Cops clear up 8 robberies

| 15/09/2010

(CNS): Of the more than forty armed robberies that have taken place in Grand Cayman this year so far, the police have revealed that they have charged people in only eight of the incidents. Since January, gas stations, liquor stores, fast food joints, grocery stores and homes have all fallen victim to armed villains. Cash, wallets, phones, even pizzas and sodas have been stolen at knife and gun point by a mixture of robbers. Men and women, girls and boys, Caymanians and foreign nationals have used, or threatened to use, violence in the execution of the crimes which have shocked the community. So far, seven men, two teenage boys and three teenage girls have been charged with robbery and are are now going though the court system (Photo Dennie Warren jr)

One of the most serious robberies occurred in June when police were fired upon following the robbery at Mostyn’s gas station in Bodden Town by three men armed with guns, but only one teenage boy has been charged so far.  
 
Four teenagers have been charged and have pleaded guilty in the Domino’s Pizza robbery in Savannah, which also took place in June. They remain in custody and are awaiting sentencing.
 
Police have recently charged 27-year-old Norvell Barret with two robberies which occurred in George Town in August: first, the Tortuga liquor store at the junction of Boilers Road & South Church Street, which was robbed in broad daylight on 17 August, and the following night at the Esso station at the junction of Shedden Road & Thomas Russell Way.
 
Four men have also been charged with robbing a pizza delivery man in West Bay in July and another man has been charged over a daylight robbery of a store in West Bay in the same month.
The police also said they have charged a man regarding an incident which occurred in Maple Road, George Town on 19 April.
 
Despite only clearing up eight of the robberies, the police said that other arrests have been made in a number of the outstanding cases and police enquiries are ongoing in all of the unsolved robberies.
 
Although the community has voiced enormous concern about the increase in violent crime and the spike in robberies since May, the police commissioner has accused the media on many occasions of sensationalising the problem.
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  1. Nancy Drew though you should know too. says:

    Has anyone stop and thought about why the Cayman Islands has gone to the dogs?

    It’s because the young born Caymanians don’t have jobs and are in desperate need of money and they can’t be employed any where and yes we do have some both Caymanians and other Nationalities that are looking for trouble and or seems to enjoy getting into trouble as well as you have others who don’t have other choices but to do these crimes in order to be able to survive in the current recession which everyone worldwide is going through times are tough and the Government wasn’t utilizeing the money correctly they were recklessly spending what we didn’t have .

    Instead of them using it to help the young born Caymanians to join programmes that would teach them they basic work skills and also help them to obtain a job which would help decrese the crime rates in our Islands ; because they would be employed and be making an honest living and can purchase items which they desire/need.

     

    For Example:

    After High School make it a madatory that if they aren’t going to attend college right after they graduate from High School that they have to join the programme.

    And What It Should Consist Of :

    1) Helping to educate them to have knowledge of the workforce and what to expect.

    2) How to perform while in a interview.

    3) Help them with communication skills and how to communicate with others in a professional manner.

    4) Teach them they Do’s and Dont’s  while in the work environment .

    5) Teach them how to deal with situations and how to go about them while  in the work environment .

    And have an certificate that they will learn as soon as they finish the course.

  2. Anonymous says:

    What’s worse, giving firearms (based on approval by Commish/Gov) to uneduated, possibly prejudiced cops prone to profiling, to enforce the law OR trying to use other means to arrest gang members, who seem to be determined to kill each other? And we assume that law abiding citizens with firearms will have theirs licensed.

    What’s worse, forcing the police and prosecution to ensure they have a solid case before having a defendant being acquitted OR allowing the AG to move forward with changing the law to allow them to infringe the rights of an indiviudal to not be tried twice, because the cops & legal department are too incompetent?

    We are in need of some strong people to stand up for rights of all citizens, fairly and not just for these officers to feel they can have their incompentency covered by changing the laws.

