St. Kitts-Nevis besieged by Gun Violence says MP Richards

Basseterre, St.Kitts (March 7th 2010):- This past  weekend  saw the murder of yet another youth. Denzil “Para” Williams became the 8th homicide for the year. This follows the murder the weekend before of a not yet eighteen (18) year old in a brazen drive by shooting that left three others injured.

“This latest homicide epitomizes the lackadaisical and apathetic attitude to crime fighting that has become the  hallmark of this Labour government,” said People’s Action Movement Deputy Political Leader Hon. Shawn K. Richards.

With record numbers of  homicides and shootings each of the last 6 years the only response that is forthcoming from government is that they are not responsible for crime.

MP Richards blasted the labour government on its dismissive attitude towards crime
“Crime is everywhere we are told so what if we have it here. It is everybody’s responsibility to stop crime we are told but this government is conspicuously missing from inclusion in everybody,” said 2nd term Constituency #5  Representative MP Shawn Richards.

The government has been long criticized for it’s failure on the fight against crime as well as it’s refusal to accept any sort of responsibility for the record number of homicides, burglaries and robberies over the last 10 years.  In place of transparency and collaboration the government has been accused of  deliberatly refusing to be truthful about the extent of the crisis.

"The country is always in the dark when it comes to information regarding the true state of affairs when it comes to crime. We are always mislead with sugar-coated statistics that often does not reflect the true state of affairs,” said MP Richards. “That is why we are never clear on how many robberies, burglaries, rapes or non lethal attacks happen each year,”.

MP Richards continued, “The army and strike force were specifically ordered and sent to patrol in Half Way Tree on polling day in military fatigues, bullet proof vests and bearing assault rifles to protect illegal voters from St. Pauls but are barely present in well-known gang and crime hotspots,”.

Since the infamous slaying of popular radio personality Lorenzo Greene and his wife Michelle in 2005 there has been an amazing (91) ninety-one murders in the federation of St.Kitts-Nevis. Reports have indicated that of the 91 murders less than 20% have been detected or solved. Of the 8 homicides for this year thus far and the 27 murders last year less than 4 have been solved. The murder rate in SKN is not only among the highest in the world but the  detection rate is among the lowest.

                                
Find below table of murder and shooting victims for 2010