Ex-Commissioner On Gang Violence
Former Police Commissioner Jonathan Smith today (Dec.9) said the gang culture is becoming engrained in Bermudian society and he encouraged Government to pursue a major cross-Ministry initiative aimed at both identifying at-risk young people and preventing them from drifting into crime
In a presentation to the Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on Crime, Mr. Smith said while beefed-up policing was clearly necessary given the recent spike in deadly gang-related violence, Bermuda also needed to examine and address the social roots of the problem.
“A huge amount of work is already being done in many areas of risk assessment and risk-focused prevention,” he said. “There are hundreds of dedicated professionals working in the education system, others as social workers, financial assistance, speech and language pathologists, and behavior modification specialists – the list goes on. Hundreds doing the work; it’s costing us millions – but is it working with optimum results? I’m inviting the Committee to consider this: is all of this work as results-focused as it needs to be? If it is, then why have we had 35 murders in 11 years? Why do gangs attract more of our (mostly) young men? Why is the conventional belief that this is all getting worse, not better? Why are disputes being settled with bullets and not words?
“We have one significant advantage in Bermuda over the research done elsewhere. Every high-risk boy between, for example, the ages of 8-10 – and younger – is known – by first name, last name and nick-name. We know where each boy goes to school, we know which junior football team he might be on, where he lives and many of these boys will already be ‘known to the system’ somewhere and exist in the database of one Ministry or another. It’s my view that we must execute, with laser precision, suitable prevention programmes to deliberately target those families and individuals at the highest risk and then measure the success of that intervention over time.”
Mr. Smith, Bermuda’s Police Commissioner from 2000 to 2005, said it was “critically important” to drive a crime reduction initiative over multiple Government Ministries and partner agencies and any such strategy should legislatively bind participants to achieve results.
“Because of the link between offending and numerous other social problems, any measure that succeeds in reducing crime will probably have benefits that go far beyond this,” he said. “Early prevention that reduces offending would probably reduce drinking, drunk driving, drug use, sexual promiscuity and family violence and perhaps school failure, unemployment and marital disharmony.”
Mr. Smith said the collateral damage the gang culture was having on Bermudian society was now evident in all areas of the community.
“In addition to the murders and attempted murders, there are several hundred firearm-related incidents under investigation,” he said. ”I don’t think any of us here today need any shock treatment – but there’s little else that these statistics tell us other than graphically illustrate the escalation of gang violence – most of it gun violence. The numbers are so numbing; most of us have actually lost count. The Police describe the current violent crime wave as ‘factional warfare.’
“The gang problems and escalation of firearm violence has not only intensified; it has become engrained. There are dozens of families in trauma; many others live in fear. The sociological impact – of which you’ve already heard – is enormous.”
Mr Smith said while there is still much work to be done, “we are starting to see the effects of the sustained combination of witness cooperation, technical and forensic evidence and investigative efforts resulting in an increasing number of suspects appearing in Court charged with gun-related crime, and convictions.”
None of this guys proposals will it implicated, messing with the criminal elements on this island does not just mean with one indivial person at a time. For every person arrested how many family and friends come out of the woodwork claiming what a great person he is and how he’s turing his life around. For the PLP it risks potentially loseing votes. The PLP puts being in power far above the welfare of Bermutdian society.
Agreed NOFX: We are in this crime mess because the PLP made the decision some years ago to adopt a Policy of Co-Existence with the Gangs…and this policy has now blown-up in their faces. I think it’s a fair assessment and we need to remind people that this act was one of treachery. They created this mess by looking the other way in the hopes the gangs would simply keep to themselves and also self-police themselves. They, the PLP looked the other way because too many of their supporters were making too much money in the drug trade. This policy of Co-Existence has led to Bermuda becoming a gangstaa paradise.
All this coming from the guy who said the we don’t have gangs but we have loosely organized groups! Got to be looking for a seat in the house!
That’s what I thought to is this guy trying to get into politics?
Johnathan Smith was a pretty slack Commissioner. Pretty empty words coming from him. They need someone like ‘Penny’ Bean running the show.
I don’t think the current gang bosses play tennis like they did in Penny’s time.
Sorry peeps but this was a problem long before PLP came into power but no one wanted to admit that gangs existed so it’s a Bermuda problem. PLP included! I hate when things become political..which is everything!
Sorry sunshine, but before the PLP gun violence erupted maybe once or twice a year (or are you too young to remember that). Today gun violence is errupting almost daily. So how can to imply that the intensity of the “problem” is the same?