    We may need the protection ourselves so better not be quiet…it is easy for the officers to arrest and can you imagine if you are able to obtain good defence & be innocent and they can come back again and arrest? How many of these officers may be motivated just by losing the case and try and convict again? Mr. AG, and mainly PPM (Mr. Alden etc) approved the 10 year mandatory sentence for firearm offences, after the incident in the AG’s neighbourhood in 2005…did it help?

  3. 100% Caymanian says:

    This idea would be great & work

    The police need to be around the place on foot or an under cover car like any norm, dress in regular clothes. Especially those trouble some places, and a lot of crime would’nt even think about exists.

    Ministries,  Police commissar & Police put on your thinking caps.

    Wake up before it’s TOO LATE, don’t let crime destroy our country.

    Don’t you think about other countries that crimes have destroyed and still destroying.

     

  4. Anonymous says:

    I’d bet money that the ones who have been caught committed more than one robbery apiece. The effect may be a little greater than the statistics.

  5. Anonymous says:

    Police on the streets visible at night in the problem areas – been saying it for months and months.  Surely they can operate two-person patrols around George Town and West Bay Road every evening.  8 officers could patrol SMB and another 6 patrol GT, no problem.  If people see Police walking the beat they will feel safer.  Robbers may not think twice but at least there is more of a chance of catching them.  We don’t want a Police Force that is driving around in cars waiting for that response call, too busy issuing traffic tickets.  Yes it does seem to be dangerous on some streets but hey, you’re a Police Officer, you signed up to "protect the people" not try to catch them going 5mph too fast!

    • Anonymous says:

      Did they sign up to protect before the current influx in firearms? Would you want to walk down a street that known criminals could be possessing firearms, when you have no protection? They are never going to win this war on crime if they have nothing to deter the criminals. It looks like the justice system is NOT working, therefore they are going to commit more and more crimes. As much as it is a shame, they need to get a grip on the problem. They need to be patrolling the streets, knowing that they can protect themselves. As it is now, they can NOT protect themselves against the criminals with guns. Does anyone else realize this?

  6. Anonymous says:
    "Despite only clearing up eight of the robberies, the police said that other arrests have been made in a number of the outstanding cases and police enquiries are ongoing in all of the unsolved robberies.
     
    Although the community has voiced enormous concern about the increase in violent crime and the spike in robberies since May, the police commissioner has accused the media on many occasions of sensationalising the problem"
     
    While it is not the RCIP faulit in full, they are a huge reason why there is such crime here now. There are social issues that stem into many of these cases as to the root cause of what is the reason behind a lot of these people committing crimes, but the RCIP has shown with stats like these, that they are incapable of executing their duties. It is great that they  have made other arrests XXX, but no charges have been put to those people, and the few that have been charged, I would say at 25% will not get a conviction. This is not a Service that needs to be charged with what was just passed in the LA with the new Police Bill as they have proved useless in most cases. The people of this Island are footing the bill for a Police Service that is not performing, but spending large amounts of money. How can this go on? The Service is now loaded with people that cannot read, do math, or write – with the statement that Baines wrote about sensationalising the problem, I am being to wonder if he stands amongst that crowd?
  7. anonymous says:

    To 20:08 perhaps you should read that article again… it was not the cops that arrested Mr.V for a little ‘fry’ of weed. trust me the cops have no time to waste on a small ‘fry’ of weed. i know persons who have had cops catch them with a little fry took it away and stomped over it on the ground and warned themto give it up or the next time they won’t be so lucky. the cops that would pursue such a matter are rookies looking for their first case. but here again 20:08 its the cops that get the blame for all our social problems that exist. one wonders how they even continue to serve us when faced with a constant barrage of criticism. although 8 out 40 isn’t a great deal to brag about it still represents near 25% of the robberies cleared up. i am sure that the persons now caught are responsible for several more of those robberies but the evidence may not be there to charge. recently robberies have been few which is at least a good sign that the cops must be doing something. try giving a little credit when it is due and critisize when it is needed.  

