Football match shooting hits headlines around the world
(CNS): The Cayman Islands’ reputation as a safe place to live and work or take a vacation took a serious battering on Monday when, within a matter of hours, news of the shooting at the Ed Bush Stadium during a premier league football match Sunday night began hitting the headlines. All of the major US news networks and news outlets around the world, from The Hindustani Times in India to The Guardian in the UK, were reporting on the shocking shooting after the Associated Press Stringer in Puerto Rico picked up the story.
While local people have been raising concerns for several months about the increase in gun violence across the Cayman Islands, including murders, robberies and tit-for-tat gunfire at gang rivals’ homes, the crime spike has now gone viral, which is bound to have an impact on the tourism sector.
During a press conference on Monday, officials here spoke about the efforts being made to stop the escalation of crime. Governor Jane Owen, whose main responsibility is for security, described this as a watershed moment. She said that Cayman has had a glimpse through a window into what could happen if the threats that we face from crime and criminality and the menace of violence and guns continues to increase.
“I think we have all looked through that window and we are united in believing that is not somewhere the communities in Cayman are prepared to countenance going, and if we want to avoid that, we are going to need to work together,” she said.
The response involves prevention and awareness, especially about how dangerous guns are getting into the islands and what legislation needs to be improved, as well as enforcement, Owen said, but noted that Cayman was lucky to have a trained, competent police service.
At this point, the UK will not be sending a team or task force to assist. Police Commissioner Kurt Walton said he was confident that he had the teams and manpower necessary to conduct the investigation into this unprecedented occurrence.
Premier Julianna O’Connor-Connolly said that Commissioner Walton had the complete support of the government. This includes financially, and she announced that the Cayman Islands Government was adding $200,000 to the $50,000 reward money offered by Cayman CrimeStoppers for information leading to a conviction in this case.
She said Caymanians had zero tolerance for this time of violence, and the government would work to eradicate it. “This level of violence is not normal, neither is it acceptable… If you are in the know… and there is hardly anything that happens [in Cayman] that at least one person does not know… please do the best service ever and come forward,” the premier stated.
She said Walton had the entire backing of the 19 members of parliament. “We will keep Cayman to a place where we can hold our heads high and walk the streets with our families… and remove the criminals from our society.”
If further legislation needed to deal with gangs, the government would not shy away from that, she said and floated the idea of a gun amnesty. “Crime is everybody’s business,” she said, adding that the government would face the problem head-on.
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So I cannot hire a person that made a simple mistake with a spliff at 16 and got caught, has a record and is branded for life, but we can elect the very guy that roped the kids into the activities as dealers?? This place is f^@#ed up and we all know which politicians need to go. That’s plural because I am throwing in the violent sex offenders and garrison politics leaders. Cayman, shut this sh!t down. A new fridge or paved driveway (Braccas) isn’t worth sacrificing your future generations. Mistakes were made by our elder voters, but today we need to stand up, vote them out and win back our safe and secure island home.
Unfortunately today Youth minds have a limited perception of everything, it is limited to the Bandwidth of internet connection.
*Legislation* to deal with gangs…. (facepalm)
This is an island with a population the size of a small town in most countries – it confounds me that the police force cannot round up these criminals in short order and stamp out violent crime for good.
If the RCIPS leadership is not up to the task – bring in someone who is.
Goes deeper than that and who is in charge and really running this small ‘country’.
You forgetting the cops are to busy busting people for a joint. Low hanging fruit is what they good at.
They are not even good at that. There is illegal tint in their own car park, and the stench of weed in many areas of Cayman.
To be fair to the RCIP local persons in the know are not coming forward. This mindset has gone on for years.I do recognize that such whistleblowers could be got at by the criminals which is unfortunate.
We need assist the RCIP and we are not doing that.
With an ex cocaine dealer and woman beater serving in government don’t tell me about zero tolerance
Which side of the aisle do you contend the woman-beater is on?
The convicted one sits on the government backbench.
https://caymannewsservice.com/2020/12/speaker-bush-pleads-guilty-to-assault/
OK. Wasn’t sure which one you were referencing…
Which one?
Once a convicted coke dealer, always a convicted coke dealer.
Kenny has logged his thumb vote.
Where’s the HAHAHA vote…. Needed more than ever…
We have a long and glorious tradition of women beater’s holding office in Cayman. Can’t make this shizzle up…
The (ex) Cocaine dealer could be a real help to the police having so much information from his business days… but he would lose some votes, so it ain’t gonna happen.
Legalize local production of cannabis. Julianna promised this prior to being elected!
Cannabis IS the major cash cow for the gangs and drug dealers – it’s consumption level in Cayman is up there with alcohol yet that is legal but isn’t medically prescribed.
I used to buy smuggled jamaican weed, but my uncle grows his own now inside a hidden shed. There’s no way to smell or find it so good luck. Insulated with carbon filters. Now I support a retired Caymanian while not supporting the black market that brings guns along for the ride to protect their lucrative investment.
