Make education a deterrent to gangster lifestyle – ACP Powell
ARMED WITH knowledge that high-school students are targets for recruitment into criminal gangs, head of the Criminal Investigation Branch, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Ealan Powell, has said that the problem must be confronted head-on by prioritising education.
He said that developing strong leadership at all levels of society is needed to bring the nefarious practice to an abrupt end.
Powell was responding to yesterday’s Gleaner lead story titled ‘Shotta students’, which purports that gangs are targeting high schools to recruit the next generation of killers.
“It is clear that we are in a serious battle to save our young people, our boys, in particular. I think it is a serious situation when gangs are able to recruit directly from the schools and I also believe that strong leadership at all levels and making education a real priority may be the only way to put an end to this,” he stated.
Powell said that a failure to denounce certain aspects of our culture could result in gangs having a stranglehold on the nation’s children, many of whom have been hijacked by a culture of guns and gangsterism.
“Everywhere you look, there are students with flashy, name-brand clothes and expensive gadgets, yet they don’t have books. Certainly, that tells us that the priority is not education,” Powell said.
“The gang recruitment in our schools is a real and present concern for us, and if we fail to arrest the problem now, then we will be in for a really bleak future,” he warned.