So Much Pain: Crime and Murder in Antigua

Antigua Barbuda is a small, close-knit society with close social ties. Crime and especially murder have a devastating effect on the entire psyche, security, freedom and social environment of the society. Therefore, immediate action is required. It is time to re-examine our plans for combating crime.

In this regard, I propose that government officials include the following elements in the discussions that should lead to the implementation of an effective plan for improved crime control.

There are three basic elements that officials must consider and address in any crime control plan in Antigua Barbuda. The first element to consider is based on informal reports from the prison that the vast majority of prisoners are repeat offenders with the figure being over 75%.

Prison officials must confirm the actual number. Recidivism is a major factor that government agencies must address in this reset of a crime-fighting plan.

The second element, which must also play an important role in designing crime management in Antigua Barbuda, concerns the geography of crime, the communities where most crime occurs and where most criminals live.

Once again, informal police reports suggest that communities around St. John’s within a five to seven mile radius of the city center are the focus of criminal activity, with over 75% of criminal activity taking place. Once again, police must confirm the true geography of criminal activity.

The third element of criminal activity that government agencies must consider relates to the social characterization of criminals in Antigua Barbuda.

Informal reports also indicate that criminals in Antigua generally come from single-parent families with overburdened mothers, absent fathers with little control over the household, tend to be heavy drug users often involved in drug trafficking or gangs, tend to be young with little education and skills, no stable employment or religious involvement, and many show signs of psychosis due to illicit drug abuse and significant levels of social alienation.

The youth of many criminals indicates that much of the criminal activity in Antigua and Barbuda is social in origin but criminal in execution.

With these crime patterns in mind, the following elements should be considered in any new crime control plan.

The first element has to do with law enforcement intelligence gathering, patrol surveillance. Obviously, the police with community and military support need to conduct foot and motorcycle patrols in the communities within that 7-mile radius of downtown St. John where most crimes occur, and establish maximum standard response times for arriving at the scene of a crime.

This can be achieved by basic geometric calculations within each team patrol zone. The public should be aware of this standard reaction time.

Police must also have and train informants and undercover intelligence gatherers to infiltrate gangs and gang activities and disrupt criminal activity before it happens.

The police must conduct intensive searches and stop the activities in this crime hotbed area day and night. By gathering intelligence, criminals can be targeted more effectively.

In addition to the human patrol, electronic surveillance cameras with high night resolution should be installed on every street, at every exit and at every entrance in the neighborhoods surrounding the company premises. Also, citizens should be given tax exemptions if they install surveillance cameras on their homes, with at least one camera point on the street in front of their property.

The government should approach friendly governments for the supply of these cameras.

All highways in Antigua and Barbuda should have multiple CCTV cameras so that vehicles can be tracked. Police stations in the various communities should also increase their night and day patrols in the communities. Residents should be encouraged to install CCTV and gather intelligence, as criminals from rural areas often migrate to the cities. This will allow for the sharing of information and the tracking of criminals.

In order to improve the management of recidivism, as repeat offenders make up a large proportion of crime in Antigua Barbuda, it is proposed that Parliament amend the law to add an additional three years of electronic tracking of criminals after they have served their prison sentence.

Every criminal would be required to wear an electronic GPS bracelet for three years after release, with a curfew from 7pm to 6am.

As part of this tracking program and as part of the rehabilitation program, the prison farm is to be expanded to three times its size with mini-feeders for sheep, goats, ducks, rabbits, pigs, chickens, honey and lime coal production, as well as a carpentry shop for chairs, desks, kitchen cabinets and a tailor shop for making uniforms. These will complement the vegetable crops, fruit trees and fodder components of the farm.

Individuals participating in the three-year tracking program should be given priority, along with inmates in prison, in finding work on the prison farm.

The idea is to break the pattern of crime and provide released prisoners with skills training, employment and self-reliance opportunities, as well as skills training for self-employment.

