Caricom on warpath against spiraling crime

Mar 04, 2024 News

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– urges stiffer penalties for repeat offenders to enforce Caricom arrest warrant 

Kaieteur News – CARICOM Heads have reiterated their commitment to taking strong actions against spiraling crime across the region and have given the all-clear for the implementation of a region-wide arrest warrant.

The issue came up for discussion during the just concluded Caricom summit held here. At the closing press conference, Grenada’s Prime Minister, Dickon Mitchell highlighted the gravity of the situation, stating that crime, violence, and public safety are matters of fundamental importance to CARICOM as a whole. He stressed that while governments play a crucial role, combating these challenges require the active participation of all citizens. “We have some per capita alarming statistics, per capita homicide, killing of our people, particularly our young people. It’s something we cannot be proud of in marking our 50th Anniversary of CARICOM,” he noted.

In reaffirming the right to freedom of expression and to public speech, CARICOM Heads of Government strongly condemned the development, presence, tolerance, or acceptance of violent, anti-social music and social media content that denigrate women and encourage or promote or support the use of violence, guns, and other anti-social behaviours, particularly targeted to youths. The Grenadian PM stated, “We recognised the profound importance of public safety… despite all of the hard work whether it’s on free movement of people, integrated economic cooperation, the work on the capital markets, the risk we face on climate change and our efforts to address this…all of this can be undone if we do not address this style of crime and violence.”

Mitchell advocated for stronger enforcement measures to disrupt criminal activities, including seizing criminal assets to prevent profiteering. One key initiative that was disclosed by Mitchell is the implementation of a Caribbean arrest warrant to prevent criminals from evading justice by crossing borders within the community. He urged all CARICOM member states to ramp up their efforts to ensure swift ratification of this measure.

He said, “As it stands now someone is wanted in Trinidad and Tobago and finds themselves in Grenada or Barbados, it is extremely difficult for law enforcement to apprehend and return them on the simple basis that they may not have been wanted in Barbados or Grenada for any crime.” Prime Minister Mitchell continued, “And so we need to make sure that criminals understands that we will not tolerate them moving from island to island within the community, to escape the consequences of their…”

The Prime Minister’s remarks underscored the sobering reality of professional criminals operating across the Caribbean, necessitating a unified response from regional leaders. CARICOM Heads of Government said they are committed to working with all sectors and institutions, including civil society, academia, labour, churches, our creative law enforcement, the judiciary, political parties, employers and businesses, and external partners to implement all of the measures set out in the Declaration on Crime and Violence as a Public Health Safety Issue.

Moreover, PM Mitchell called for a balanced approach to sentencing and bail, highlighting the need to prevent repeat offenders from further endangering society. He said, “In relation to sentencing that often times are meted out to criminals or the fact that we have taken a very liberal and tolerant approach to granting bail to criminals who had multiple repeat charges.”

In addressing concerns about judicial independence, Mitchell clarified that effort to address sentencing and bail issues are not intended to interfere with the judiciary but are necessary to safeguard citizens’ rights to safety.  The CARICOM leader underscored, “The Caribbean civilization is founded upon yes the separation of powers, but the separation of powers cannot be taken to mean that the executive and the judiciary cannot engage…”

He added, “Pertaining to the need to address our sentencing approach or our approach to bail is not an attempt by heads to interfere with the judiciaries exercise of their right to ultimately determine a sentence, but it is a recognition that if we value life, if we value public safety…we cannot simply sit idly by and slowly walk into a situation where criminals have more rights than citizens and innocent victims.”

Mitchell stressed the importance of constructive engagement with the judiciary to ensure that they play their part in addressing the region’s crime and violence challenges.

“We can’t sit idly by as heads and watch criminals who are on bail commit crime and not say that this is a matter that needs to be address and so as heads we are very clear that talking and engaging with the judiciary is absolutely necessary if we are going to address this issue of criminality within the region, we cannot tolerate the situations where criminals commit multiple repeated offences and are let loose on our society,” Prime Minister Mitchell said.

 

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• CARICOM, crime, public, safety, violence

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