BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – WITH 30 homicides recorded for 2015 and three for this year, as well as gunshot injuries to 10 persons, the serious crimes rate is definitely too high per capita. And many law-abiding citizens are concerned about the safety of themselves and loved ones who could be easily killed or maimed by being in the right place but at the wrong time when revenge-motivated and other killings are perpetrated.
In a brief interview with WINN FM’s Ken Richards, former Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas is of the strong view that the Government of National Unity, while in opposition, had laid the blame of the crime situation in the Federation squarely at the Labour Party Administration.
He insinuated that the tri-party coalition was so desperate to get into office that its members were uncaring about the country’s development.
“The present Government, when it was in opposition, that its attitude and rhetoric on crime was not going to be helpful on the national development programmes and policies of the Government. We tried very desperately to show the Opposition, when it was basically doing anything to get into power, that it had to be careful on the question of crime. Crime is everybody’s business.”
Dr. Douglas, who after some 20 years is now Leader of the Opposition in the Federal House of Assembly and still Leader of the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party, claimed that the Government had made citizens and residents of the twin-island Federation believe that the Labour Administration had lacked the ability to find a solution to the crime situation.
“They made the nation believe that the crime situation was as a result of an incompetent government of the day. Today, obviously, it has been proven to every single person in this country and to all investors and to all the developers that the Prime Minister as the Minister of National Security and his Government, they don’t have one iota of understanding of the crime situation in the country.”
When asked what could be done to resolve the crime situation, Dr. Douglas spoke to an amalgamation of various influential bodies.
“The time has come for the Government to begin to admit that crime is a national issue, which therefore must involve not only Government officials, that is the Ministers, the policemen, et cetera, the NGOs, but of course the Opposition. All Parliamentarians must be involved and stop the blaming and the name calling and the finger pointing of those who said are losers.”
Prime Minister Harris is however confident that his Administration has the appropriate response to the crime situation and had assured the nation that peace and safety would be restored in the country.
He was at the time (Wednesday) speaking on the Government’s radio programme ‘Working for You’, where he informed listeners that that he had met and held discussions with members of the security forces on the situation.
“The government remains confident that it can and it will in time restore the peace and safety to St. Kitts and Nevis. The meeting which detained me was about that! How in the face of the increase in criminal-related incidents and in particular those of a violent nature would the law enforcement agencies respond. I am satisfied based on the responses that we had today from the High Command and their support team and the advisory group that it is still within the power and ability and capacity of our law enforcement to respond and to bring a diminution in the upsurge of violent activities.”
The Prime Minister used the opportunity to extended condolences to family members of those who were killed and called on parents and guardians to join the law enforcement officer in their fight against crime.
He also questioned the values within those homes where illegal activities are seen and condoned by parents and other family members.
“Are there values in the home that are being inculcated in the home setting that lead ultimately to this disrespect, this violent action that we are seeing? How does a parent who, for example, sees her son or daughter who comes home loaded with goods, loaded with ill gotten gain, how does that particular family respond to that situation? How does the citizen on the street who sees someone fall prey to violent onslaught of criminals, how does that person react? Should that person be quiet or that person has an obligation to the societal peace, the safety of their community to share that information with the public?”
