Navigating the emotional challenges in the fight against crime

In the battle against crime, surrendering to the emotional pull of helping or supporting our friends, colleagues and family can, in fact, undermine our efforts to achieve greater security for the broader society.

Earlier this week, a young civil servant appeared before the Serious Offences Court and pleaded not guilty to charges of possession of an illegal firearm and ammunition. There was nothing unusual in that. Unfortunately, St Vincent and the Grenadines has been experiencing an upsurge in gun related violence. Consequently, more and more young men have been appearing before the court charged with gun related offences.

Yet this particular case on Tuesday proved remarkable in a manner that had nothing to do with the guilt or innocence of the defendant. For as the defendant was preparing to answer the charges brought against him in a court of law, the court of public opinion witnessed a rather surprising development. The defendant’s work colleagues, including at least one of very senior rank, turned up at the court in large numbers and proceeded to hold a prayer session outside of the court room where the defendant was set to appear.

The support for the defendant surely speaks volumes of the quality of the relationship between the defendant and his colleagues. But what message did this show of ‘official’ solidarity from a government department send, albeit unwittingly, to the court and the public?

Were they by their presence and actions saying that law enforcement was wrong to bring the charge and that we cannot simply rely on the judicial proceeding as a place where justice would prevail? Instead, it lends weight to the idea that public pressure and divine intervention could tilt the scale of justice in the direction of the defendant. Prayers could have been offered up in private, or even at the work place, rather than drawing attention to the defendant and bringing their department under public scrutiny for all the wrong reasons.

In St Vincent and the Grenadines, many of us take pleasure at registering deep disapproval of the police for what we see as that organization’s failings in the fight against crime. But every day, by our actions, we become unwitting accomplices in undermining their efforts and worse, enabling the thing we most detest, the proliferation of crime.

In fact, some Vincentians are more than simply unwitting accomplices. For example, too many people buy expensive electronics and appliances at ridiculously low prices under questionable circumstances. The buyers surely know that they are the recipients of stolen property, yet the make these purchases. In such an instance they are not simply beneficiaries of the crime. Effectively, they have also become perpetrators of crime. In much the same way, we buy meat in buckets from someone who is neither a butcher or a farmer, all because we think we are getting a deal.

Additionally, there is virtually no criminal in St Vincent and the Grenadines without friends and family who know of their unsavoury conduct. Yet, we enjoy the spoils of their illegal conduct and turn deaf ears to the pleas of the police to help them solve crime.

And so perhaps, as Vincentians contemplate who is responsible for the high rate of unsolved crimes in St Vincent and the Grenadines, we should first look in the mirror. The perpetrators could be staring right back at us.