The fourth element is enhanced border control at official border crossings, both air and sea ports, but also increased patrolling of known smuggling points for drugs, weapons and illicit consumer goods, particularly in the areas of Jolly Harbour, Friars, English Harbour, Falmouth, Crabbes and Willikies and Brown Bay. This will involve the use of drone technology to support all surveillance activities, including its use by maritime patrols.

Increase surveillance and punishment of JUMPING Good citizens who sponsor crime and criminality in the areas of drug trafficking, money laundering and arms trafficking should be a key part of the plan.

The question of who should supervise the Guard should be answered by the establishment of a high-level advisory body, similar to the Jamaican Crime Oversight Committee, with members drawn from academia, civil society and politics. This body would oversee the effectiveness and efficiency of the crime control programmes.

The fifth element of this revision of the plan for combating crime has to do with the social aspect. Many of the criminal elements start as social problems in households with overburdened mothers, absent fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, godfathers and absent church or religious institutions, community leaders and elders.

The degeneration of the social and societal umbrella so necessary in guiding and training children and especially young boys who are left rudderless, dropping out of school, taking drugs, developing psychoses, having no sense of GOD and divinity, impotence at a young age, advanced aging and paranoia, with limited skills in conflict resolution and making money, creates a supply line of criminals and woman abusers who have violence as their only option in resolving conflicts.

In this regard, there is an urgent need for a national census, starting in the communities surrounding the work area, to identify juvenile delinquency, at-risk youth and overburdened mothers. Targeted programs are put in place to help these households, these children and these parents immediately.

In every community, social councils should be established, consisting of church officials, teachers, health workers, social workers, sports leaders and community role models.

These social community councils should provide and share information and manage community programs aimed at mentoring, supporting, encouraging and teaching young people social skills, including conflict resolution skills. They should also reduce drug abuse, violence and the early sexualization of our young people.

Churches should be encouraged to organize outreach programs and activities to support and engage the youth. Sports leaders should be trained and supported to provide sports opportunities and options. School leaders should be encouraged to provide educational support to enhance the mental and academic development of our children.

Given the rise in drug abuse and the clear impact that drug abuse has on the mental, social, and productive well-being of youth and workers in society, and the fueling of illicit drug trafficking and gang conflict, serious consideration should be given to the recent release of marijuana and whether it is having unintended consequences, such as legitimizing its use among youth and leading to increased harder drug and alcohol abuse.

Religious exceptions may also be part of this evaluation.

The sixth and final element has to do with a direct focus on anti-gang, anti-drug trafficking, anti-arms trafficking, anti-money laundering programs. Gangs need to be addressed directly as a direct element of this program, as well as arms trafficking, drug importation and smuggling. Gangs, drugs and guns have been shown to be the single largest source of homicide in most countries.

A UWI professor noted that if it were not for the negative economic impact of crime, Jamaica would have had the same level of development as today’s Singapore.

Crime not only destroys and inflicts suffering on family members, but it also robs the nation of economic agents who die too young or sit in prison without producing anything. Crime also robs the nation of potential skilled athletes, academic officials, and quality husbands and fathers.

Every murder that is committed is the loss of a loved one, and every murderer who commits murder is also the loss of a loved one. There are no winners in crime and criminality, no winners in murder.

As a society, we need to continue to follow the old rules: knowing where your children are, setting rules and controls, getting help when you can’t cope, good neighbors who help a child who goes astray, providing lunch and dinner, a safe place for homework and support, taking children to church, all those traditional community activities that build social bonds and strong social capital. And we need to strengthen them even more.

Some parents, mothers and fathers need help raising their children. As a community we need to make sure that we provide that help. Fathers are especially guilty of not only not paying child support but also not spending time educating and mentoring their children.

Young girls need to stop the fetish of choosing ‘bad men’. They claim that they are exciting and that men should distance themselves from them and not marry fathers who will not raise their children.

Unfortunately, sometimes you have to deal with individuals who have lost so much of their humanity that they are better off feeding the worms six feet deep.

As a society crime is everyone’s business, let us discuss these issues and push our government to take decisive action with regular reports on the implementation and success of a reset of criminal governance in Antigua Barbuda. For whom does the bell toll? The bells toll for each and every one of us.