AG: Leave politics out when tackling crime

THIS country’s Attorney General and Minister of Home Affairs, Adriel Brathwaite, is advising his political opponents not to politicise the issue of crime in this country.

Brathwaite, who was the featured speaker at the Democratic Labour Party’s St. James South branch meeting over the weekend, raised the concern as he contended that enhanced penalties are not the answer, and dismissed the suggestion that Parliament should be reconvened to revisit some of the laws relevant to crime, in an effort to curb the growing problem.

He made the point while maintaining that the existing Firearms Act for example is quite extensive, and already has strong penalties in place. As such, the Minister chided the media for reporting on the Opposition’s call and not “fact checking” their statements.   

“Whilst introducing the Bill in 1998, the then Attorney General said that it was required because of an upsurge in gun crime in Barbados, and this is a Firearms Act that provides for a mandatory penalty up to 25 years...

“So the issue cannot be enhanced penalties... that cannot be the issue. And we don’t need to reconvene Parliament to make an offence under the Firearms Act 30 years instead of 25 – that is not a deterrent,” he contended.

As such, he described the Opposition’s call as “utter and complete foolishness”, and said that someone, somewhere should have looked and recognised that the Act already makes provision for significant penalties.

“I listened to that and said we really must do better in terms of not making political comments because they sound good,” he maintained.

He added, “We must be very careful about politicising crime in this country. We must be very, very careful.”

The Attorney General’s comments came as he also admonished persons who have been circulating false reports via social media outlets about violenr incidents. He said these “irresponsible, wicked, deviant individuals” do not understand that creating such false reports, which are then circulated by the public, can cause serious damage to Barbados.

“And of course because we are now a naked departure country – because that is all we seem to read – everybody passes it around without asking if it makes sense [and] what kind of damage it can cause. We are to blame also,” he contended.

Brathwaite said that there is no denying that there are some problems in Barbados, but he maintained that the country is still generally safe, and to create the impression that all is broken down and persons should be afraid to venture outside is not true.

“Yes we have some problems; yes from what I am being told anecdotally we need to arrest this culture that many of young men in particular feel that they need to have a firearm, and if they are going to  karaoke sessions etc., rather than walking with some money to buy a drink, the first thing they do is take up a firearm…

“We need to put an end to that, and we need of course to get all of our actors involved to reduce the proliferation of illegal firearms in this country, because we are all very, very concerned about it,” the Home Affairs Minister said. (JRT)