Arming police under microscope
Aneka Edwards, Staff Reporter - Thursday, September 9th, 2010 at 9:05 AM
Arming law enforcement officers came under the microscope on Tuesday evening’s edition of “Speak Out BVI” hosted by Douglas Wheatley with residents recommending that officers need to be better equipped in order to properly protect the community.
Piggybacking on some of the comments made by other callers of the show relative to the arming of the Force, one caller said: “The officers in the United Kingdom (UK) might not be routinely armed but they have other equipment that they use such as tasers, mase and mandatory vest that they wear.
“We are not saying that you need to arm all the officers, but we are saying that they should have the proper equipment to go out there and protect life and property. We have been speaking about these things (pepperspray and tasers) for years but the authority keep dragging their feet,” he continued.
Another caller, who is against officers being armed, suggested that we consider the US Virgin Islands, where, he said, officers are routinely armed.
“Officers over there have guns and that has not lessened crime,” the caller said.
The caller stated that there is a deeper cause for crime and suggested that the territory look deeper and stop looking at all the different symptoms. He mentioned that there is a big separation between the rich and the poor and noted that the divide is getting wider.
“We have to find someway to end this gap and until we sit down, have a great discussion and find out the reason for this separation we are going to continue to see the increase in crime because there are people out there that just don’t have,” he noted.
On the other hand he pointed out that there are some people that are just desperate.
“Some of them are just malicious, but guns and more guns on the street, I don’t think it’s going to help,” he said.
Another suggestion made by the caller is for a strong look to be taken at the cost of living in the BVI, and the way businesses conduct themselves in terms of how they price their goods.
“Take a holistic approach and I think that it would help to bring down the crime, but adding more guns on the street I don’t think would help, we just got to dig deeper than that,” the caller added.
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5 Comments
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@General: You, and all those others who take this line of thinking need to get off your lazy behinds and find some constructive work to do. And instead of spending whatever little money you might earn on women and looking for the latest expensive vehicles to ride and expensive jewelry (etc), save a little at a time and watch your earnings grow. Then you won’t have to use this lame excuse about robbing ‘the rich’ just because you too lazy to earn a living.
I think the BVI should think fast about arming the Police Force. things in the bvi are not getting any better with the force not not fully equip to do their properly. I was once a police officer there and to say my experience was not the best. The people of the British Virgin island Expect you as a police Officer to respond to arm robberies without a firearm to defend yourself or defend the lives and property of the people if you encounter the criminals in the commission of the crime. Police Officers are human being just like anybody and they too have families. they are not dogs or robots so that they can be buried or repaired if they are shot and kill or injured. The government is well equiped to carry out their normal duties of running the country affairs. without the phones, computers and other equipment they cannot do it effectively. So why not arm the Police force and let the Officers of the Royal Virgin Islands do their job effectively. Please don’t wait till it is far to late to do so. Look at all the Arm crimes that is taking place in the country. Mr. Premier please don;t wait till it is too late.
@peter crumble:
No we dont need to arm the officers it only goin to make this place worst than it already getting
when the politician stop fulling they pockets with money wa could help those lest fortunate and start caring about the people that dont have instead of catering to those that already have maybe then maybe we might see a ease in crime. But until then until the poor man can start saying he seeing a little light in the darkness trust me all of who have it and playing greedy goin be the ones targeted
just because a man cant afford to pay rent or watever the cause may be. The rich getting rich and the poor getting poorer until that start to change we all for a long ride. The BIBLE states that the end times only goin to get worst and worst so do the maths.
put it under wraps
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