Where are the guns coming from and why is the crime situation escalating? That was a question posed by Senator Julian Francis Tuesday night on Star Fm.
Senator Francis said to him there are various reasons.
“It is known in St Vincent and the Grenadines that men who sell weed and other drugs sometimes when buyers are low on cash they pay for it in guns and ammunition”.
Francis said that is something we know about, and also the police know about it.
“They have been trying (the Police) to get involved and see how best they can stop it, but as the Prime Minister said this country is full of inlets and bays”.
Francis said it is just not possible to have sufficient coast guard vessels and workforce to police all these bays and inlets on a regular basis.
“ I think it is acceptable that many of these guns come through this area”.
He said we have come to realise there are gangs in and around the country.
“ There is gang warfare, and out of it, friends get kill and then there is revenge taken, and the easy way to get rid of them these days is to pull a gun and shoot them”.
Francis said there is a turf war; “ this is my neck of woods you better not cross it, don’t come in here, one of my members get shot, I come back shoot somebody else.”
The Minister said that government had invested heavily into the police force by increasing the numbers and the training.
“ There are more vehicles and more guns at the police disposal, you see them on the road, but they tell me out there have bigger guns than police”.
He said there are some criminal elements in the society and that the last time there was an upsurge, was at the disappearance of a large stash of cocaine, and every weekend someone was getting shot.
Again Francis said what the cause of it? These are criminal activities, weed, cocaine; then you have the gangs operating turf war.
“ One of the things you have to see in this is that persons who are being shot are not innocent persons, they are involved one way or the other”.
There has not been a lot of shooting where innocent persons have been killed.
“ Normal Vincentians going about their lives are not fearful of this, from the point of view that they will die, they may get kill by a stray bullet, but the shooting is not intended for innocent persons”.
Francis said the shooting that is going on today is designed for individuals of a particular clique, whether gang or otherwise.
https://www.stvincenttimes.com/crime/man-shot-and-killed-in-kingstown/
