Grant Still Waits For Reply To Letter
By Floyd French
Observer Reporter
(Basseterre, St. Kitts) – St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas said several initiatives taken to deal with crime have been met with success, but the fight is a long and arduous process which will involve the entire society. He also noted that crime has the potential to undermine the new economic thrust of the former sugar-producing twin island Federation.
According to the Prime Minister, the Government’s response to crime has been multi-dimensional.
“In respect to the social and educational dimension of crime, we have been reducing the percentage of dropouts in our schools to minimise the pool from which criminals are quite often recruited. We have enhanced the rehabilitation programmes in our prisons and have sought employment for ex-convicts with a view to ensuring that such ex-convicts abandon the life of crime as they are integrated into the society. We introduced Project Strong to provide nurturing and training for people at risk of falling into crime. We are establishing a training facility at Harris’s to train and rehabilitate young people in trouble with the law. We have strengthened skills training component of our education system to provide practical marketable skills to school children who prefer such training to traditional academic training,” said Prime Minister Douglas.
He also outlined some initiatives of his Government to strengthen the crime fighting capabilities of the Royal St. Kitts-Nevis Police Force.
“We have provided enhanced technical and managerial training for our police officers. We have introduced community policing. We are continuing to improve the conditions of service of our police and other security officers. We have insisted that our police increase the frequency of patrols with the assistance of the Defence Force where necessary. We have intensified the search and stop activities of the security forces and we have stiffened the penalties for criminal activities, especially in respect to of gun-related crimes,” said Dr. Douglas.
But the prime minister tempered relishing the successes of these initiatives, and he urged the involvement of the entire society in the long and arduous fight against crime.
“We cannot leave task to the police alone; the entire society must support them by providing information, giving evidence and doing all is necessary to rid our society of that evil. The Government will continue to do its part by providing the necessary resources to enhance the capacity of the security forces,” he said.
The prime minister disclosed that technical assistance to further strengthen the managerial, crime prevention and detection capabilities of the security forces is being sought from the Government of Canada.
Meanwhile, Political Leader of the People’s Action Movement, Mr. Lindsay Grant, has not received a response to his letter for a national consensus on crime from the Office of the Prime Minister.
The letter is dated April 21, three days after the Federation had its eighth murder victim. The eighth murder victim, Tau Gowan, was stabbed on the evening of April 18, just hours after murder victim seven, Charles Mathew, was gunned down in the late morning. Since then the Federation has register two additional murders last week after murder victims Chesil Richardson and Eston Sharry were shot on May 19 and 22 respectively. The two latest murders bring the total to date to 10.
Mr. Grant expressed regret that Government only speaks tough on crime after an unfortunate loss of life. He is optimistic that a national dialogue among all of society’s stakeholders can combat the rising criminal activity. Mr. Grant also pointed out that some of the police’s new measures came out of his party’s proposal when a similar national response to crime took place back in 2001.
