Unemployment a major factor for youth involvement in crime – Top Cop

A Police Commissioner (Ag) David Ramnarine drew focus on what he believes is a significant contributor to the criminal activities in the country, the idle youths.

He made this pronouncement during a news conference on Monday as he released statistics on a number of categories of criminal activities in the country.

Ramnarine also pointed to a correlation between the crime wave and the state of youth unemployment in the nation.

In disseminating information on traffic offences, the Top Cop (Ag) noted that youth make up a high portion of those in violation of traffic laws.

He said of the 712 random breathalyzer tests recently conducted, a major 60 per cent were between the ages of 18 and 25.

“We have young persons in crime, young persons unemployed, young persons who are driving under the influence, and young persons who just don’t want to work for what they say is too meagre a salary,” Ramnarine asserted, underscoring that these are all critical factors everyone ought to be apprehensive of when holistically examining the crime situation in the country.

His allusions to the inclusion of youth in crime also covered instances of murders and robberies, or violence-related criminal activities: “We have youths who prefer to party and party late at nights and we’ve seen a level of violence in this society by young people; an unacceptable level of violence involving young people,” he stated.

Ramnarine indicated that the problem lies with the level of youth employment, particularly with young people refusing to work.

“They are misguided, they are lacking proper supervision and guidance. They don’t want to work for what they perceive to be by their own standard meagre salaries,” he stated. It was just last week that a 14-year-old Mahaicony boy was placed before the court charged with the murder of a Mahaicony businesswoman. Reports are that the teen, who did odd jobs for the 54-year-old woman confessed to beating her to death. The young boy was said to be the mastermind of the attack, as he reportedly led his 24-year-old accomplice to the woman’s home.

The teenager and his accomplice, Devanand Rampersaud, a fisherman of Rosignol, West Bank Berbice, were not required to plead to the indictable charge, which was read to them in-camera by Magistrate Zamilla Ally-Seepaul.

Rampersaud was remanded to Camp Street Prison, while the 14-year-old mastermind was sent to the Juvenile Holding Centre in Sophia. They will make their next court appearance on November 14 when the matter will be called at the Mahaicony Magistrate’s Court.

The lifeless body of Bibi Shairoon of Lot 6 Novar, Mahaicony, was found by her nephew on October 17 with her hands and feet bound.

The two suspects on Saturday evening reportedly gave a detailed statement to detectives on how they committed the murder. The duo allegedly admitted to beating the woman in her head with a frying pan.

It was reported that after the duo entered the woman’s house, she put up a fight and was struck to the head repeatedly with the frying pan. She subsequently fainted.