A lb of Jamaican cannabis retails for under 100 USD. Landed in Cayman, that has a typical street value of $1000 KYD. Do the math if you think the drug boats and bribery will suddenly stop.
Laughable buddy…this is gang war no cannabis will influence that
This is probably one of the most sensible and actionable replies here and it’s sad that it has so many down votes. People have been brainwashed to be disgusted from drugs like cannabis but then go home and pull two shots of liquor or a glass of wine.
Another actionable item would be to start a cash for guns scheme to get guns off the street. Don’t arrest people at first, give them a grace period. Most of those in gangs are the poor and uneducated. They’ll take the cash and run.
Long story short, don’t give them a reason to do crime.
That’s a good idea, cash for guns, ramp up the smuggling trade easy money
This is one of the worst comments I have read on CNS in a long time – a criminal advocating for a change in laws due to the money he/she could save. I understand the math, but you are still a criminal.
OK, so are we to assume that you have ‘ratted’ out your former drug dealer who charged too much and most likely has guns? I suspect not. You are heavily complicit in illegal activities and you want to lecture legal matters?
brackattacka, You are incredibly naive about the drug trade.
OK, legalise weed and then the gangs will simply move on to cocaine, fentanyl and crack.
They have moved on already.
Smugglers gonna smuggle, it’s the Cayman way. Ironically that’s the illicit pirate cargo economy we simultaneously fund a full Coast Guard and helicopter fleet to give the impression of wanting to repel. Ganja yes, but also cocaine, guns, ammo, wanted assassins, meth, heroin, crack, fentanyl, Venezuelan embargoed fuel (!), baby lobsters, turtle meat, and anything else with an illegal margin to be banked and Western Union’ed somewhere else. This is the third pillar of the Cayman economy, controlled by Caymanians. They don’t give a %#!t if someone else gets shot, so long as they are paid, and foreign suppliers are happy.
Drug dependency and GDP growth are inversely correlated. We don’t need easier access to more booze or drugs. There’s an insane prevalence of alcoholism and drug use in the Cayman Islands already, with correspondingly low daytime workflow competency. Talk to a therapist about underlying problems. Suppressing them with social numbing doesn’t put in that work. Doesn’t give the tools to deal with trauma, loss, and invisible scars. Put the crooks out of business, by helping yourself, and telling 3 more how you did it.
Hopefully this will aid in dropping prices of home sales so I might be finally able to afford one.
By people getting shot and could have been killed? Typical attitude, self, self.
Its what its come to. VRBOs, greedy realtors, cost of living are inflating real estate pricing.
Many of these VRBOs are operating illegaly, and expat realtors are running rampant.
It would be very interesting to know the percentage of available housing units used as VRBOs or Air B&Bs.
Some government agency should know this.
As these numbers grow, real estate and rental prices escalate daily.
Governor…
Why are there known gambling dens in operation?
Why are there known gangsters free on our streets?
Why wasn’t Jon Jon breathalysed?
And when can we expect any investigation into some of the most egregious status grants?
Thanks.
because the police officers are buying from them lol
Don’t ask her. She’s hasn’t a clue.
Bet she has a cery good idea about why Jon Jon wasnt breathlysed. And why status grants are never going to be investigated.
Nore to the poibt why was Jon Jon wearing dreads
Govt is burdened with the huge responsibility of creating inequality by massaging the high net worth and disenfranchising the small man. Kenny wants to build a $50M private airport for goodness sake whilst an upcoming generation has no chance of entering the housing market. You can harp all you like about more patrols, bigger rewards and all the rest but from the small down all you’re going to get is a big ‘f*** you’. It’s wrong but you almost have to sympathise, Govt and pretty much most related officials are looking at the trees neglecting the forest.
A bit in depth but an excellent read about inequality very close to home.
https://scioteca.caf.com/bitstream/handle/123456789/1786/Inequality%20and%20Crime%20in%20Latin%20America%20and%20the%20Caribbean_New%20Data%20for%20and%20Old%20Question.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed
‘burdened’ and ‘sympathise’ are not words related to government and officials. $$$$
The public need work with the police as someone knows who it is. Call TIPS line number in Florida which no one will knows who report it.
400 cops are on payroll and you are calling for the public to fight armed gangs?
Really?
The police know perfectly well who did it. Liok at Kurts statement – they know exactly whats going on in-the gangs – just cant prove it and have zero cajones about making life for the gangs difficult to make their lives and the freedom to do this difficult. Wouldnt have happened in Derek Haines day.
11:42am – are you dumb or are you dumb?
If you think this incident at Ed Bush Stadium was bad just wait until we have a similar type incident at Public Beach on Seven Mile Beach. We need police patrols on SMB now so that the Caymanian public and tourists feel safe.
One major incident on SMB will do so much damage to our reputation as a tourist centre.
We have a ticking time bomb at Public Beach waiting to go off.
Wake up politicians.
Didn’t the police shoot at a suspect on 7MB awhile back?
