AG GETS FAILING GRADE

THE Attorney General must go!

That’s the contention of the Leader of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), attorney-at-law Verla De Peiza. In a statement released yesterday, she called for Attorney General Dale Marshall to be fired, questioning his performance since he took over responsibility for the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF), and lamenting that the murder toll for this year, as of yesterday, stood at 29.

The political party leader is concerned about this trend, noting that since the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) came to office, the total number of murders is 43 – 14 last year and 29 so far for 2019. She further argued that the Mottley Administration has treated the matter of crime as a “platform for catchphrases like ‘not bout hey’ and public relations opportunities in walking through districts” and have not truly addressed the root causes of the issues.

It was in January of this year that Minister of Home Affairs, Edmund Hinkson, was relieved of some of his duties, chief among them the preservation of public order and those duties were delegated to Attorney General Marshall. But, De Peiza is adamant that the AG has done little if anything to really stem the tide, and contends that “he has failed this country”. Her call comes almost two years after Marshall, then in Opposition, made a similar call for the then Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite to be removed from the post.

“Some 14 murders ago, Edmund Hinkson was made a sacrificial lamb to appease public concerns. That number has now more than doubled. While the Barbados Labour Party was in Opposition, they treated crime like a political football whilst giving the former Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite ‘...a failing grade...’ in 2017 following a most egregious act on Kadooment Day... There were 19 homicides up until the Spring Garden crime,” she stated.

De Peiza also took issue with the appointment of the former Commissioner of Police, Darwin Dottin, as a consultant on crime back in January, and described as a “complete failure” the one-week gun amnesty introduced in April. Moreover, she dismissed the idea of putting the officers of the Barbados Defence Force (BDF) on the streets, contending that it will not work.

“The DLP now begs the PM to relieve the AG of his duties and to terminate the contract of Mr. Darwin Dottin,” she stated.

With that in mind, De Peiza said that the DLP is advocating for an urgent multi-disciplinary task force to be established to tackle the causes and sources of crime. Such a task force, she explained, should act as a complement to the RBPF and the BDF, which she maintained “essentially treat symptoms, but not the causes”. In that vein, she said she is confident that Barbados has the human capital with the requisite skills and competencies “to dig deep into the causal elements”.

“It is time to stop playing crime like a political football in our approach and in our personnel appointments. Our children are dying daily, citizens continue to fear for their lives and increasingly, we are sensing a desensitising of many. It is time that people are placed at the centre of the search for solutions to what is obviously a social dilemma,” she maintained.