St. Kitts and has had some impact on the lives of more than 7 000 children.
Founder and Leader of the organisation Constable Lauston Percival, in an exclusive interview informed SKNVibes that the younger generation is being reached by his and other organisations, but noted that there is an obvious need to reach the parents of these children.
In addition to visiting schools, Percival said members of the OF would soon embark on a “community initiative” which would highlight the role of parents and older siblings/relatives in moulding the younger ones into law-abiding, productive members of society.
“The community initiative will include parents as well. We feel parents have a really vital role to play and, as of late, we are seeing that that they are not doing it. They are not measuring up. That is why we are targeting the primary schools and their parents because they might have a child already in high school or out of school and he is difficult to deal with. But if he is in the same household with the primary schooler, whatever he or she does the younger one will follow, because they will figure because my older brother does it, I can do it and get away with it. So, we are going to target the parents and those who have left school also.”
Percival said he recognises there is a measure of difficulty in reaching and persuading to change, those individuals who have already developed criminal mindsets. Nonetheless, he said, the members of the operation are not discouraged.
“Those persons who are out there shooting down each other, it will be difficult to try and get them to change because they are much older, and the older persons are the more difficult they are to work with. Nevertheless, we are going to embark on some community meetings and see if we can at least crack down on the problem. We are not saying we are going to be able to stop it [crime], because it will be difficult to stop. We want to get the message to these persons who don’t go to school so that they don’t get too far down in the problems which we are experiencing.”
Notwithstanding the presence of negatives which almost seem to overshadow the positives, Constable Percival said “surrendering is not an option” and Operation Future would not relent in its effort to stamp out crime.
“Surrendering gives criminals that boost and it lets them know that they have won. It’s just like when a parent has a child who is giving trouble and decides he or she can’t handle the situation anymore. That gives the child the push to do what he or she feels they want to do. Don’t give up. Rather, you should go more into what you are doing. So, for Operation Future, we will start doing a lot more work. We will go into a lot more schools, going into work places, going into the community, because we know it will eventually pay off.”
