By Stephen Walwyn
Chairperson of Nevis Community Anti-Crime Initiative

This article concludes a three-part series on the very serious issue faced by our Nation - that of a spiraling escalation of youth crime, guns, violence and gangs. The first two articles soberly dared to outline the dynamics in our society that contribute to the maintenance of these problems. The way that the various communities function and the political system which leads the Country, combine to reinforce much of the dysfunction we see in the families in which the troubled youth of our Nation are raised. These youths are merely expressing the anger, frustration, insecurity and pain they experienced at home through their membership and affiliation to their adopted gang families and the violent activities of these very functional elements. Essentially, these young people grew up and were bred in dysfunction; the interactions and behaviours of those in their community outside of their homes are also dysfunctional. This article, as promised, focuses on the very specific and concrete steps that should and must be taken by way of solutions, if we are to properly address this very dark chapter in our Country’s life. 

When solutions are contemplated, one must think about the strengths of the society. The biggest strength of our Federation is its people. Over the years, the citizens of this Country have shown extraordinary resiliency during difficult times. Highly intelligent and hospitable, we are a people of great strength and faith. The reason there are so many churches is because of our steadfast faith and the tendency to turn to God during adversity and prosperity. It is important to keep this uppermost in our minds during perhaps our greatest challenge yet. That we have come this far by faith should not just be our mantra but our most solemn thought. The Church has at its doorstep, in the crime problem, not just its most profound challenge to date, but its greatest opportunity.   It must be seized. God and God alone, perhaps, is our only hope. But the Church must be authentic, relevant and true to its basic tenets. There MUST be harmony between what it preaches and professes and what it practices.  

Moreover, we are all too preoccupied with copying what we see and hear about in the wider world community. If it is on cable television, it must be something that we either need or want.  So we spend our individual and collective energies trying to duplicate what we see, read and hear about in the bigger countries of the world. It shouldn’t surprise us then that if crime and violence is way up in the region and wider afield, that it is on the sharp increase here on our sacred shores. Since we are so fastened to the outside world, we perhaps can then look to what others are doing outside of our Federation and the region to deal with their crime issues. The biggest and most dramatic example at the moment is the recent tragic escalation of crime in Mexico, with some relevance, which appears to have been triggered by the Leader’s crackdown.

What can we learn about the drug cartel war in Mexico right now between those bent on destruction and terror, while supporting their lucrative drug trade and the Government’s determination to crack down and take back control of the Country? First of all, the problem, like ours, appears intractable and just too complex to do anything or much about. It takes a very courageous leader, willing to buck the system, break the status quo to even start the process and make the first step. Calderon has staked both his political career and very life for the cause of getting the crime problem in his Country under control. Our leaders need to take a page out of his book. 

That war has had to be waged on two fronts, as every war on crime in a country. The back of the law enforcement aspect of the problem has to be broken. There has to be focus on attacking the symptoms in addition to, looking down the road and developing a comprehensive and broad based longer term strategy to address the root causes of the drug demand and big quick money aspects of the problem. Calderon has sought help from the US to fight the war with a dramatic increase in force strength and arming that force with more robust firepower. At the SAME time he has also engaged the US in discussions on how to address America’s addiction to illicit drugs which is feeding this multi-headed monster.

The Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis must employ a similar two-pronged strategy which looks at the solution in short and long term focus at the self-same time. Most of us have either near-sighted or far-sighted vision, while some enjoy 20-20 vision. Our Nation needs a 20-20 outlook on the crime problem, looking in front of our noses at the huge problem of our security apparatus and capability, while simultaneously seeing down the road at how to prevent our 8-10-year-olds from looking at the life of a thug as appealing and desirable. For example, we need to keep our drug dog highly visible and operational as well as we need to run anti-gang/anti-violence courses in our schools for all our children, (not just those we target as being at risk). We must train and offer better salaries and improved working conditions for our officers at the same time that we support the Police’s efforts to have a strong police boys club programme in our communities. 

Before looking at specific solutions, which is the aim of this article to close out the three part series, we should first perhaps ask ourselves an important question: what will our Nation look like in five years if we do nothing more than maintain the status quo and do virtually nothing or little? Will any of us be comfortable living here and selling our Island to would-be visitors in the next few years if not enough is done now? 

By way of solutions, our politicians MUST come together. They must do so symbolically (not just through a march) and substantively. They must talk constructively about real issues, coming up with bi-partisan solutions and must be seen to be talking. The community must demand this.  The politicians must be treated as what they are and supposed to be: true servants of the people.  The community should have a score card on a range of critical issues and ask each leader in front of the nation their specific and concrete position on each issue (as Randall Robinson, the former Pan-Africanist, and husband of our Kittitian Hazel Ross Robinson suggested in one of his books, referring to what African-Americans need to do when the democratic leaders come to their communities for their votes).  The #1 issue, of course, should be crime and security. The political leaders should reconcile themselves to each other and to their communities, and atone for their mis-statements and their mis-deeds (we all make them). They need to come together in a similar fashion to the way the leaders in Jamaica did in 2005 when they came together in Emancipation Park with large crowds and a joint resolution with a number of commitments and promises going forward.

Obviously, it takes more than this important symbolic first step, but it is a crucial one in my humble view.

