Editor: St Vincent and the Grenadines is a very blessed country; Vincentians and non-nationals should be extremely proud to live in this country. St Vincent and the Grenadines is a beautiful island, inhabited by God-fearing people who once looked out for one another. In recent times, we, as Vincentians, have been experiencing numerous problems with crime. It’s not alarming, but it’s definitely frightening and something needs to be done to pr{{more}}

One may ask how can we prevent crime. First, the police need to be more proactive: increase their patrols, foot and mobile, find ways to improve their communication, expose the police to better training, entertain all reports of crime and criminal activities. These are some of the areas the police need to improve. The police are a key element to fight on crime. Vincentians, especially young ones, need to be better citizens; if you are unemployed you can search for a job and when you get a job do it to the best of your abilities.

Our country is faced with numerous obstacles — unemployment, drug abusers, alcoholics and lazy people in our society. Should we throw our hands in the air? The Government should find ways to help this situation. Vincentians should make the effort first by being creative; involve yourself in meaningful conversations; choose quality persons to be your friend; get involved with an organization that has value; encourage community policing, like neighbourhood watches; instill quality values in our children; demand more from our churches; encourage young Vincentians to get involved in sporting activities; teach them about their bodies and the changes they will go through, especially our young girls; encourage Parliament to bring in a new law to make the age of sexual consent to be 21; compulsory education; and for those Vincentians who are bent on a life of crime, put legislation in place to deal with them; bring back corporal and capital punishment.

We must find ways to deal with crime and criminal activities; they are affecting our country. They have an effect on our tourism industry and also our agriculture industry. Some may ask what about our values? They are still here. Only a small minority is creating a problem for us and we should rid this society of them by finding them and locking them away. The only way we can do this is by some kind of community with the public. The crime situation in St Vincent and the Grenadines is getting worse; don’t wait until it affects you to be concerned. Fighting crime is everybody’s business.

Make demands on the police force, but remember information is very important in fighting and solving crime; you will be doing your country injustice if you don’t share any information that deals with crime and criminal activities with the police. The law enforcement needs our help with the fight on crime. Let me remind today’s politicians, from both the ULP and the NDP, that they have to lead the fight, and they have to come together to find ways to prevent this rapid crime wave from doing more damage than it has already done.

Sometimes I wonder if something is wrong with us black people. If you want to witness what I’m speaking of, take a visit to the courthouse on Monday and you will see poor black people waiting to be tried for criminal activities. “What a shame!” Where are our values? Where is the Christian Council? Who do we blame? I’m begging all Vincentians to come together to stop this trend; this crime trend is not good for our country; it’s causing a rapid decrease in our tourism industry. We, as Vincentians, must realize that we depend on tourism and we must ensure that our visitors feel safe when they visit. Let’s get back to the peaceful and loving St Vincent and the Grenadines we once knew.

Kingsley deFreitas