uk_grenada

Think yourself fortunate Gordon, the thing in London is a growing menace of moped gangs, ripping phones and purses from peoples arms as they pass, there have been some nasty knife and acid attacks, and 2 lovely little tearaways managed to kill several people in a mornings rampage.

Gordon Barlow

Well, I'm not expecting Cayman - or anywhere else in the Caribbean - to have to cope with the kind of knifings that London is experiencing, but I fully expect our local yobs to start copying the moped robberies some time soon! Watch this space...

Gordon Barlow

Here's a recent report on juvenile crime in Cayman - a growing concern here. I expect it's common enough all over the world - England is having tremendous trouble with it - but it's always sad to see the cultural gap that exists between the young generation and their grandparents'. Our police and politicians are at a loss to prevent young thugs from damaging the tourist trade. How are things in other islands?
https://caymannewsservice.com/2018/0...aises-concern/

uk_grenada

Gordon Barlow

Long may your peaceful Grenada last! Grand Cayman was like that when we first came here. Most times it still is, but there are far too many reports of out-of-control youngsters. Most offensive, are assaults on teachers - by parents as well as pupils. Again, they're a minority, but years ago it wasn't like that. Every adult was "in charge of every child", with the authority to chastise any child who stepped out of line. That custom is still the norm, but it is increasingly under threat. Part of the reason is the contempt traditionally displayed by several of our native-born politicians and bureaucrats (the latter, mainly in the Immigration Department) towards migrant workers. The result of that is societal tension, and that's never a good thing. Sigh...

Gordon Barlow

Another bad development here is the growing popularity among local thugs of home invasions. They aren't common, but only a few years ago I would have scoffed at the very thought of home invasions ever being a problem. When we first decided to settle here, we used to say that once we felt the need for burglar-bars, we would leave. How naive that was! Now, we stay because it's our home, and we're just stubborn enough to see it through!

uk_grenada

Gordon Barlow

There have been some reports lately about piracy in the southern Caribbean, as though it were something new. It's not new at all. Much of the illegal drugs-traffic to the USA involves the Caribbean, and launches have always been at risk from runners looking for fast boats whose profiles aren't known to the US coastguard. Cayman receives drugs from Jamaica and elsewhere, and some of those drugs end up in Florida. C'est la vie. I doubt if there is an island in the region that isn't in the same boat, so to speak. I'm not a sea-going man, but if I were I would most certainly carry a serious weapon on board every time I ventured far away from the coast!

uk_grenada

Gordon Barlow

"Clearly a high risk" is right! When I was in the tax-haven profession here, my policy was never, ever, to have an offshore company on my books that owned a boat or a plane. Once, a respected (!) Florida lawyer tried very hard to persuade me to form a company for his client for the specific purpose of buying a $400,000 launch, with a bank loan repayable in 12 months from the proceeds of charters. I suggested he might like to check into his client's background... which I guess he must have done, for the subject never came up again.

Gordon Barlow

It began a few years ago, and now damn near every business with a staff of more than ten has a uniformed security guard hanging around, usually outside. Not armed, of course, and I doubt if some of them could fight their way out of a paper bag, but still - all foreign, requiring Work Permits. No wonder we have so many new immigrants here! It must be the most boring job in the world, but I guess it's worth it, to be able to send a few bucks home to Philippines or India or Jamaica every week. Do any of the other islands in the region have security guards?

uk_grenada

namsbabe

I used to live in Trinidad adn Tobago, and I think it's representative of most of the Caribbean.
In T&T, crime has escalated over the past 20 years or so. The murder rate runs at 500 or so per year, and violent crime is bad too.
Going out at night isn't really safe - unless in a group, and certain areas are no-go areas at nights. The capital, Port of Spain, is largely such, especially in Downtown when it's dark and most fo the businesses have shut.
The liming (or hanging-out areas - liming is local slang meaning to "hang out") places in PoS are St. James, the Queen's Park Savannah, and Ariapita Avenue. It's OK to be out there most times, but there are reports still of robberies and worse happening.

The bad crime isn't really limited to the capital city either. Tobago used to be known as idyllic, but it too has had some bad incidents. Tourists from overseas have been attacked, and the drug trade is rife there.

Neither party in government, the PNM or UNC, has over 20-plus years come up with a viable solution to the crime issue, and it will only escalate imho.
The drug trade with nearby South America is a factor of course, but also that the police are corrupt and the general public is very lax. Cutting corners is accepted as normal, and I feel this lends to a high perception of corruption.
What's more is that the economy has been in recession officially for years, but then people shop openly and spend openly. Either there are dodgy economic figures released, or there's a huge black economy afoot. Or both, it must be said.

Gordon Barlow

That's very sad to hear. Years ago when I was writing columns in one of our local rags, I wondered if the growth in street-crime might perhaps be a natural consequence of corruption at high levels of society. Every street-mugger would much rather sit in an air-conditioned office and steal his way to wealth if he could; but since he couldn't, and since honesty had already been thrown overboard by his betters, he just stole the best way he could manage! If the air-conditioned corruption could be brought under control, I surmised, maybe the thugs could be too.

It was a deliberately facetious argument, but nobody called me out on it!