Editorial: An unhelpful comparison

The Honourable Attorney General is right; at least in one respect. Yes, our murder rate is way below that of Trinidad & Tobago – their most recent count numbers close to four hundred for the first eight months of the year – but that statistical observation, accurate as it may be, does little to add to the feeling of security or consolation of a single Barbadian, especially those who have lost a loved one to a gunman’s bullet. It amounts therefore to a mere platitude that is supposed to make us feel good about ourselves as a country without adding any indication of how we are going to cope with our present problem.

The learned Attorney appears to continue this misperception of the usefulness of comparisons in this context during last week when he is reported as observing in the same vein that crime and violence was not “a Barbados issue alone”, being something that affects other countries in the region as well. Again, he is correct, though at a superficial level only. Most of the regional jurisdictions are indeed struggling, as we are, to cope with an upsurge in crime and violence.

The Attorney General is quoted in The Barbados Advocate of Wednesday, August 16 as saying, “The issue of crime, the issue of youth violence, is not a Barbados issue. No. It is not a Trinidad issue. It is actually a regional issue and therefore, we need our collective experiences, we need our collective energies to ensure…that we have the best data available and that we can tackle the issue of youth violence in our communities…”

We query, however, whether this coincidence of criminal activity suffices to transform it into a regional issue as opposed to a collection of jurisdictional or national issues of the same kind. This comparison should be carried no further. Of course, crime may be a regional issue properly so called should the perpetrators conspire and carry on their illicit activity across the various jurisdictions. We doubt this to be the case however.

Nor do we seek to gainsay the fact that regional collaboration might assist us all in fighting this scourge. However, we remain convinced that crime and violence are essentially national or jurisdictional issues to be combated primarily by the conjoint intellectual and policy initiatives of the Cabinet and the security forces in the particular jurisdiction.

We hold this view for two main reasons. First, the motives for the commission of these offences may vary from country to country. Many of the murders in Trinidad & Tobago, for example, are in the nature of revenge killings of those who may themselves have committed murders and have been released for one reason or another. Others are murders of witnesses to offences who either have testified at an earlier hearing or are about to testify at an upcoming criminal trial.

Second, the impact of crime on the lives of residents of one jurisdiction may vary from its impact elsewhere. For instance, Barbados prides itself on the safety of those who live here, principally our visitors who supply the economic lifeblood of the nation whether as tourists or as investors in our offshore sector. Any imputation of there existing a threat to the safety of random individuals is therefore likely to have a far more detrimental effect to the Barbados economy than it would in other jurisdictions that do not sell themselves as havens of security.

Thus, while it is true to say that the incidence of crime and violence in our neighbouring jurisdictions might be similar to ours, this, by itself, does not thereby make it a regional issue; simply, rather, an issue that is common to each jurisdiction which must deal with it as a matter of policy and priority.

Barbados Advocate

Mailing Address:
Advocate Publishers (2000) Inc
Fontabelle, St. Michael, Barbados

Phone: (246) 467-2000
Fax: (246) 434-2020 / (246) 434-1000