US-Based Criminologist Condemns Blackmoore’s handling of Crime & National Security

Dominican-born, US-based criminologist, Dr. Peter St. Jean, has condemned the way the Minister for National Security, Rayburn Blackmoore, handles crime and national security. The criminologist said the minister lacks a modern-day approach to crime reduction, saying his strategy for combating community violence has not changed in over a decade.

Dr. St. Jean made this assertion in response to Blackmoore’s reactions following the killing of Marcus Fagan, a Silver Lake resident in Bath Estate. Blackmoore said that every Dominican must be involved with crime prevention and that his ministry will set up community policing programs in the coming months.

But Dr. St. Jean said the minister should be doing more than just talking. He blamed Blackmoore for using the same approach he adopted since the first major Dominica Crime Symposium in 2003 to fight crime in 2019. “In 2003 when we had the first major Dominica Crime Symposium, those same things were uttered similarly by Mr. Blackmoore,” he said, adding that his language for crime-fighting has also not changed over the years.

“Mr. Blackmoore is using very outdated and ineffective language such as ‘combating crime’. A problem-solving approach which we have gone beyond – not just the issues of combating crime but issues of building peace development,” Dr. St. Jean said.

The criminologist said the minister is not articulate and his strategies for fighting crime are not comprehensive enough, adding that his leadership in this aspect is terrible and inefficient.

“This is another example of why Mr. Blackmoore is such a waste of time as the minister of national security because there is no way that this kind of shallow, choppy, inarticulate, disorganized response is what he should produce at this time when our country needs better leadership in terms of the problem of national security,”  St. Jean complained.

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