The main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), on Wednesday, made yet another call for the government to address what it described as “the crime crisis” in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“For some time, the worsening crime situation in St. Vincent and the Grenadines has enveloped the nation in a climate of fear that is contributing to a lack of confidence in law enforcement,” the NDP said.
The party said that having great concern about the effect of “this crime crisis” on the development of the nation, it has called on the Prime Minister and Minister of National Security, Ralph Gonsalves, to address the nation on his government’s plan to deal with “this urgent crime problem”.
“In the meantime, homicides continue unabated with the killing of Rhodesha Bailey and Fitzgerald Gregory Morris on October 26, and Shania Johnson a 19-year old mother, who was found dead at Akers on November 4. Most recently, we have learnt of the shooting death of Lennox John of Lowmans Leeward. The killing of Lennox John brings the homicide count to 31. The Vincentian people can see no light at the end of this tunnel of murder, rape and other violent crimes,” the NDP said.
The Police Public Relations Department, in its regular bulletin on Wednesday, said John’s death brought the homicide count for this year to 30.
The NDP said the responses from Gonsalves and members of his Unity Labour Party government “have tended towards selective and partial theories of the causation of crime and warning to citizens to stay out of the way of criminals.
“The Government continues to be out of touch with the genuine fears of the people. By reducing the causes of these violent crimes to drunken brawls or love relationships gone bad, the government fuels fear and fails our people.
“The Minister of National Security, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, contrary to his promise to be tough on crime and the causes of crime, has done little to fight crime and its causes. It would appear that the ULP government is more concerned with matters external to St. Vincent and the Grenadines and has lost touch with the reality of the Vincentian people’s lives,” the NDP said.
The party said it believes that a government’s first responsibly is to guarantee its citizens a safe society in which all rights and freedoms are not only guaranteed but also protected.
“The NDP recognises that a comprehensive approach is required to address crime.”
The party said it would strengthen the institutions of justice “and raise their legitimacy among the Vincentian people such that they will once again be able to trust the system to work for all, regardless of racial, ethnic, political, social or economic standing.
“In particular, we will support such organs as crime stoppers anonymous, youth organisations and spiritual development programmes. We will also strengthen the family as the main socialising institution and emphasise the role of parents in the development of children, using values-based teachings and being positive role models.
“We will also complement the existing Liberty Lodge Boys Training School with a similar female institution and introduce truancy officers as deemed appropriate in support of compulsory education.”
The NDP said that in the meantime, it urges Vincentians to be a united and caring society.
“We again encourage anyone with information that might assist the police in their investigations to provide it to the police. Further, the NDP reiterates its call for the police to redouble their efforts to bring all perpetrators to justice,” the party said.
Mr Straker and a few other ULP have indicated how the ULP is addressing the nation’s problems:
Support the right political party and you may get a free house! Notice those reduced-tax Christmas barrels?
Don’t look at those potholes!
Don’t talk about crime!
Who needs good healthcare for the people!
What debt? Let’s keep borrowing money!
Instead notice that we are going to be on the Security Council! We are going to be on the Security Council! Support us and you will go to heaven because we are chosen by God!
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!
Reading here what the NDP’s spoke person has to say, one can only wholeheartedly agree with this, as one rue these passing days, and bitterly regret the day this failed ULP government took up office here. We indeed have had to endure a never-ending catalogue of crimes from a rising tide of rapes, burglaries and most sadly, numerous murders.
For sure, noting here what the NDP dad to say that, “The Minister of National Security, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, contrary to his promise to be tough on crime and the causes of crime, has done little to fight crime and its causes. It would appear that the ULP government is more concerned with matters external to St. Vincent and the Grenadines and has lost touch with the reality of the Vincentian people’s lives,”
Firstly may one repeat here what I have discovered, that Ralph Gonsalves’s “promise to be tough on crime and the causes of crime,” was nothing more than the stealing of a foreign politician’s clothe.
