By Anesta Henry
Self-proclaimed gang interventionist Roger Husbands is claiming that major players who should have attended a recent meeting between warring groups were absent from the dialogue.
Husbands told Barbados TODAY that while he preferred not to give a detailed response to the agreement between the rival gangs, he is struggling to understand the relevance of the “peace deal”, if those persons primarily responsible for the recent upsurge in shooting incidents, are not throwing their support behind it.
The activist who has been working with at-risk youth for many years, indicated that to his knowledge, this is not the first time such an agreement was made.
He said since the meeting took place, he interacted with some “major players” who did not attend the gathering due to “protection issues”.
Husbands suggested that now is the time for “older gangsters” to correct what they would have done to influence the youth’s access to a life of violence and crime.
“I am not saying that it is not a start. We might want to start with the old gangsters and the old men that have been a part of gangs or violent activities over the years, and you might want to get them to see what they can possibly do.
“What is the action plan at the end of the day? What is the next phase from here? Are we going to really reach out to these younger ones who are perpetrating all of these crimes and these murders and who have the guns? Are we going to try to target them?
“I just wish that the major players were there. But based on my conversation with some of the major players, they would have never gone to that meeting. The reality is that the men making money and it is going to be hard to stop this thing,” Husbands said.
In a story published in Barbados TODAY’s Tuesday edition, former Chapman Lane, St Michael block leader Winston Iston Bull Branch said when he first met the groups, he informed members he was not asking them to turn in their firearms, but appealed to them to not walk around with guns and look for trouble.
Branch insisted that while he reached out and did what he thought necessary, the onus was now on the men to do what they saw fit.
Delivering remarks at Sunday’s Democratic Labour Party (DLP) St Michael South East branch meeting, former Prime Minister Freundel Stuart said that while he welcomed the truce, he would not advise Barbadians to celebrate just yet.
Stuart said phase two of the initiative should be that Minister with responsibility for Crime Prevention Corey Lane, and Attorney General Dale Marshall, lead young men involved in gang-related activities to Central Police Station to hand over their firearms.
“If the truce breaks down, you can’t afford for those people to be still armed because we will be back at square one,” Stuart said.
Husbands, who recently met with church leaders to discuss their role in helping the country solve the violence and gun crime situation, said he is currently working on strategic plans to resolve the issue.
He suggested, that the older gang members who attended the meeting should be campaigning across communities and speaking to young people “to get them to turn in the guns”.
“If we are doing something like this that is public, don’t only talk, tell us how we are going to get these young people to stop, how you are going to get these young people to put down the guns? Are they going to hand over the guns?
“This is a great start but these older men need to now mentor the younger ones and say ‘hey, look, now we made a mistake we have started some of these things and it was for us a way of making money. Now we realise as we get older, these are not the things that we should do’. If you are coming to the public with this new thing, you should come with a lot more information,” he said.
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