THE spate of murders that took place at the weekend was horrifying in itself – five dead in three days with two more injured.

It also served as a grim reminder that while so much focus has been placed on dealing with COVID-19, crime is an epidemic that has blighted our country for far longer, and that is far harder to contain.

Credit to Acting Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander yesterday then for giving some straight answers, and revealing that the five killings at the weekend are believed to be gang-related and part of a drugs turf war.

Straight answers have not always been easy to come by when it comes to details about crime. In January last year, after months of lockdown, murder figures had dropped from 95 in 2019 to 59 in 2020. Were the COVID lockdowns a factor in the reduction in murders? Not so, insisted Police Commissioner Paul Rolle, who called such a suggestion “nonsense” and credited instead the hard work that police officers had done. Well, the lockdowns ended and the murder rate went back up. We presume police officers were working just as hard. Clearly, it had an effect. There have been 28 murders so far this year – almost half the number in the whole of 2020.

And just as clearly, crime has not gone away. Truth be told, the economic hit we have taken has probably driven more people toward involvement in crime with jobs short and money tight.

The scale of the problem facing police officers is made clear in several stories in today’s Tribune. First, there are the comments by Acting Commissioner Fernander, as he outlined that police were aware of the different factions of gangs that were involved.

Acting Commissioner Fernander said there is a trend of “senior criminals” recruiting young men and putting guns in their hands.

Where do the guns come from? That brings us to another story in today’s Tribune, in which six men were stopped in Bimini on Sunday. The men had a number of drink boxes and inside, disguised from inspectors, were nine pistols, a silencer and an assortment of ammunition. At yesterday’s briefing, Acting Commissioner Fernander showed a video which showed an officer discovering a gun wrapped and sealed inside a box of breakfast cereal.

The people bringing these guns in are directly contributing to the damage our society is experiencing, and serving as accessories to the murders that would have taken place with those guns.

Then there is the third story showing the sorry state of matters and the problems facing police – a man opening fire at a house and posting a video of the shooting to Facebook in what appeared to be an act of retaliation.

A man has been arrested, but the video appears to show someone taking matters in their own hands and opening fire wildly rather than having faith in the justice system.

There is a culture on our streets that sees too many young men disconnected from the rest of society – and those senior criminals that Acting Commissioner Fernander talks about prey upon these individuals to pull them into the gang lifestyle.

It is no easy task to fix – not for the police, not for other members of society who try to give these young men another way. But every person who brings an illegal gun into the country makes the problem worse, and every gang member who pulls someone else into their lifestyle is perpetuating it.

It is welcome, however, to be able to talk about the problem as it is, to have the discussion about the gang problems affecting our streets so that we can address the issue directly. For that, we thank Acting Commissioner Fernander – and wish him the very best in dealing with it.