That is, the clothe of one Tony Blair of the UK, who himself was running for office in 1993 (ON THE RECORDTONY BLAIR http://www.bbc.co.uk/otr/intext92-93/Blair4.7.93.html Tony Blair tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime. In an article for the New Statesman from 29 January 1993) This was noted previously at i.w.n : https://www.iwnsvg.com/2018/10/29/sports-against-crime-to-help-fight-armed-entrepreneurs/ Secondly one has to ask, was that statement of Ralph Gonsalves honest and sincere? He most certainly have not delivered on it!
Of Ralph Gonsalves’s ULP, the NDP is reported to have said “The party said it believes that a government’s first responsibly is to guarantee its citizens a safe society in which all rights and freedoms are not only guaranteed but also protected.” But that surely depends on the nature of the incumbents sitting in the government’s office . See: Stealing Paradise, a lesson from the Maldives:
https://www.aljazeera.com/investigations/stealing-paradise/
We note that this ULP government cannot provide us with security here at home, yet they have eagerly embarked upon putting forward our murder riddled, poverty stricken nation’s name, as one being willing to sit on the rotating non-permanent UN security Council’s seat. This act can only be interpreted as delusional aspiration.
Ralph Gonsalves as Minister of Security cannot provide us with security here, yet he is seeking to advise others on security. What foolishness!
Again one ask, just what is wrong with this wealth deficient murder riddled, poverty stricken nation of ours? Like the NDP I am asking, should we not be putting our own house in order first, before trying to advise other nations on security?
Must we be dragged along by one man’s over inflated ego, and by him and his family’s misguided thirst for power? Their desire and grubby ambition to be noticed on the world stage? Just how much more poverty, insecurity and murders must we endure here before we see good sense in this country and do the right thing?
Your claim of “a rising tide of rapes, burglaries and most sadly, numerous murders” is fake news as I have implied and will prove using data from SVG and elsewhere in the next two essays in my crime series (https://www.iwnsvg.com/2018/10/23/the-ins-and-outs-of-crime-in-svg/).
Don’t worry James H, all the madness would stop as soon as the NDP takes office. No more crime, no more hardship, NDP at the rescue. We wouldn’t have to pay anymore Vat, CBI program would take care of all those things.
Thank you for admitting that “all of dem a de same” when it comes to party politics, the message I have been preaching since I was a youthman.
If there is anyone who has presented, “… selective and partial theories of the causation of crime” it is Godwin Friday who has used the phony boogeyman of “unemployment” as a uni-causal explanation.
Finally — finally — Dr. Friday is grudgingly acknowledging the role of “the family as the main socialising institution and emphasis[ing] the role of parents in the development of children, using values-based teachings and being positive role models.”
In fact, our dysfunctional family system featuring incompetent parenting, a legacy of slavery if there ever was one, is a key factor in facilitating criminal behaviour.
Unfortunately, this is a near intractable problem, far more difficult to combat than our unemployment situation, if only because it is now affecting and infecting nearly all segments of our society as illegitimate birthing (a shameful 80 percent of children) and family breakdown, including a growing divorce rate, become the norm among the middle and upper classes as well.
It takes two loving, sexually faithful, and committed (i.e., legally married) parents to properly raise a child.
Stay tuned for more on this topic in my crime and the economy series.
Repeatedly using the terms “crime crisis” and “crime is out of control” is a deliberate attempt by the NDP to unduly frighten the Vincentian people in the same way that the Donald Trump regime is using the term “border invasion” by criminals to scare the American people.
Politicians are supposed to bring people together, not tear them apart.
This country is no longer the SAINT Vincent I grew up in. It is now SIN Vincent.
But Sin Vin-sin is how all we always pronounce de name a we cunt-rie.
I just read the proposed 2009 new Constitution again from end to end, thank God it was rejected by the people.
Wait didn’t this same gun salt said he would make this same country ungovernable,it only shows his words ain’t coming to past. Please people look at what’s happening throughout the length- breath of your small island. Yes as they say “Labour love you ” who is it they chatting about may be themselves, nah worry people “better must come one day”
The next generation would cut ties with the Privy Council and embrace the CCJ. Laugh your heart out Jolly, troubled soul.
