BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, July 5, 2010 (PAM Secretariat Press Release) - "In the last week I have been shocked at the large volume of calls that I have received from terrified residents all over St. Kitts as the crime wave has made itself strongly felt in a wide variety of ways over just a few days," said St.Kitts-Nevis Senior Opposition MP Shawn K. Richards.
This week, like many others, has been littered with outrageous and serious incidents of crime. On Thursday 24th June there was the vicious beating of a couple in the Half Moon Bay area where robbers savagely vented their frustration at not getting the loot they were expecting. This was followed by the brazen daylight robbery of the breweries truck on its delivery route and several shooting incidents including the shooting of two men in the Soho area of Basseterre. The criminals then showed their contempt for law and order by attempting an armed robbery on the Cayon Police Station in the wee hours of Monday morning.
"The attack on the police station and the scandalous fact that there was only a lone female police officer, Ms. Diana York, on duty at the time who was violently attacked showed that the criminals have passed a terrible threshold. If police stations can be attacked where can anyone be safe?" said MP Richards.
The week did not end before their was yet another brazen daylight robbery. This time it was the armed robbery on the Royal Bank next to Valu Mart at 9:00am on the first day of July.
"Even while we can say a silent prayer of thanks about the fact that there was only 1 killing for the month of June I must recognize that it was a lucky break because any of the shooting incidents or armed robberies could have had at least 5 killings. As I considered this state of affairs I could not help but reflect on the recent sitting of parliament just the day before the bank robbery. There we were as the lawmakers of this Federation talking about silliness while out on the streets those we are being paid to represent and ensure security and prosperity for are being traumatized by violence that is out of control," MP Richards lamented.
Richards went on to chastise the Prime Minister and the gov't who have been complaining of the constant criticisms being levelled at them in their handling of the crime issue.
The 2 term Parlimentarian Richards said "How can the Prime Minister or Minister of National Security complain about the criticism that they receive when people are increasingly afraid of doing ordinary things like going to the bank or even relaxing at home in the evening. The economic crisis will become much worse as people are afraid to conduct business and this will paralyze our economy further. Now that our detection rate has finally been recognized to be well below international standard, perhaps now something will be done about it."
Richards expressed the hope that the government does not try to throw the blame off of themselves either by encouraging silly and dangerous talk pretending that our criminals are not from St. Kitts and Nevis or that the real cause of crime is the fact that people are too scared to give evidence.
"We must accept the fact that just as our country has become the most indebted in the world due to labour's mismanagement the same can be said of our crime situation. Crime is out of control because of gov't mismanagement and inability to properly resource our security forces," said Richards.
Richards continued "In the first case if anything will be done then we must recognize that a murderous and crime ridden country is exactly what our country has become under Labour and we must also recognize that our police force has been seriously undermined and that has damaged the morale and professionalism of the officers".
In 2007 officers of the police force expressed grave concern about their living and working conditions. The officers complained and it is alledged that the mass sick-outs of officers back then was in protest over these concerns. The government responded with a Commission of Inquiry , report of which has not been released to date. In 2009 the Commisioner of Police Austin Williams told BBC news that his forces were under-resourced and "ill-euipped to handle the current crime situation". This was a scathing indictment on the gov't which is mandated to ensure that our security forces have the neccessary resources to effectively combat crime.
"The government was elected (it claims) to lead in precisely this kind of crisis and the lives of our children depend on effective leadership. The current situation is intolerable," said Richards.
St.Kitts-Nevis has had an unprecedented 16 homicides for the first half of this year alone and has seen an increase in murders, rapes and robberies over the last 3-4 years.
