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Crime Root Goes Deeper – Man Said To Have Surrendered After Double Homicide

Image of P.M. Chastanet [PHOTO: Stan Bishop]

P.M.: ‘We All Have to Look In The Mirror.

A DOUBLE homicide in La Clery yesterday has got the month of February off to a rocky start, just like January.

There are no signs that the crime situation in the country is abating, creating concerns all around.

For many years now, finding the real root of crime seems to be an unattainable task for social planners and the political directorate. That unfortunate reality has led to many theories and finger-pointing. Even worse, the root seems to be digging deeper with even graver consequences.

Image of Prime Minister Allen Chastanet
Prime Minister Allen Chastanet

However, Prime Minister Allen Chastanet says that while government shares some responsibility for the social problems getting out of control, the wider society has dropped the ball in getting the community together by either showing indifference or allowing things to become worse.

“I feel concerned about this every day,” Chastanet said referring to the crime situation now having citizens on tenterhooks. “It’s not just the murders but also the break-ins that are taking place. I don’t want anybody to believe that I’m putting my head in a hole and thinking that it’s not a problem. It is a major problem and we’ve got to be able to combat it.”

Part of the problem, he said, stems from “something that has been building up for a while”, namely “three generations of girls under the age of 16 having children and by the time they’re 18 they have two and at 21 have three — by different fathers.”

“These girls are coming from an impoverished background where children are growing up without parents,” Chastanet said. “I want to be able to put tougher laws in place whereby young girls who have children under the legal age will be prosecuted as would their parents.”

Chastanet said the collective needs to take responsibility for bringing children up the right way because “it becomes our problem” if the system breaks down. He also believes that deviant behaviour is not solely linked to poverty but is also driven by a breakdown in values.

“So when there’s the breakdown of the family and spirituality combined with the fact that we don’t have enough after-school activities,” Chastanet said. “All of us have to look in the mirror and realize that we’re all paying the price for what’s going on.”

Chastanet said he was scheduled to meet with law enforcement officials this week to ascertain what measures could be adopted in the interim, including increasing police presence. In his budget presentation in a few weeks, he also intends to announce plans for the required social programmes as well as new legislation that relates to teenage pregnancy.

“We have got to stop this. This is really the root cause of a lot of our problems,” Chastanet said.

Chastanet said the main reason people join gangs is due to a breakdown in the family, resulting in “children who are growing up healthy physically but are void of any light in their lives and feel that society has turned its back on them” and a myriad of ensuing pressures.

The Prime Minister said he was also concerned at the alarming number of guns entering the country illegally, citing a lapse in the system due to the Coast Guard boats were down for a long time.

“We’ve now been able to get two boats back up and hoping to get another two back up as well as the radar system. When you look at the number of people being caught before they get here, the vast majority of people are coming to Saint Lucia. I think the criminals themselves are seeing that we are a weak link. Obviously, this is related in part to what’s been going on with (the fallout from) IMPACS, namely the loss of assistance from the U.S. But it’s showing a lack of commitment on our part,” Chastanet explained.

On Monday, three 16-year-old schoolboys were arrested and detained for allegedly assaulting a police officer stationed at Babonneau Police Station while he was intervening in an incident they were involved, a police press release said.

They were later charged as follows: EarltonPerineau of Monchy, Gros Islet with resisting lawful arrest, obscene language, assault and threatening words; Rashard Remy of MorneDudon, Castries and Gurshan James of La Croix Chaubourgh, Babonneau for disorder of causing obstruction or annoyance in a public place, resisting lawful arrest and assault. They were all granted bail to appear in court later.

The Royal Saint Lucia Police Force last night hosted its “Meet The Commissioner” town hall meeting in Babonneau at the community centre.

Residents of Babonneau and environs were invited to the meeting where they had the opportunity to meet the executive of the Royal St. Lucia Police Force and to voice their concerns and suggestions about crime and policing in their respective communities.

Meanwhile, Police are investigating the deaths of Jeffery ‘Shingay’ Arbella and his common-law-wife Sandrina Joseph, whose bodies were found with several stab wounds in their bedroom yesterday.
Police have given no motives for the double murder, but media reports here, had indicated that the couple had been threatened recently by an ex-boyfriend of Joseph, who was recently released from prison.

