On The Spot:Many males murdered with guns had run-ins with law and retaliators

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – IT was not the finest hour for Akimba ‘Oil’ Whyte. In a twist of fate, the once promising scholarship student was convicted of cannabis possession and fined $800 on Monday, March 3, 2008. The court ordered Whyte to pay the fine within two months or serve one month in prison.  

One year passed. Then eerily, just one day later, the 19-year-old was shot dead in a drive-by on Wednesday, March 4, 2009.  

Whyte’s case is indicative of what so many researchers – at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and the University of Chicago Crime Lab, to name a couple of institutions – and law enforcement professionals have found.  

A vast majority of gunshot murder victims had prior criminal involvement.   

The University of Chicago Crime Lab writes in a report titled “Gun Violence among School-Age Youth in Chicago” (March 2009) that this finding suggests “involvement with gangs, drugs, guns, or illegal activities is associated with an increased risk of violence and victimization as well as offending”.  

An investigation undertaken by SKNVibes found that of the 14 male murder victims who were gunned down this year [two additional males were stabbed and three females were shot to death, bringing the total murder victims to 19], half (7) of them had recorded run-ins with the law.  

It should be pointed out that legal information pertaining to minors – people up to 17 years old – are sealed and thus not made available to the public. This year’s murdered male gunshot victims ranged in age from 17 to 43.  

Legal profile of the 14 males murdered by guns in St. Kitts and Nevis this year  

Of the four murdered men who were in their teens, 25% had recorded run-ins with the law.Of the five murdered men who were in their twenties, 60% had recorded run-ins with the law.Of the three murdered men who were in their thirties, one-third had recorded run-ins with the law.Of the two murdered men who were in their forties, 100% had recorded run-ins with the law.

One man had a wounding conviction as well as a battery conviction, which the court handed down in 2007. Another was charged with possession of a firearm and possession of ammunition in 2007.

One was charged with the offence of aggravated assault in 2007. He had also served time in prison for drug-related offences.
Another man was charged in 2008 with the offence of robbery.

Last year, one man was charged with being armed with an offensive weapon as well as disorderly conduct by fighting. Earlier in 2008, he was convicted of cannabis possession and fined $800.

Another murdered man had faced a gun-related charge, which the court dropped this year.

The fact that criminals are killing each other should be no comfort to the rest of society

In hindsight, the nature of their run-ins presaged that these men had a high risk of falling victim to retaliatory violence.

In the U.S. city of Chicago, for instance, the police department has attributed roughly 45% of homicides to gang altercations or narcotics. It has reported, too, that 90% of homicide offenders and almost 75% of homicide victims in Chicago have prior arrest records.  

Herein lies a problem: some people both here and abroad feel that society should stand idly by while criminals settle their scores. “Let them kill each other,” they say.

“The fact that the criminals are killing each other should be no comfort to the rest of society,” Police Press and Public Relations Officer for the Royal St. Kitts & Nevis Police Force, Inspector Cromwell Henry counters.  

Henry continued: “There is always the strong possibility that one of these bullets may hit an unintended target who is not involved in any criminal activity. There is also the danger of tarnishing the image of our country as a preferred tourist destination, thereby crippling our budding tourist industry.”

The police inspector added that, “We therefore need as a society to take collective responsibility to ensure that our country is not overrun by criminal gangs and crime.”

In Boston, Strategy to Prevent Youth Violence saves similar high-risk men

The success of the Boston Strategy to Prevent Youth Violence is instructive.  http://www.sasnet.com/bostonstrategy/

Operation Night Light falls under the Boston Strategy to Prevent Youth Violence. It aims to prevent gang and firearm-related violence in Dorchester and Boston, Massachusetts.  

In November 1992, probation officers in the Dorchester District Court teamed up with the Boston Police Department’s Anti-Gang Violence Unit, which subsequently became the Youth Violence Strike Force.

Summaries of Operation Night Light proudly stress that, “The program also saves lives by reducing the number of probationers who were murdered from 68 between 1990 and 1994 to three during 1995 and the first half of 1996.”

How Operation Night Light works

Two teams go out in plain clothes and unmarked cars to visit young, high-risk probationers.  Each team consists of one probation officer and two police officers, who use an unmarked car.  

These unannounced visits take place during three-to-four hour shifts, 320 evenings per year. In addition to visits made at homes, schools, and workplaces of probationers, the officers stop at parks and street corners where young people, including probationers, are known to assemble.

Officers are expected to display courteousness and professionalism as well as encouragement to family members, who need reinforcement in keeping the probationers out of trouble. The officers explore substance abuse prevention and treatment options with the probationers and their families. They also ask family members about the probationers’ behaviour.

Night visits carried out by initiatives such as Operation Night Light are effective. Yet, they are not a cure-all. One remembers, after all, that the double drive-by murders of Akimba ‘Oil’ Whyte and Kwesi Twells occurred in early afternoon.

However, it does appear that such initiatives work well because they are instrumental in developing relationships among officers and people who are at high risk of getting shot or murdered. That way, they assist law enforcement in developing gang-related intelligence as well as methods of protecting probationers, which very well may save lives.

Victims’ criminal records assist law enforcement during murder investigations

Too often however, people at high risk of getting murdered live by the code of the streets, preferring to handle their business on their own terms.  

“They never come to report any differences that they may have to the police,” said Inspector Henry. “They always settle it with the gun. So our strategies are geared at targeting this particular class of persons,” he added. 

One such strategy occurs during a murder investigation when police pore over a victim’s interaction with the criminal justice system in an effort to glean clues.  

Simply put, though a living person may have been reticent to report any information to the police, a dead man’s records do not beat around the bush, withhold information, or lie.  Sometimes these records actually provide the police with substantive leads, or steer them to persons of interest who the police believe can assist with the investigation.  

“Persons of interest are not necessarily suspects. A person of interest may be a witness,” said Inspector Henry. 

“If there is no immediate evidence available or if there is no immediate lead for the police to go on, we tend to look back at the persons whom the murder victim might have had run-ins with, such as persons from opposing groups,” Inspector Henry said, adding that, “We look back at altercations he may have had in the past. We also look back at past associates because they may have been friends but had a falling out and switched to opposing groups.” 

Criminal past weakens job prospects, strengthens grip of gangs

So if being affiliated with a gang means always being on tenterhooks because one’s life holds little value and loyalties can turn on a dime, why be in one?

“They believe that society treats them as outcasts,” said the police inspector. “They feel that there is no hope for them in society. So they just lash back out at society for how they perceive they are being treated,” he added.

Soon enough, the gang culture wins the tug-of-war over the mainstream; fitting in often means acting out, which leads to criminal activities. A criminal record impedes their attempts to get a job, which generally is considered a prerequisite for blending into the mainstream.  

“Before they are hired, employers usually ask them to get a police certificate,” said Cromwell Henry.  “This would indicate whether or not they have previous convictions.” 

Inspector Henry added that, “They are not willing to accept that their own actions put them in the situations they find themselves in now. They believe that they should be given second and third chances. If you are not prepared to give them a second chance, then they are prepared to exact revenge on society for that.”

Read “On The Spot: Dissecting the impact of gangs,” an investigation undertaken by SKNVibes in March. It paints a grim picture of gang culture; one that is marred by nasty turf wars, petty grudges that lead to killings then more killings in the name of revenge, and shattered lives.  

http://www.sknvibes.com/News/NewsDetails.cfm/8913