It is important to note that the two private members motions – one posed by North Side MLA Ezzard Miller and one by George Town MLA Joey Hew – are “advisory in nature,” that is they neither change existing law nor commit the government to future changes. Time will tell whether Cayman’s politicians have the backbones to back up their verbal resolutions with actual legislative action.
Setting aside for the moment those nonbinding affirmations of approval, of far greater interest to this Editorial Board is something Mr. Miller said while proposing his motion, and which the Cayman Compass quoted on the front page Tuesday: “Everybody in my district knows who the four or five people who [do] all the robberies and burglaries are … And when they’re incarcerated, we don’t have any problem,” he said.
There is no doubt that Mr. Miller knows what he’s talking about, and that the proverbial “everybody” could readily identify the handful of ne’er-do-wells running amok in his close-knit district. We imagine similar comments could have been made by the other 16 elected members (and one House Speaker), with equal veracity.
Although Cayman has undergone tremendous growth and transformation in the past five decades, the country remains small enough that our habitual criminals cannot blend in and “disappear” from the consciousness of their neighbors and law enforcement.
That, of course, leads to the following question: If “everybody knows” who the bad guys are – and we surely do – then how is it that so few of them are allowed to commit so great a proportion of crimes in Cayman?
This Editorial Board is not in a position yet to weigh in on the merits and disadvantages of Mr. Miller’s “three strikes” rule for convicted burglars and robbers, or of Mr. Hew’s idea to increase minimum sentences for aggravated burglary. However, we would suggest that police consider taking immediate action on the following proposal:
Invite Mr. Miller to ride along in a police cruiser, and have him point out the faces, home addresses and hangouts of the “four or five people” terrorizing North Side. Repeat that exercise with MLAs from each district.
Then, when police have a bead on nearly every well-known criminal offender in the Cayman community – Do something about it.
Whether that involves increasing criminal sentences, getting rid of sentencing reductions for “mitigating factors,” keeping law enforcement’s eyes focused on the future likely suspects, or redoubling rehabilitation efforts to try to keep them on a straight path – we can’t say. After all, we are not criminal justice experts.
However, speaking as laymen, common sense would dictate that if “everybody” knows exactly who is responsible for Cayman’s crime problem, then it should be well within the power of our officials who are criminal justice experts – the police, prosecutors and judges – to fix the problem.
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You are absolutely right.
A major problem is that neighbors are scared to inform on their neighbor’s criminal son because it will get back to the gang.
A system of properly anonymous tips would help. Perhaps set up on the internet where even IP addresses aren’t recorded.
No doubt there would be a number of malicious reports, wives reporting ex-husbands and people trying to settle a score by giving someone some trouble.
But it would be possible to weed that out.
This would have to be set up by an independent party, perhaps by the web experts at your fine newspaper? Results would be forwarded to the police, stripped of identifying info.
2nd offence onwards, these individuals need to wear an electronic tag and attend regular probation appointments.
Norman, I completely agree, forgive me if I’m wrong, but I understood that to be the role of Crimestoppers http://www.crimestoppers.ky/home/. This is a non-profit civilian-run organisation which works closely with the RCIPS. What you are suggesting is exactly what they were set up to achieve. The system is already in place and set up to be anonymous if desired. It may however need more advertising!
There is a Mandatory minimum sentence for firearms – Perhaps a Mandatory minimum for attempted witness intimidation would send a similar message.
I would agree that in the smaller districts most people know who is doing what, however the fear of telling a police officer is still there. People will talk among themselves, neighbors and friends but as the police arrive it ends there. Long time ago residents would talk to the police about criminal activities going on in their districts but you will not find that taking place anymore. Of course there is a reason for it.