CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC – Prime Minister Phillip J Pierre said Tuesday that the police had been given the green light to use “all available means within the law” to deal with the upsurge of crime on the island following last weekend’s murder of four people, including a two-year-old toddler in the southern town of Vieux Fort.
“There can be no excuse for that level of criminality,” Pierre told reporters ahead of the weekly Cabinet meeting, adding, “We have to wipe out that criminality.”
On Monday, Pierre deplored “this senseless gang violence” after visiting Vieux Fort, where he noted that the residents of Bruceville “like every other community in St. Lucia is made up of men and women who want the best for their children.
Police are searching for those responsible for the murder of a woman in the southern town of Vieux Fort on Sunday night. The killings continue following the murders of three people, including a two-year-old toddler, on Saturday night that both government and opposition have condemned.
On Sunday, a woman was shot and killed while lying on her bed, and on Saturday evening, a man succumbed to gunshot injuries at Cedar Heights, while a woman and her two-year-old grandson were shot dead in the beds.
The organizers of a “Family Fun and Sports” day scheduled for Easter Monday postponed the event because of the crime.
The government has sought and received the assistance of the Barbados-based Regional Security System (RSS) in preserving law and order in Vieux Fort following a spate of murders in recent weeks.
Pierre, who will be among Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders meeting in Trinidad and Tobago next week for a special symposium on crime in the region, told reporters on Monday that “criminality must stop, and I make no excuses for it.
“I will say to you. The government will use all the resources. The police have been instructed to use all available means within the law, all available legal means to wipe out that criminality in this country,” he said, adding, “This animalistic behavior cannot be tolerated.”
But he also acknowledged the need for more social interventions and crime reduction strategies.
“The message is clear, social interventions, community outreach, the empowerment will continue. But criminality must stop, and all legal means will be used to wipe out that criminality,” Pierre told reporters.
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