Tag Archives: crime plan

My close friends are worried for the safety of commentators on violent crime. In my case, they firmly believe that I have done enough in analysing the untouched core of criminal activity. At that core, regardless of which political party is in government, is the troubling intersection of party politics, …

“Assholes!” Bobby shouts after the two half-naked young men as they fly around and past us like a speeding bus on Monday morning. And after one last, long look at the bare disappearing backs of the boy bandits, he resumes our interrupted conversation in his normal voice. “Which is also …

“There is no avoiding the fact that public confidence in the Police and police legitimacy is essential. We recognise that, in many cases, the lack of trust between the Police and the community constrains effective crime intervention. “We are aiming at improving police accountability, re-establishing trust and credibility between the …

A reader, who enjoys the historical perspective contained in many of these columns, asked me recently whether there is a program that I use to source those of my columns written many years ago. The answer is that as a weekly columnist writing in the information age for 21 years, …

What do the deaths of the siblings Faith Peterkin, 10; Arianna Peterkin, 14; Shane Peterkin, 17; and Tiffany Peterkin, 19, have to do with our national budget? Does the death of Shazade Simon, the three-year-old who suffered burns in a cooking-related accident, have any relevance to our budget discussions? What about …

In a column published 20 years ago, in mid-May 2003, I described the subject of crime as priority numbers one, two, three, four, five and six. The column went on to identify to which aspect of crime each of the numbers related. Number one was, of course, the murder rate. …

There is a discernible season, which commences on Independence Day on 31 August and ends when the annual National Awards Ceremony takes place on the evening of Republic Day on 24 September, which falls next Sunday. That period may be categorised as a season because it characterized by certain events …

“[…] Earlier this year, National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds said that 25,000 citizens have licensed firearms. Some will therefore face circumstances in which they feel compelled to use them. “What’s absent from the conversation is situational risk assessment. It’s an important part of discussions about armed engagement, but it’s easy …

The latest responses of the current Government and the Commissioner of Police to the crippling wave of murder and violent crime are the lame products of two decades of denial and a current desperation to say anything that will deflect the pressing questions about crime. The hard but unpleasant truth …

The Roman Emperor, Nero, is said to have fiddled while Rome burned. His alleged conduct passed into common parlance to mean “not dealing with a difficult or dangerous situation but instead doing useless things or pretending nothing is wrong”. In our current situation, fiddling with runaway violent crime includes the …

We all know the idiom “chickens come home to roost”, which means the consequences of wrongdoing always catches up with the wrongdoer. In the past two weeks, this expression has materialised in our country. The new spate of crime witnessed is the fruit of our actions over several decades. Passions …

“[…] Both parties have now dug their heels in, and would regard any compromise on this matter as a sign of weakness and incompetence. They are playing to the gallery. “Where does the national interest feature in this soap opera? […]” The following Letter to the Editor on the need for …