  8. Frequent Flyer says:

    Desperate idiots with nowhere to turn. (And I mean really stupid in common sense AND in book smarts)

    I will NEVER take for granted my education, my work ethic nor that fact that I am employed, which will always keep me employable.

    Cayman needs to invest in educating their youth. Why do you not UNDERSTAND this importance??????

    • Anonymous says:

      All I can say is WOW!!! Am I suppose to be impressed?????

      Somethings should be kept a secret and I think this is one of them lol

    • TennisAce says:

       You do have a point.  Cayman needs to start educating its youth.  However, one of the reasons why Caymanians do not feel the need to educate themselves is because of people like Elio  Solomon who will continue to tell them that as long as you are Caymanian you are entitled to a job.  How in the name of all that is holy do you justify exempting certain jobs and saying that they are for Caymanians only.  Jamaica and Bahamas tried the same thing and saw foreign investment leave in droves never to return.  

      The economy and crime go hand in hand.  Set up skills training centres across the Island so that young people can learn a trade or a skill.  Teach young people  how to make a profit learning the skills of their elders.  Not everyone can be book smart.  Some of us are skill smart.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a plumber, mason, dressmaker, waiter, chambermaid etc., but for too long politicians have been telling the 14,000 voters on this Island that these jobs are for Jamaicans,Philipinos etc and these people come  here and get these jobs while our young people feel that it is not the job for them because of years of politicians telling them nonsense. 

      Young Caymanians need to take a look around them and ask themselves what kind of life do they want. Do they want a life as pictured by the young men on the ground with their hands behind their backs and policemen standing over them or do they want to be the one standing over the man on the ground.   

      Choose ye this day the path that you shall walk. 

  9. Anonymous says:

    Eight  charges brought out of forty plus armed robberies  that isn’t so bad considering what the commissioner has to work with illeritate,unabel to follow instructions,unable to controll chain of evidence untruthfull [lie detector test] officers serving under his command.One must give him credit for any arrests at all.Now how many convictions will the Crown get? What I do find fault with is the  officers  of theRCIPS knew before hand what they were getting into before they joined the force [an unarmed police service] so when the shooting starts no one wants to go and investigate until the all clear is sounded by the armed response unit. Now that makes for good sense, but it sounds a little out of kilter to me.We the civillians must stay and bleed until the armed response unit is able to get there.Hey comissioner how about you and your people dealing with what the civillian population has to deal with unarmed all the time [how about speeding up the response time].And I am not one advocating an armed police service imagine the above  mentioned officers with guns in their hands.Quite a little problem you have there?

    • Anonymous says:

      Before criticising RCIPS for being illiterate, perhaps you should run a spell-checker over your submission?…..

      "illeritate,unabel to follow instructions,unable to controll chain of evidence untruthfull "

  10. nauticalone says:

    Guess they (Police and Leal Dept. Prosecutors) have been very, very busy trying to convict some for half a joint (God forbid that goes unsolved).

    And the Commissioner is likely following the Premier’s example of blame, blame, blame.

  11. Beachboi says:

    Its great that the police are making arrests and charging people, but the problem seems to arrise when they get to court and either there is not enough evidence, improper chain of evidence or the legal department is too inept to get a conviction. 

  12. Anonymous says:

    Police always seem to be in the wrong place to catch criminals.

    Is this because they would rather not put themselves in danger’s way?

    I still see police sneaking around trying to trap drivers in transition
    zones between higher and lower speed limits.

    Of course this has nothing to do with safety and everything to
    do with citizen harassment, revenue collection, and safe work.

    Do they think this behavior endears them to the citizens who
    employ them? Do they really want our cooperation?

    If their intent is to enforce road safety, they should be arresting
    those who are driving unsafely, such as running lights and passing
    in turning lanes.