Young men feuding over drugs – PM

Most of the gun related crimes are being perpetrated by young men who are feuding over drugs and territory, among other things, but by and large, this country is a relatively safe place to live.

Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves shared this view on Monday at Cabinet Room during a press briefing and reiterated that the police{{more}} are doing all in their power to curb the incidents of crime, but they cannot fight the battle alone.

Gonsalves said that the murder rate spiked recently, with four murders in less than four hours and that incident was painful, but most of the other killings which have driven this country’s murder rate to 34 this year are drug related and being carried out by groups who have not yet solidified themselves into gangs and do killings as a sort of “tit for tat”.

“Some of it is generated on the basis of the rivalry…on the basis of some manipulating people for drugs…but others is just like territory, but all of it is senseless…you going to kill everybody till the last one of you standing?” questioned Gonsalves on Monday.

The Prime Minister said that these men must ask themselves what will happen to their children if they are not around, as a number of them have children.

“What you going to do? Bring about the loss of your life for some foolish vanity or some marginal gain of reputation or status? It is not even money, because to the extent that they are in any chain, they are in the low end of the chain, very low end”, Gonsalves said.

He added that the police made a presentation to Cabinet, during which they outlined additional things that they are doing to fight crime.

“Most of the crimes, and we are talking about crimes of violence ending with murder, involve young males. There are lot of institutions during a young male’s life which are critical; the first one of course is the family and mothers and fathers can’t just leave their children in an ill-disciplined manner and when they reach 14 or 15, say is not my problem, is Ralph problem,” said Gonsalves, who added that crime is everybody’s problem.

He noted that schools, churches, community groups, the police and law courts are all responsible for helping with crime, while he opined that a lot of the killings have nothing to do with the state of the economy.

“…there are a number of reasons, including greed, including territory and a number of other things with ridiculous vanity, so the analysis can’t be a simplistic one dimensional analysis; we all have a very important role to play from my standpoint,” said Gonsalves, who added that as the Prime Minister, he has to make sure that everything is in place to fight crime, including making sure the youths are involved in meaningful activities.

But, according to Gonsalves, despite what persons may think, there are many young men who are involved in meaningful activities.

“It is an ongoing challenge and none of us can be satisfied. There is an ongoing quest for a reduction in all of this violence.”(LC)