The St. Kitts-Nevis Chamber of Industry & Commerce is increasingly outraged at the level of criminality raging across the Federation. Our hearts go out to the family of Mrs. Arlene Liburd, brutally murdered while going about her daily business in support of other businesses. We sympathize with all the individuals and their families and the businesses that have been impacted in these acts of violence.
Every life matters! There have been more than 300 murders in the past 15 years, and over 50 in the last two years. This is one of the highest rates in the world.
Criminal activity is creating fear among our residents. It is threatening our tourism industry, our economy and negatively impacting all aspects of our lives.
We call on the government to buttress the resources made available to the security forces, including outside help, in crime detection. We call on the security forces to increase their efforts to get the criminals who have declared war on our society, off the streets.
We call on the community to cooperate with the police in their ongoing investigations so that appropriate action can be taken to apprehend those who show no regard for our citizens or our country.
We encourage our members to review the security measures used by their organizations and to take all additional steps within the law to protect their businesses and their employees.
This is a crisis. It should be dealt with by strong and immediate action.