by Lincoln DePradine
A pair of prominent local attorneys have demanded an end to gun violence, with one calling for an immediate ceasefire.
“This gun violence must stop!” emphasised defence lawyer Arley Gill in a written commentary.
Gill’s sentiment was echoed by fellow attorney Peter David. “Cease the violence — for all it leaves in its wake are the tears of your mothers and your children. They have shed too many tears,” David said in remarks delivered on 7 June at a funeral for Von Cyrus, a Carenage resident, who was killed in an execution-style shooting on 12 May.
In the last several weeks, there have been at least 3 other fatal shootings, and police investigations have led to some arrests. Cyrus, popularly known as “Wangy” was 28.
“In the prevailing violent climate that has recently spiked in our country, and with Wangy’s passing a highlight of that climate, how do we deal with and address his untimely and violent death?” asked David, who also is Member of Parliament for the Town of St George, and assistant general secretary of the opposition New National Party (NNP). “Are we to talk about violence and recrimination? Are we to allow his legacy to be that of more turmoil in our community? Are we to sit by and watch further violent conflicts among the children of hardworking mothers and fathers?”
David, offering his own answers to the questions, said: “We all must learn and grow from every experience, and this is one such experience; for as tragic as it is, it is a lesson that I am sure his own mother, and maybe even Wangy himself, will agree that we all must learn. I’d like to think so.”
The mourners, who packed the St Paul’s Anglican Church for Cyrus’s service, included his mother, son and other close family members.
“Ceasefire Now! Today!” David appealed. “I call on our youth from the Carenage to Four Roads; from Fenton Village to the Bronx; from St David to St Patrick; from St Mark to St George; Carriacou to Petite Martinique; and places in between, to work together to build our families and our communities, to save our children.”
According to David, “violence leads to a dead end — literally and figuratively”. Nothing, he said, ever has ever been solved through violence.
“Our collective lesson, as a community, is that we must come together to find a way to save our sons — and daughters — including developing systems for mentorship, and the deepening of our very sense of community. My brothers and sisters, I implore of us all to join together to restore peace in our land,” said David, a former Grenada Foreign Minister. “Working class people’s children must stop killing working class people’s children. Plain talk. We must, instead, come together and unite in the struggle to make a better way — not just for this generation, but for the next. We must rise from the depths of our circumstances and prevail against the odds.”
David expressed his own commitment to “showing our young people from hardworking families that they can rise above” any current negative circumstance.
He also commended the Grenada Bar Association for an ongoing initiative aimed at addressing the gun violence issue. “The lawyers have established the Ceasefire Initiative to assist in quelling the violence. They, along with many people in the community, are on the frontlines of this battle,” David said. “Several young people have made the commitment to assist. I commend them for their courage, and I will hold them to it, as I continue to work with everyone in this fight to achieve the desired end — the restoration of our beloved, warm, friendly, and tranquil Grenada,” he added. “Today, we all weep. Tomorrow, we do better by each other — and for each other. We can, and we will; for the very future of this nation depends on us to do so.”
Gill, a former senator, said, “it will take a community effort to interrupt and cure” the gun violence problem. It will require a “community-minded” approach and for “all of us” to solve the problem, he said. “Crime is a symptom of something deeper, and gun violence could be a signal that our young people are losing hope in us. When life — our life — and the life of others no longer has value, we must look at what is happening in our broader society to trigger that mindset,” he said.
“If we are to stop the proliferation of gun violence here in Grenada, changing the social and economic circumstances for our most vulnerable young people is a good place to start,” Gill suggested. “Violence is a social and economic problem, and we need solutions that are smart, sensible and suited to our unique situation.”
Grenada was perhaps the safest of the islands for locals and visitors alike. Sad to say those days are gone and there will be no stopping the drugs and guns coming in. Big money is behind this, dealers who profit from selling death.