Addressing the media ahead of Monday’s Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre delivered a hard-hitting message on the escalating crime wave gripping Saint Lucia in recent days.
The Prime Minister reaffirmed his administration’s unwavering stance on law enforcement and made it clear that criminality will not be tolerated under his watch. “I have absolutely no room for criminal behavior,” Pierre stated firmly. “There are no excuses for criminality.”
The Prime Minister’s comments come in the wake of a surge in homicides and other gun related incidents, prompting heightened public concern and a call for stronger government action.
Pierre who also serves as the island’s Minister for National Security, assured the nation that the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force (RSLPF) has been given the full backing of the state to act decisively and lawfully in curbing the violence. “The police force has been given the full powers to follow the law, to cause a decrease in the level of criminality that has exploded over the last two weeks,” he said. “All that the police need, we have given them.”
He emphasized that while the government will not interfere with the operational independence of the police, it remains committed to equipping the force with all available resources within the country’s fiscal capacity.
Addressing the social underpinnings of crime, the Prime Minister highlighted the government’s multipronged approach to the crisis, combining enforcement with social intervention. “We’re not only enforcing the law,” Pierre explained. “We are investing in social interventions to interrupt violence before it happens.”
As part of this strategy, the government has recently appointed a former senior police officer, now a qualified criminologist with a PhD in crime prevention, to work alongside the newly established Ministry of Crime Prevention. This role, he said, will ensure better coordination of social programs aimed at reducing violence at the community level.
Pierre condemned what he called senseless violence between individuals who often share deep communal ties.
“What would cause you to go to school with somebody, know his mother, know his sister and then pull a gun and shoot him in the head?” he asked. “There’s no excuse,” the Saint Lucian leader declared.
The Prime Minister called on Saint Lucians to reject any attempts to justify criminal acts, describing perpetrators as a minority tarnishing the reputation and peace of law-abiding citizens.
“The majority of people in Saint Lucia are peaceful. But a few individuals are using all kinds of excuses to cause crime and inflict harm on their own brothers sometimes their own sisters.” The government, he said, is also continuing to support grassroots and community-based organizations in the fight against crime. He referenced funding recently provided to the UBUNTU Movement for its “Seeds for Justice” initiative, a youth-centered violence prevention initiative, despite public criticism.
“We were criticized for supporting the UBUNTU movement,” Pierre said, “but we stand by our decision. We have a zero tolerance to criminality. We will not condone it. There can be no excuse.”
