Resources to fight crime under utilised

THE PEACE Management Initiative (PMI) aims to provide a viable platform for managing conflicts and tries to break down barriers between conflicting groups to bring about cooperation so they can sort out their differences. “It’s expensive,” Plummer shared with Fourth Floor. “(It’s) Not only mediation; you have to do counselling, you have to do restorative justice, you have to meet people where they are.” These include persons who have been burnt out of their homes and have to be relocated. It could also be family members left destitute after the breadwinner has been killed. If the PMI is working so well, why does it look like crime and violence is spiralling out of control? This is a question Plummer is asked all the time. “It’s hard to say OK, we stopped two murders today. But we are out there on the ground and we know how many killings we have stopped.” Plummer speaks passionately about her work in the community, where liberal prescriptions of youth mentoring, trauma counselling and violence interruption are applied to soften the hard edges and prevent simmering tensions from boiling over.

It was the consensus of Fourth Floor participants that the PMI, and like organisations which are doing excellent work in communities, should be properly supported by the Government and community stakeholders.

Because of the hand-to-mouth existence of some of these organisations, they are mere steps away from closure. Consultant psychiatrist Professor Wendel Abel stressed that these organisations must be sustained because of the good they do for society.

He continued; “It’s not that there is a lack of resources ... . Sometimes it is not adequately utilised. I know of programmes, initiatives in ministries that are supposed to address the crime problem, and the resources are not utilised. Sometimes, funds are sent back to the funding agencies and it’s because we are not prepared to do different things and do things differently.”