In a short Freedom radio interview with Prime minister and Minister of National Security, the honorable Dr Timothy Harris on Thursday morning, Dr Harris offered condolences to the families who lost loved ones in the recent Cotton Ground double murder and gave assurances that the government will not throw up its hands or surrender in face of these senseless killings. Dr Harris pointed out that the government continues to make record investment into providing financial and technical assistance to the security forces in St. Kitts-Nevis. However, in order to win this battle, each and every one of us must fight for each other – so that our society can regain a safe footing – rather than against one another.
Doing the latter – fighting against one another – results in carnage on the streets while doing the former – fighting for each other – entails fostering collaborative community relations, where after-school and other recreational activities, community policing efforts, job training and placement, neighbourhood watch teams and social programs that provide rehabilitation for offenders, as well as the counselling, mentoring and monitoring of at-risk and marginalized youths will take centre stage.
This will require hard work by everyone from parents to pastors to police officers to politicians and principals, and from the young to the middle-aged and the elderly.
What I have outlined are elements of an engaging approach that will captivate the attention of the people – predominantly young men – who use guns, knives and other weapons to resolve disputes and end up being held captive in return by the machismo code of the streets, which makes them live in a perpetual state of crisis.
Dr Harris traced the socio-economic and political milieu that have given rise to joblessness and disenchanted youth, and challenged all stakeholders to come on board and fight crime. When asked about the strategy to find solutions to feuding gangs that are targeting each other and driving gun related crimes and murders in an upward spiral, prime Minister Harris says the government will put the police and army in the crime hot spots and has not ruled out bringing in the RSS and the FBI.