Whether this is done or not, and if it is done, after it is done, it is crucial that the community speaks in one voice out of demonstrated concern and a determined will to fully address the problem of crime, which is ONLY symptomatic of a larger problem. The deeper issues which manifest themselves in the form of an escalation of criminal activities are: general community indifference, institutionalised hostility and a lack of courageous political will on the part of political leaders to put significantly more resources into supporting families and individuals in the areas of psychological, social and community issues, to name just a few of the salient ones.  The community must therefore DEMAND that those in Office place security as a priority in their budgets and put at least $8-10 Million MORE a year in St. Kitts and $2-3 Million MORE a year in Nevis than what is being spent now. This money should be spent in the following manner:  65% should go toward law enforcement and beefing up security through aggressive recruitment and training of Police (particularly in the area of gangs), drugs and guns interdiction, surveillance and intelligence gathering and the salaries and general working conditions of officers along with carefully selected reforms to the criminal justice system. The remaining 35% should be spent on aggressively recruiting and paying trained social service professionals to run parent training classes, teach anti-gang/anti-violence courses in the schools, provide psychological support for individuals and families through individual and group counselling along with creative programmes similar to what Washie has been calling for in the Press for some time now, to pull the untrained, unemployed and mis-guided youth into some type of boot camp facility and discipline them.

Short term residential shelters and facilities to assist victims of incest and domestic violence, and seriously abused and neglected children, should also be provided. How the HELL did we get a budget in the billions of EC dollars in the Federation and into the hundreds of millions of dollars in Nevis, without attention to these issues is frankly beyond me!  And it is a huge disgrace and the governments (I mean over the course of the last 20 years which includes all four of the political parties) on both islands ought to be ashamed of themselves! 

A chorus of voices from the community has been speaking out on the subject of crime over the last few years, but it appears sadly, that no one in Government is listening. As a result, the chorus has turned into a cacophony. The Nevis Community anti-Crime Initiative (NCAI) held a Symposium on crime at the Four Seasons in 2007, out of which was widely published a 40-page Report on crime (in which the Chamber of Commerce Nevis Division was named as a partner).  SKNYPA, the Youth Organisation in St. Kitts held a Conference near the end of 2008, out of which was published a 42-page Report on what to do about crime. Within the same period of time a five-page Report was issued by the St. Kitts and Nevis Chamber of Industry and Commerce, making recommendations on the subject. Opposition parties have proffered suggestions on what could be done. A Nevis ex-patriate led Group has provided some leadership and written on what could be done about the issue of crime in the Nevis community. 

Having developed a keen interest in the subject of crime because of its far reaching effects on the Country and fully appreciating that it is merely a symptom of much bigger problems in our Nation, I have tried to play a role in addressing this issue. NCAI tried to provide leadership on this subject while listening carefully to what others were saying about the solutions. I can now conclude with great certainty that in the Federation we are not short on ideas about how to fix this problem. The recommendations to fully address the many issues are manifold. Sadly lacking however are: leadership and proper coordination. If either government in Nevis or St. Kitts is uncomfortable or ambivalent about any other entity providing the leadership then it needs to fully partner with others who have made overtures by doing a number of things, not least of which is to be open, listen and avoid being guarded and defensive. Government should create a schedule of those recommendations that have been put out, and of which government has been fully apprised. They should then select which ones government will work on and then propose which ones could be taken up by the other entities that are clamoring to get involved. A half hour Press Conference revealing the results of this exercise, following a series of meetings with the various relevant organisations, initiated by Government, would be all that it would require. 

If President Barack Obama is successful in creating the Barackian Society that he is clearly seeking to do, then this kind of openness and willingness to dialogue and partner with the private sector from governments, not just in America but here in the Caribbean as well, could be achieved. I have listened and heard both our leaders in St. Kitts and Nevis conveniently applaud the President of the United States in a manner that almost sounds like they think that his leadership style is worthy of emulation. I have even heard their strong vocal supporters liken them to Barack Obama. Nothing would be more barackian than to lead on the crime issues by respectfully listening and meeting with the Opposition and groups from the private sector who have something to say about this pivotal and important issue of security in our Nation in 2009. I don’t mean in a public symposium or consultation; we have frankly had too many of those. If they are sincere, these efforts should be behind closed doors (without political posturing) and then told to the public afterward. Of course the Caribbean political reality, quite tragically, is that government cannot dare be seen listening or taking advice from others within the country who are outside of government. (Of course if the ideas are coming from someone from outside the country, then great, the more the merrier) It seems that it would be political suicide if they listened to the opposition party.

Political leaders with vision and who are worthy of their calling will work strenuously outside of this box to craft bold, new and real solutions to our many social issues, not least of which are crime and violence.

There is indeed a thin line between sanity and insanity as it has often been said. The corollary is then that there is a thin line between a dysfunctional system (whether government, a political party, a family, a community or a society) and a healthy functioning system. It has also been said, and it’s the best definition of insanity I have heard: keep doing the same thing over and over and over again the same way while expecting a different result. The Nevis Island Administration, led by the Honorable Mr. Joseph Parry and the Federal Government of St. Kitts and Nevis, led by the Honorable Dr. Denzil Douglas, get to decide whether or not their respective government is dysfunctionally leading a society troubled by crime and other issues.  Or they get to decide whether or not their government is being led by the conventional wisdom of the past which says that the more tradition, convention and sameness administered to the people you lead, the more they will want you to stay in power. They can of course decide whether or not they will properly LEAD the Nation away from its dysfunctional inclinations!  The spiritual and physical lives of our young, our Nation’s future and the safety of every citizen and visitor are more than ever before, at stake. Further, the economic gains made over the last two decades, associated with our desirability as a tourist destination, are most assuredly on the line. Ultimately though, it is not really left to our leaders as we are the ones who choose them.