No to arms race

IN RESPONSE to calls for security guards to be given high-powered firearms, Derek Chin has issued an important warning against the proliferation of a virtual arms race in this country.

Mr Chin, a well-known business proprietor who heads Telecom Security Services, on Wednesday replied to a call from the Estate Police Association for guards to have deadlier guns by suggesting this will take the country down a slippery slope.

The association's call came as one of the guards Chin's security company employed, Hasely Augustine, was killed last week by heavily-armed bandits who attacked four guards depositing cash at a bank's ATM in Cunupia.

“Do you want us to bring in tanks next?” Chin said. “Will the tank be good enough? And then they will bring a bazooka? Where do you stop? Do we all go to supermarkets in armoured vehicles now?”

On the latter point, Mr Chin was being rhetorical, but the sad reality is we have arrived at a point where just last Friday senior police officials had cause to advise businesses conducting transactions at banks to walk with their own security.

Nonetheless, Mr Chin’s position chimes with the deeper concern that too much focus is placed on having more guns or reforming the niceties of the law while not enough is being done to address root issues.

“Crime is the result of certain things happening, where a lot of young people have no hope and don’t care, have no respect for human life,” he said. “It is a whole combination of things, yet we are not addressing it like an intelligent, civilised society. We are not tackling the issues in a concrete and progressive way. We are looking to pass the buck. That’s why it’s continuing to mushroom.”

Of course, the other side of the equation is the vulnerability of police officers, guards and ordinary citizens who come under fire by bandits with powerful arms. But Mr Chin suggests, sensibly in our view, that the solution should not be to give people more weapons but to interdict unlawful firearms better. The question then becomes: How?

Stronger border patrols, greater detection levels, more reliable intelligence, and deeper international collaboration should be parts of the solution. There should also be stronger, more compulsory operational standards for private guards required to wear bullet-proof vests.

However, it is hard to expect progress when police officers are frequently complaining the service is understaffed, despite official audits, and when some officers do not even have proper dormitory facilities, as the recent clearing out of female municipal police from City Hall in the capital city underlined.

Mr Chin wants to resume the death penalty, but, like the idea of flooding the country with more guns, there’s little evidence to demonstrate how that could be a panacea when we cannot even have timely trials, speedily process forensics or apprehend suspects. Instead of an arms race, we need to tackle the bread-and-butter issues.