PDM Press Statements

Crime and Violence Among Our Youth

The PDM believes that the Roosevelt Skerrit Administration should blame nobody but itself for the increased crime and violence among the youth of our country today. Two years ago the Administration turned its back on sound advice as to how to bring the situation under control. Now, it would seem, the chicken have come home to roost.

In late 2006 concerned organizations throughout the country as well as individuals were calling for dialogue and consultation on the problem. And they were making recommendations as to how to move forward. What did government do?

Instead of taking the advice seriously they chose to play cheap politics. They looked at the next elections rather than on the future of Dominica and its people. They were afraid to accept that we had a problem that needed immediate action. They thought that any such action would drive the youth away from Labour and they would lose young voters at the next election. You know how important the youth votes has been since the voting age was lowered to 18 years!

So, government set out to fool the people into believing that there was not really a problem of crime and violence and that what was taking place had to do with a tiny section of the youth population. And that the greater majority were law-abiding and a credit to our country.

They, then, accused those concerned about the crime situation with being unfair to the youth and called on them to stop being negative and focus, instead, on the positive things young people were doing all over the country. What all this boiled down to was this: to capture the youth vote, they were prepared to sweep the problem under the carpet.

Now, Prime Minister Skerrit is singing a different tune. Two murders and a suicide in a week. He is now shouting that the police cannot do it alone. Now he is calling on the people to pass on information about criminal activity to the police. He is now reminding wrong-doers that the death penalty is still in the books. He is now talking about people’s right to be safe in their homes and on the streets. He is now lecturing about the increase in size of the Police Force, about all the vehicles the Force now has and about a new patrol boat being built in the US and paid for by President Chavez that will soon become part of our national security.

Two years after rejecting out of hand that we had a problem of youth crime and violence Prime Minister Skerrit is now reading the riot act. He is reading it to persons who, in our opinion, must have been encouraged to turn violent and engage in criminal activity because of his failure to confront the problem when he should, in fact, have done so.

In March 2006 we in PDM told the nation that the time had come to address the rising tide of youth crime in our country. We said the problem was everybody’s business. The family. The school. The church. The community as a whole. The social club. The society as a whole. But we also said that Government should take the lead and set the direction. You know how everyone in Dominica these days is an expert. So, we said that the problem was much more complex than the population imagined. And it was more serious than Government was prepared to admit. The problem, we said, should not be left to those not trained to deal with it. We said loudly and clearly: “…Let the experts do what they are equipped to do.” And we reminded Government of the consultation called by the Pierre Charles Administration three years earlier to address the problem.

Most importantly, we called on Government to take four (4) steps on the way to solving the problem:

  1. Appoint a three-man team of Dominicans namely, a sociologist, a psychologist and a criminologist to do as follows:
    (i) investigate the current rise in violent and crime among our youth;
    (ii) identify the root causes;
    (iii) offer solutions and
    (iv) make recommendations as to what each stakeholder might do to implement these solutions.
  2. Circulate the findings of this research team for comments from as many groups, organizations and individuals as possible.
  3. Convene a national consultation to discuss a blueprint for action.
  4. Formulate a Comprehensive Policy on Youth Crime and Violence based on this blueprint for action.

Instead of listening Government shut its ears. In particular, Minister Ambrose George came out and said we were crying wolf. The situation was not as bad as we made it out to be. Never mind that Bishop Malzaire had called on Government to take the thing seriously. Never mind that he had set up his own Commission on crime and violence. As far as the Skerrit administration was concerned, we were making a mountain out of a mole hill.

So, Minister-of-State Blackmore took center stage. First, he proclaimed himself to be a criminologist. Then, using some magical formula and mysterious logic he said that the rate of crime and violence among our youth was, infact, not increasing. And he called on the nation not to be too concerned.

Now, government’s slackness has come back to haunt them. Now, two years later, crime and violence amongst the youth has gotten out of control. And, just like with the economy, Prime Minister Skerrit and his Government do not have a clue as to how to bring it under control. And day after day citizens are complaining.

PDM believes that the solution we proposed in March 2006 is even more necessary now. Four steps. Find out the root causes of the problems not by guesswork but by scientific research. Ask stakeholders for comments. Call a National Consultation to map out a plan of action. Implement that plan of action. That is where PDM stood in March 2006. That is where we stand today.

William Para Riviere (Dr.)
Political Leader
February 2nd 2009

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