Photos being circulated on social media, show the woman’s body on the bed, half covered in a sheet, while her boyfriend’s body is on the floor beside the bed at their home in La Clery.

Joseph’s two children were not hurt during the incident. So far thirteen people have been murdered here since the start of the year.

There were reports circulating late yesterday that a man had turned himself to the police in connection with the killings.

Stan Bishop began his career in journalism in March 2008 writing freelance for The VOICE newspaper for six weeks before being hired as a part-time journalist there when one of the company’s journalists was overseas on assignment.

Although he was initially told that the job would last only two weeks, he was able to demonstrate such high quality work that the company offered him a permanent job before that fortnight was over. Read full bio...

6 Comments

  1. …….DON’T BE ALARMED,…….TAKE ACTION: amnesty for those who turn-in illegal guns by a set date,…..impose a curfew (..age and time matters)……..ban unsheathed cutlasses in public….implement social programs, including sex education………Now;…. deal with the sperm machines: women don’t get pregnant by themselves……..it is time fort the criminals feel the heat……destroy this diabolical hydra,…….NOW!!

    1. Mr pee mm again trying to cover up u bald us ass . It’s since to me the pee mm thinks that teenage girl takes a drug call sperms and push it up their nostrils and gets pregnant.

  2. Word to Mr Chastanet … the teen girls who get pregnant should NOT be prosecuted, but be educated and counseled. Those who should really be prosecuted are their parent(s) and the men (legally rapists) who put these young girls in these precarious situations.

  3. Hate to say it PM, you have it wrong. Why do you want to make a victim of the young female all over again? No Pm, prosecute those who impregnate her, with her as a material witness. However, you prosecute her if she fails to co-operate with the persecution of the one who impregnate her. If you talking about prosecuting parents then also prosecute the parent of the men involved, what whatever your premise for prosecuting the girls parents stand true for that of the male factor. What you also need to do is if the male factor is underage, or himself a school boy, you make it mandatory that until the age of accountability his parents contribute financially to the child’s upbringing. Also it becomes necessary that once he begins to work a percentage of his salary is secured by Government on behalf on the child. 1st for present child support, and secondly in trust for future education. Then you also make it mandatory that until the child reaches the age of accountability the liberty of the father to leave the country is severely restricted. If an adult at the time of impregnating the child a jail term that ensures that for the period until the child reaches the age of accountability. So he gets to work during the day but reports to the prisons every night for the next 21 years. (A special Prison should be built for such offenders). You also have them register in a sex offenders register. During his incarceration the wages earned are distributed (1) As with a underage child who impregnates a young girl 2. Maintenance of any other children he has 3. If he has a wife and family, his wife and family must be supported. 4. The state lays aside a percentage for him as a savings for when he gets out of prison, and lastly a percentage paid to the state for his upkeep in prison not more than 15% of what it TAKES TO KEEP HIM INCARCERATED!!! That would surely stem the tide of these underage pregnancies.

  4. Why would the Prime Minister want to prosecute young girls and not the men who impregnated them? This is bollocks. A crazy and senseless idea. I agree with the reply above that young girls need to be counseled. Why punish the victim? Surely the state and society bear some responsibility for this state of affairs. To call out families and victims, without understanding the impact of poverty (which the prime minister recognizes) is wrong headed. This is such a baffling response. Doesn’t the Prime Minister understand how poverty works? Are there no studies that someone in his government could apprise him of? Really this is no solution to the social problems that St. Lucia now faces.

  5. Very keen insight and proposed interventions from above bloggers …….
    but emperor Chas will need an off the island (say leased land from the Brazilians in deep Amazonia) ……Hey if the Malaysians can negotiate a Farthing an acre for horse manure at Cocodan for 99 :(years:(
    perhaps thru OAS and current warm ambiance with Brasilia we can negotiate affordable land lease in the Amazon to construct a large penal colony in exchange for landing rights and or finishing plants for their growing aircraft manufacturing hubs.
    An external sustainable penal colony is going to be needed to SERIOUSLY address the crime and judicial system “gout” and gangrene afflicting our nation.
    That “Holiday Inn” at Dennery has no deterrent appeal and is woefully inadequate for career criminals.
    It’s best use is as a holding pen for those awaiting trial……period.

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