Yep. But they missed 😝
We’ve had a shooting in the George Town Hospital shortly after Hurricane Ivan, which was very scary too, that left one person dead.
You want armed police patrolling up and down the beach in front of the tourists? Nothing would spoil my vacation faster than seeing something like that.
Catch the criminals, put them in jail until they are too old to ever commit a crime again, or deport them back where they came from.
We are too soft on criminals. Letting people accused of firearms offences out on bail = crazy. If a gun is usesd in a crime, give criminals an assumption that it was a harmless replica unless they were caught with it red-handed = stupid. If a gun is used, we should assume it is real unless they can prove otherwise.
Repeated offender? Clearly didn’t learn their lesson the first, second, third time = give up right to live in civilised society and spend rest of life in jail to protect the rest of us.
4:54, There will certainly be a lot less tourists if a few tourists are shot on 7MB. Put on your big boy pants and get use to seeing a few police patrolling the beach.
You are the one talking about being soft on criminals. Obviously you do not understand an optical form of deterence but you don’t want to see police patrolling the beach.
Agree. They can wear short pants and ride bikes if it helps ease the appearance. Where I grew up, police were a way of life, and they had beats — foot patrols, prowl cars, unmarked, undercover and they didn’t decrease our perception of safety, they improved it.
Police officers — men and women — were known to us, they WERE us, and weren’t considered to be the enemy. Some businesses gave them free or discounted services, because it made their place safer that everyone knew the place was frequented by the police.
Cayman used to be like that. We were smaller then. It is easy to blame the problem on demographics or cultural differences, but I think the real core problem is apathy. Our apathy. Earlier comments on this thread were incredulous that the people should be expected to help. Those comments amaze me. In what successful low-crime city or town is law enforcement not assisted by the ever-watchful eyes of the civilians?
$250k to be dead? Pass. The public has been conditioned by example to not trust the police, Madame Governor.
Whom ever provides incriminating information better be prepared to get out of dodge or be hunted down by 40+ gangsters. I wonder if any of these miscreants have any political ties or immunity?
Give the money to Charity and you will be alive as no one will knows it is you!
except the members of said gangs who are also rcips
If you have evidence of that, send it to TIPS.
Quite the opposite: Caymanians have a very high tolerance of criminality. Even political gatekeepers in positions of duty and trust, handling public funds, and forming policy, can be elected with extensive criminal histories. Will Julianna back up her empty proclamation by taking steps to tackle corruption by reinstating SIPL, increasing transparency, expanding the Committee’s independence and power, and sponsoring a Bill to amend the Elections Law to prohibit candidates with dishonesty and criminal histories? Not going to hold our breath on that. Voters are going to have to lobby for this change, and if you want a reason, successive administration tolerance of the gangs, and their shadow economies is exactly what the problem is.
THIS! They say a fish rots from the head. I don’t know if that’s true or not but Cayman is rotting from the top down. There should be no place in government for convicted criminals. Shame on those whose precious votes were so easily bought.
why are you surprised governor?
you stand over a government which includes people convicted of serious criminal offences….that think the rules of the law don’t apply to them.
Stop building your Cayman Brac school and put that 100,000,000 toward safety in driving, gun control, education, and policing
We already spend an astonishing $200m a year on education, the most per pupil in the world!
A “Watershed moment”. Really? We’ve had dozens of these “watershed moments” over the last 30 years.
The watershed is very similar to the high-water mark, always subject to change and exceptions.
Like the high watwr mark the level of violence before we accept there is a problem always seems to get higher and higher. Like public beach – no vending at all was tolerated, then a little, and nownits not the publics beach, its the cruisers and tourists and vwndors beach. Incremental, but always to the negative. We are boiling the frog. We will be Jamaica in afew years and everyone will say” how did that happen”. Because we accept what haooens and dobt do anything to stop it. Just wait. Predicting tabt rather than a crashibg wnd to gang violense in “public” spaces and a return to shootings in “gang areas “ which RCIPS seems to think is accoetable, we will get a retaliatory shooting by the gang targetted this time followed by another tit for tat, and sooner or later an innocent dead member if the public caught in the cross fire. Kurt is already preparing his “but its far worse in other Caribbean islands “ speech.
And guess what, they are bringing the food truck and vending opportunities to the new Pease Bay Public Beach across from Meagre Bay Pond as well as Coe Wood Beach in Bodden Town!!
We do not have a competent police service. Ain’t that right, Jon Jon.
The Governor’s primary responsibility is Good Governance.
We do not have Good Governance.
Our education, planning, training, and immigration systems are all failing.
Our standards of acceptable behavior are in free-fall. Our people are being marginalized and displaced.
None of this is new. All of this was foreseeable.
We do not consistently follow our laws, and almost never enforce them.
Beach vendors, anyone?
Sandy – serve these bastards some tea. I am confident Wendy will join for a cuppa or two. A democracy without a press conference or opportunity to ask and demand detailed questions? Any accountability?
Her Excellency, who has responsibility for national security, has NO clue! She wants to get rid of “dangerous guns”. That says a lot to me!!