Burchall: Loose Guns, Tight Lips
[Written by Larry Burchall] The trial of the three men charged in the RAA shooting incident shows that the Bermuda Police Service (BPS) are on the ball when it comes to doing their Police work. The incident happened around Easter this year, and four months later, three men were charged and one was convicted.
Guilty, Not Guilty, or something in between. But one thing has not happened. The Prosecution have not produced the gun that was involved, nor has it yet been found. That happened with the gun involved in a previous but unrelated trial – that of Cervio Cox.
In May of this year, one man, Cervio Cox – but who was said to be involved with others – was found guilty and sentenced (seven years) for his involvement in a crime that involved the use of a gun. But, for that trial, the gun itself was not found or recovered by the BPS.
Taken together, Cox and the ‘RAA three’ makes at least four people, possibly two different guns, and a lot of sealed lips. Nobody talking about the guns. I would expect that any Bermudian criminal involved in gun crime would be silent about his gun-handling and the whereabouts of any gun – or guns in his domain. That is only to be expected.
The Italian Mafia, and some communities in Italy and Greece, are reputed to have a form of ‘Omerta’ – a code of silence that requires its people to be silent about all Mafia activities, or illegal activities that occur in their local community.
But do we have that in Bermuda? Do ten – twenty – perhaps a hundred – otherwise law-abiding Bermudian citizens also have an “Omerta” code of silence that seals their lips and therefore helps keep illegal death-dealing guns stay out there on the loose?
The eleven shooting deaths since May 2009; the general lack of recovery of guns by BPS; the non-recovery of the gun (or guns) involved in the Cox case and in this RAA case; all this says that there could be a twisted and reverse ‘Omerta’ code amongst some law-abiding Bermudians.
If anybody knows or suspects that some person has a gun – and we all know that’s illegal – surely that person ought to get that information to the BPS. Surely, that person – you or your friend or your family member – ought to realize that in this case “loose lips” is better than “loose guns”. That “tight lips” means that guns stay loose and that a loose gun will do what guns are perfectly and specifically designed to do. Kill. Maybe, as has already happened once this year, kill a completely innocent person.
Maybe even kill the person who could have loosened his (her) lips and gotten that gun off the street?
