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National Green Party (NGP) leader Andre ‘Pancho’ de Caires has cautioned against adopting what he described as ‘band-aid’ solutions to this country’s violent crime problem.
“The main problem is that there is easy access to firearms,” de Caires observed, referencing the recent multiple murders in Vieux Fort.
But he questioned whether the solution was merely getting rid of guns.
“I remember maybe 20 years ago, before there were so many firearms, there were choppings,” the NGP leader observed.
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As a result, he declared that the cutlass would replace the gun.
“The real problem is conflict resolution and anger management in this country. And this stems from a lack of education, the lack of male role models in our society, single parent households, or young men being raised with no parents whatsoever. Absolutely no guidance,” de Caires asserted.
He explained that the people surrounding young criminals protect them rather than report them to the authorities.
“Many of these young men have absolutely no value for life as they see no pathway of upward social mobility for themselves. As a result, life has no meaning. They don’t care for their lives, and as a result, they don’t care for anybody else’s life. Therefore it’s nothing for them just to take a life,” the NGP leader said.
“It will take a whole generation to change the mindset of these youths when we consider the images on their televisions, on their PlayStations, the lyrics in the music that they listen to, all these subliminal influences contribute to the mindset that these young men have,” de Caires told St Lucia Times.
“Removing all guns from this street will definitely have a great impact as well as a much increased police presence . But these are just band-aid solutions for a much deeper problem that we have here. And this disease is taking over the whole Caribbean, with murder rates rising in almost every territory in CARICOM,” he stated.
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The NGP leader declared that no magic bullet exists to solve the problem.
But he said the authorities need to start somewhere, adding that removing guns from the streets and increasing the police presence are steps in the right direction.
“We also believe that well-trained mediation teams that could intervene in disputes that have the potential to get violent could also have an impact,” de Caires told St Lucia Times.
” But we are out of time and must act now. We as a society need to check ourselves, and our behavior, as the young ones are looking at us as examples,” the NGP leader explained.
Headline photo: Stock image.
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