BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — The president of the Barbados Private Sector Agency, Allan Fields, at the weekend made an impassioned plea for a national assault on the crime wave which he said was “tearing up” that Eastern Caribbean country.

“We must join together to ensure that the police capture these terrorists and let them feel the full weight of the justice system,” Fields was quoted as telling the Sunday Sun newspaper.

Speaking against the background of an upsurge of gun violence involving robberies at banks and other business places, Fields, who also heads the major business group, Barbados Shipping and Trading, said:

“What these criminals are doing is destroying all that we have built up. We are finding ourselves in the shocking position where we are now barricading ourselves both at home and at work.”

In recent weeks, police and media have been reporting an escalation in rapes, armed robberies and narco-trafficking activities. Some of these crimes have involved students at secondary schools.

A sample of recent headlines in Barbadian newspapers captures the mood of apprehension about the threat being posed to law and order by the criminals:

‘String of robberies worry cops’; ‘Hold-ups going up’; ‘High alert — business boosting security as bandits strike again’; ‘War on crime’; ‘Full force — cops striking back’.

Among the businesses that have been hit by armed robbers are Scotiabank, CIBC, The Mutual Bank, LIAT, KFC outlets and a number of gas stations. None have disclosed the sums of money stolen from them in the various criminal attacks.

Some banks are now locking doors behind customers and there are gas stations that have suspended all cash transactions after 11:00 pm, advising their workers to exercise maximum precaution and “don’t try to be heroes”.

The services of professional counsellors have had to be summoned by various business enterprises to assist badly-shaken workers traumatised by the banditry of armed robbers.

According to police data, robberies and attempted robberies involving the use of firearms during the first three months of this year are more than 60 per cent above the corresponding period in 2001.

Just last Saturday, the attorney-general and minister of home affairs, Mia Mottley, made a public appeal for the public to become much more actively involved in co-operating with the police in the ongoing battle against crime.

She has also pointed to the existence of an underground market for stolen goods from those involved in robberies, and urged that closer attention be paid to suspected purchasers of stolen property.