Whyte suggests curfew, arming residents on Union Island

One of the Cabinet-appointed emergency response coordinators in Union Island has suggested that a night-time curfew be imposed and residents issued licensed firearms amidst security concerns on the island six months after Hurricane Beryl.

Adbon Whyte, who is also a liaison officer from the Ministry of Grenadines Affairs and Local Government to the Southern Grenadines, also floated the idea of ordering the removal of certain people from the island.

His suggestions came amidst increased concerns about personal and property security on the island, where a 79-year-old woman was raped in December after her assailant cut the tarpaulin on her house.

“… the authorities have to pay serious attention. And, personally, I will be calling on them to ask persons who are not working, who are not from the island, and just down there loitering, … to probably have them removed from the island. It’s a serious thing,” Whyte said.

About 95% of buildings in the Southern Grenadines were destroyed when Hurricane Beryl slammed into the area as a category 4 cyclone on July 1, 2024.

The electricity grid on Union Island was extensively damaged and since then, about 250 of the island’s 1,200 houses have been reconnected to the grid.

“We just went through one of the biggest traumas in our lifetime, and we should not have to be suffering at the hands of a few…” Whyte said.

He said that generally, the people who have gone to Union Island to work after the storm want to make the island their home for a few months as they assist in the rebuilding.

“And, these are some of the things that you know we just have to stamp out,” he said, speaking about the crime and other undesirable activities on the island.

“So that is a heated topic on the island now,” he said, noting that reconstruction work was expected to ramp up this week after a three-week break for the Christmas holidays.

“…  those incidents of persons who want to break into people’s houses, and we’ve had an increase in reports of persons knocking on females’ windows, especially if they’re living alone, and those are some of the things that we will be working on seriously,” Whyte said.  

“We will be having a number of discussions and hopefully we could come up with a plan of action of how we’re going to move forward,” he said adding that the government could consider installing cameras on the island and increase policing.

For their part, residents of Union Island will be engaging in neighbourhood watches “and definitely calling for assistance in identifying persons who would not normally be living on Union Island and they’re not working and figure out a way how we could get them to leave the island.

“If you’re not working, there’s no real need for you to be there,” Whyte said.

He said that the police are doing “whatever they can. The police are already stretched, already.

“And as I said, I’m not trying to make excuses for anybody or anything, but the police, they have been actively involved, they have been pursuing leads, and they’ve been looking into possible suspects.

“But we have to remove ourselves from this culture of not informing the police when we see certain things going wrong,” Whyte said, adding that the police in Union Island have a good relationship with the community.

“We have an idea of who these persons are. I think we need to act on it quickly, swiftly and really stamp it out. Because there is no need for persons to be behaving like this.”

Particular concern about women’s safety

Whyte said he was especially concerned about the safety of the island’s women.

“I could guarantee you, we will be working and having different meetings to discuss the way forward and how we could deal with some of these issues.”

He noted that some houses on the island still use generators and turn them off at some point in the night.

Whyte said the response coordinators would meet this week “to kind of get a feel of where the community is, the areas that have had these problems, identify them, and identify the pockets of where we believe these persons are liming or they’re harbouring and whether provide lighting in certain areas, even if it may mean implementing a curfew on the island at certain times. And then you have police patrol.

“Because what I’m saying, it’s not a normal situation in Union. The good thing now is that we have cell phone connectivity almost all over the island.”

Whyte said they do not want a situation where people take things into their own hands, adding that the coordinators are always in touch with Superintendent of Police Samuel, who is responsible for security on the island.

“He’s been there right from the beginning. So, he knows the island, he knows the people. And he also brought in a number of officers who would have worked on the island in the past and who have a good knowledge of the island and the people of the island.”

Union Island ‘generally a safe place’

Whyte said Union Island is generally a safe place.

 “… and we need to identify these persons who are doing these things, and we need to deal with them, have the law deal with them, have them, whether removed from the island by some special order or whatever.”

Whyte however, noted that Union Island remains part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and there could be legal implications for attempts to remove people from the island.

“But if maybe we could have something like a state of emergency in that area, then you give the police a little bit more freedom to exercise additional powers in terms of investigating and apprehending some of these people, which I think is really needed at this time…

“I would really like even the police to look into giving a few persons even licensed firearms so that they can assist the police in patrol. Because I know for sure some of these criminals, they have guns.”

Whyte said people might have different views on the firearm suggestion.

“But I don’t see people breaking into people’s homes who have licensed firearms. It’s a deterrent and more people sometimes have something to protect — because the police cannot be everywhere.

“They cannot be everywhere and that is in addition to all the other measures that I’m talking about — curfew, removing some of the unwanted persons who were not working on the island. I think special arrangements can be made in those cases. We just have to probably look at how that can be done legally.”

Whyte also called for more public lighting and surveillance cameras for the island’s public spaces.

He said the response to the security issues “has to be a structured approach and look at the matter comprehensively.

“Because, as I said, the people of Union Island, the Southern Grenadines went through a traumatic time six months ago, and we definitely should not be living in fear because of a few criminals who just want to use this opportunity to their advantage.”