Gov’t will use all legal means to crush gangs — Leacock

By Ashford Peters

Two months after taking office, National Security Minister St. Clair Leacock has sent a strong warning to criminal elements, urging them to put down their guns and suggesting that he is ready to use all legal means to crush gangs.

Leacock, a former Commandant of the St. Vincent Cadet Force with extensive military training, issued the warning while speaking on the state-owned NBC Radio on Wednesday.

“You know, I also want to say publicly, because I’m Minister of Nat-Sec. “You can’t embarrass me, your minister of national security … for some stupidness to happen on the watch,” Leacock said.

“So, the gun-toting and the gun slinging and shooting off of guns and bullets and the crime and violence will not fester while I am the minister of national security in my constituency. Because I will not be able to turn a blind eye to wherever the pockets are.”

Leacock pointed to a particular community that carries a reputation, but he did not identify the community, saying, “they know who they are”.

“Because if you’re going to feel like that is your chosen way of life, then I have a job as the Minister of National Security that people can put their heads to rest at night. People can close their stores, they can leave their windows half open and have a night’s rest, because they are not going to be violated by any sense of deviant behaviour. So, I’m making that general appeal. Put the guns down,” Leacock said.

Leacock said that while statistics showed a reduction in homicides over the past two years, the crime situation is not good.

He commended those who played a role in the lower homicide rate, whether at the political level, in law enforcement, or through soft power.

“… there’s an uncanny peace in the country at the moment from those who are still determined to disrupt the lives in St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” Leacock said.

He said he had been receiving reports from local law enforcement and in constant contact with the Regional Security System.

“And I will not hesitate. I will not hesitate, because no criminal element — gangs — must be allowed to own any square inch of St Vincent and the Grenadines, or have the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines living in fear, because they are determined to have their own way,” Leacock said on NBC Radio.

Leacock said he was not suggesting that a heavy-handed approach to physical crime-fighting and military assets will, by itself, solve the problem.

He said, instead, that all-hands-on-deck involvement at the national level offers greater prospects for a sustained solution.

Leacock commended NBC for playing a leading role in using “soft power” in crime-fighting efforts.

“And I have to applaud publicly, Dionne John, your manager, for taking the ball and running,” he said.

“And I’m so happy and enthused when I listen to NBC Radio applying soft power in the promotions, the jingles, in the infomercials that you have started with young children appealing to their dad, their uncle, their father, their brother, to stay away from prison because they want them around to be part of their upbringing.

“And there’s also one of us who went to life in prison, and basically saying prison life is not nice,” he said.

Leacock invited other media houses, organisations, community groups and individuals to come up with creative ways to contribute to the anti-crime campaign.

“And the whole nation will be behind us, applying soft power. We can get somewhere. So, we have to look around us and find all of the influences in society,” Leacock said.

He said such influences may be in sports, culture, music, dance, the church, in schools, at workplaces, or other aspects of our social life.

“Whoever feels that they can make a recording or an appeal or a contribution to say like there’s another way they are welcome to join the application of soft power,” Leacock said.

He restated his view that if the “whole nation speaks and speaks as a collective, in one loud voice, then we will not have, we can get a result”.