What did you say Fordie “better must come one day”? Not with the likes of ardent toadies like our “observer” here above. Servile parasites do vigorously prop up their benefactors. See for yourself how imbedded structures are able to perpetuate continuance. Enlightenment are not for sycophants. Note again: Stealing Paradise, a lesson from the Maldives: https://www.aljazeera.com/investigations/stealing-paradise/
My dear Fordie, just take a walk around Kingstown for an hour or so. Notice and engage our populace in a little conversation, then further take a short drive out into our countryside and be utterly astounded.
Be amazed, with the extent of the profound hopelessness, ignorance and backwardness, then read the postings of this one called Observer here. Be further astonished, be dumbfounded by seeing how little plantation existence have changed in SVG.
An English politician by the name of Tony Benn once said “I don’t think people realise how the establishment became established. They simply stole land and property from the poor, surrounded themselves with weak minded sycophants for protection, gave themselves titles and have been wielding power ever since.”
So my dear Fordie see what our “observer” called this existing enduring situation; “madness”! It is indeed
we have changed one Plantation to a new plantation where thinking is not an option!
Are you all aware that the 60 land owners at Argyle still have not been paid for their land which is now most apparent the government stole from them for the airport.
Name calling wouldn’t change anything. Please outline your party’s views on most of the ills affecting Vincentians? Only those employed in the kitchen can attest to the heat. Where does your party stand on Climate change issues? Why the NDP leadership not addressing this vital subject?
Climate change is wrecking havoc on our planet, but Mr James don’t care.
This must be the longest written response we have ever got out of you dear Observer, keep it up. Wow over two sentences, things are certainly improving. However, unlike you, our blinkered observer, I am most definitely a non-party person and for my part, I have always expressed a view that, in order for us to get upright again, our first act in addressing the ills of our small poverty stricken, debt burdened nation, we as a people need to recognise that we have never really left the plantation, not properly nor effectively. We need to identify and distinguish our problem!
Our second act dear observer, is for us to throw off this heavy yoke of oppression that is being heaped upon us by this privileged bunch of no hopers that still have us in hidden chains, ignorance and confusion and who are inviting others to continue with the process.
And thirdly we need to recognise our true worth as human beings and seek to escape the poverty of our existence by ridding ourselves of our plantation mentality and commence an industriousness here and now, knowing that the world dislikes stinking beggars.
If not more crimes, joblessness and unaccountable rule by one extended family. What is it that is on offer to us the Vincentian people by this ULP elite, one of whom have boasted of never knowing ancestral slavery, whose stock in trade are just lies and more lies, what is it that is on offer to us, dear Observer, after near on eighteen years? Please do tell?
Including the NDP, because they lie too.
You so disappoint observer! One had hoped that you could rise to the mark, but sadly you could not and have proved yourself to be intellectually a midget.
While unashamedly admitting that your chosen Party, the ULP tells lies, you are yet still unable to express yourself in anything other than just a measly mere few words. What a shame! It just goes to show, as was suspected, where that political party draws its support from, semi-literates, nincompoops and illiterates.
Remind me never to get into a comment dispute with you! I see you as the most intelligent contributor to these articles. My only disagreement is that you buy into the propaganda from the Government-sponsored news, CNN, BBC, NPR and all the others. Almost everything they say about Assad, Putin and even some of what they say about Maduro is even not true. Venezuela has a terrible system and Maduro, like most leaders, live a life of luxury, while his people become more impoverished. but no different, just on a slower timeline from Bush, Obama, Trump, etc… Assad never used gas on his enemies so why would he gas his own supporters? The people of Crimea voted to get away from the insane NAZI Ukraine and later to join Russia. Putin did not annex it.Like Robertson, I would admire you even more if you would not let the wealthy establishment media fool you.
Your pressure would elevate James. Regardless of what you say, James H connected to the NDP. End of story.