TRADITIONALLY in Barbados there were three effective deterrent punishments: imprisonment with hard labour – every morning gangs of prisoners could be seen pulling carts on the way to cut stone in Codrington Quarry; flogging with various implements, including the cat-o’-nine tails; and hanging.
These worked remarkably well. Turning to crime had dire consequences. And, on the whole, Barbadians could feel safe in their homes and businesses, and on the highways
Sadly, all that has changed and is ever getting worse. Our Governments have caved in to misguided “human rights” activists whose only concern seems to be the welfare of vicious criminals. Prison, where cellphones and other amenities seem common, is now no big thing. Flogging has disappeared, an unpardonable mistake. And hanging hasn’t taken place since 1984.
No wonder more young people are turning to lives of crime and sadistic acts of cruelty rather than honest employment. For the message they’re getting seems to be:
“Hey, yutes, are you aware of today’s opportunities in crime? Do you know that under present legislation you can get a gun, load it, break into someone’s home and shoot the family. And you can’t be charged for murder unless the prosecution can prove ‘intent’?
“In today’s Barbados, you can rape and torture, kill and maim, and you will get the same exact punishment as a defaulting childfather or a loitering vagrant. True, you may be sentenced to a longer jail term. But, after you get into the life, five or ten years won’t feel much different.
“Yes, indeed, prison is all we can hit you with, no matter what the crime. But not the old-time hardwork prison. You will get to hear Jippy Doyle, learn skills, improve your mind. If you don’t like it, burn the prison down and we will build you a nicer one. If you do that, all we will give you is – more prison.
“But don’t worry. Chances are in a few years some smart-aleck lawyer will appeal on the grounds that the trial judge failed to highlight how your mother wouldn’t give you Timberline shoes until you were 16, a clear violation of your human rights. Whereupon their lordships might declare a mistrial and set you free!”
Fellow Barbadians, Dr DeLisle Worrell has pointed out that some economists just can’t seem to see economic nonsenses which are clear to everyone else. Could it be that our legally-trained attorneys general, judges and lawyers can’t see the farce our legal system has become?
So that more and more Bajans are wishing the police to execute summary justice? Or leave it to the citizens themselves?
For the last 26 years we have been allowed to believe the big white lie that we were trying our best but it was the white law lords up in England who were frustrating Barbadian justice. Now we realise Pratt and Morgan were really Slack and Talk-on, and we had the sovereign right all along to remove the stupid obstacles.
Let us tell this Government we have had enough. Let us Bajan citizens demand:
(1) That any law which calls murder during the course of a robbery “manslaughter” be repealed; (2) that Barbados withdraw from any Inter-American Convention which blocks hanging; (3) that an up to date gallows be erected at Dodds; (4) that flogging be reinstated for rape and similar offences; (5) that our senior police officers patch up their squabbles for the good of the force and the country.
For 26 years we have kowtowed to the abolish-its. We have gained nothing, but our reputation as a safe tourist destination has suffered badly. The criminals have taken advantage of our weakness to perpetrate ever more brutal acts of violence.
The drug trade which is destroying the very fabric of our society now seems almost unstoppable, here and worldwide. Ironically, the drug lords use the exact same punishments – physical pain and execution – that the gurus want to tell us don’t work as deterrents. And they work remarkedly well for them.
As we reflect on our recent tragedy this Friday, let us pray also for other families whose daughters have been savagely battered or killed by ruthless intruders.
Our “values”-consumed Attorney General will no doubt pontificate that the perpetrators will be brought to “justice” – meaning, some years at Dodds.
Trevor Eastmond, boy, yuh got competition.
• Richard Hoad is a farmer and social commentator.
