IN THE constantly changing criminal landscape in our Caribbean region, Jamaica has recently been pointing to comparative declines in murder rates and criminality in general, while some other CARICOM partner states are desperately struggling against a rising epidemic of murders and gang-related robberies and violence. It had become almost routine to lump Jamaica as head of some five major centres of criminality — the others being Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Bahamas and St. Lucia, in that order.
As of last week, Trinidad and Tobago was under a partial state of emergency — from 9pm  to 5am — against a backdrop of 265 reported murders, gang violence and armed robberies that had citizens in a state of panic, including the capital, Port-of-Spain.
This coming Friday, the nation’s parliament will debate the proclamation issued for the state of emergency under which, according to the police and the Ministry of National Security, major gains have been achieved in the battles against narco-trafficking, gun-running and gang-related murders, violence and robberies.
Across in St. Lucia — which, like Jamaica and Barbados, depends quite heavily on  the tourism sector for economic growth — National Security Minister Guy Mayers was declaring on Thursday (Aug.25) that while monitoring developments in Trinidad and Tobago, the government in Castries had come “quite close” to imposing a state of emergency as it intensifies its anti-crime fight.
However, according to Minister Mayers, the government was particularly sensitive about “sending the wrong signal” to foreign tourists on whom St. Lucia’s tourism industry was heavily dependent.

Contrasting scenarios
Perhaps Mayers may have expediently forgotten that Jamaica, as one of the principal tourism destinations of the Greater Caribbean, has had to face the challenges of implementing in the national interest, as necessary, limited curfews in parishes and even sections of its capital, Kingston, when confronted with waves of  terrifying criminality.
In the circumstances, therefore, it would have been with an unmistakable sense of satisfaction when the government and police authorities in Jamaica recently reported an estimated 42 per cent drop in murders in a country where there had been some 426 murders for the first quarter of this year, as well as an estimated overall 15 per cent decline in criminality in general.
For years, Jamaica has had to cope with the unflattering burden as the ‘murder capital’ of the western hemisphere, on a per capita. Now it appears to be overcoming that stigma, so painful to its imaginative efforts to boost its vital tourism industry.
In contrast, just days prior to last week’s imposition of a state of emergency, Trinidad and Tobago — long an unwilling competitor to Jamaica in murders,  narco-trafficking and armed robberies — was reporting 263 murders for the year, but sought to take some comfort in the fact that they were 62 less than the same period for 2010.
And in Barbados, once the reputed ‘pastoral society’ of Caribbean Community states,  its Police Commissioner, Darwin Dottin felt obliged to make a public appeal against “panicking” over the rising incidents of gun-related murders and robberies.
Dottin’s “stay-calm” message of August 7 was prompted by a crescendo of calls via the established print and electronic media as well as internet bloggers, to “hang the killers.”

Media calls
The Barbados ‘Daily Nation’ was quick to editorially advise that while the fears and concerns of citizens were understandable, “popping necks” of convicted killers has not proven to be an effective deterrent to the crime of murder. Jamaicans, like Trinidadians and Guyanese, have long been exposed to such unsolicited counselling.
However, determined to restore public confidence with new initiatives in the Barbados Police Force’s battle against serious gun-and-gang-related crimes, Commissioner Dottin announced a fortnight ago a new policy on issuing of licences for the holding of ‘fetes’ where  apart from very loud music, they have become a recurring source of problems to public order and used for illegal activities.
That announced initiative was to gain a quick endorsement from a very experienced Coroner, Faith Marshall-Harris, as she delivered a ‘guilty verdict’ in an inquest involving the killing of a man at one such ‘fetes’.
The Barbados ‘Nation’, in expressing support for the new and more tough-approach anti-crime policy being pursued by the police, noted that perhaps “an appropriate meaningful response by the public would be a commitment to regularly cooperate with the police.”
For its part, the Guyana Sunday Chronicle, in dealing editorially with the menacing spread of criminality across the region, urged new approaches regionally, saying that perhaps the time had come for a special strategising meeting by CARICOM Ministers of National Security and Police Commissioners.
“While, at times, they have had their separate regional meetings,” said the Chronicle, “in view of the prevailing serious crime epidemic, consideration should be given to a special brain-storming or strategizing conference of the region’s top-cops and ministers responsible for crime and security…”