BARBADIANS ARE FORTUNATE enough to be able to take a reasonable measure of comfort in the fact that they experience a far lower level of crime than other countries nearby and worldwide.
However, this relative state of social well-being should not in any way seduce them into being either complacent or arrogant.
For since we have long gone past the naive times when we could say and even believe that certain things could and would not happen here, we need to continue to be ever on our guard to move early to stamp out practices that are way outside of the nature of traditional types of crime.
It is in this vein then that Barbadians should sit up and take careful notice of several recent murders in which the cold-blooded and careful method of killing have carried certain characteristics not generally seen in typical killings. These emerging methods smack of what could probably best be called contract killings, more so since they reportedly did not feature the overt inter-human conflict which customarily forms the basis of most disagreements that end in death and murder.
So that in order to prevent such occurrences from taking root and becoming a trend that, if unchecked could lead to a new norm, the public at large need to cooperate most fully with our law enforcement agencies, whose professional commitment has been responsible for our comparatively high state of safety and security.
But our crime fighters, no matter how well trained or committed they might be, still have to heavily depend on civic minded Barbadians to provide them with high quality information that very often makes the big difference in solving crime.
In considering the question of passing on information to the police authorities, people have to rid themselves of the antiquated notion that doing so amounts to “snitching” – the false code of honour that far too often prevents otherwise decent and law-abiding citizens from contributing to the anti-crime effort for fear of being an “informant”.
It is our view that the overall good of the community that includes people’s families and friends, far exceeds adherence to the questionable morality that is bound up in the choice to withhold information that could prove vital in bringing people to justice, particularly when it involves murder, universally considered one of the most heinous acts.
The obligation to provide the police with information has in recent years been made far easier with the setting up in Barbados of a branch of Crime Stoppers, information contribution to which has been made exceedingly more secure and confidential because of the technological and other safeguards.
Barbadians can therefore have no valid excuse for failing to play their part in making the solution of crime everybody’s personal and societal responsibility and obligation.
