One of Bermuda?s most distinguishing features has long been our gunless Police officers. The absence of firearms has been a comforting site for our visitors and residents alike; an indication that violent crime hadn?t arrived at our shores. Oh how times have changed.

While the Police remain outwardly unarmed, the criminals are not. Today this is largely an illusion. The heavy artillery is only a ?10-4? away, in the form of the Emergency Response Team (ERT), that increasingly visible team responsible for everything from court transfers to regular weekend miniriot control.

Any venue, any neighbourhood, any street is prone to gang warfare; be it a nightclub, in broad daylight on Church Street, or most recently on a Government ferry. Our Police understand the need to arm themselves better than their opponents, hence the ERT, which brings to mind that line about not bringing a knife to a gunfight.

But there?s nothing funny about today?s crime wave. Thankfully, for now at least, gunfights remain more the exception than the rule. However, the weapon of choice for Bermuda?s gangs ? and let?s call them that because that?s what they are ? is clear. The regular use of machetes is disturbing, in many ways more so than guns. It?s sick, it?s depraved, and it signals that some of us are so demented that we?ll mutilate and dismember a fellow human being for sport.

No longer can Bermudians sit in the comfort of our living rooms, observing scenes of violence continents away, secure in the knowledge that it won?t happen here. It already is, with regular and horrific incidents of violent machete attacks dominating the news. Say what you will about the gun crime that plagues our North American neighbour, but the wielding of a machete against another person is grotesque. Shooting someone, while horrific, is a much less personal act.

For starters there?s the physical distance between you and your target, de-personalizing the attack to some extent. The shooter doesn?t have to get his hands dirty, allowing a bullet to tear through the flesh of their target. Here our gangs practice a brutal form of hand to hand combat, with machete attacks so commonplace that ?chopping? is now a standard term. And ?chopping? someone is intensely personal.

There?s no standing back 20 feet, driving by in a car, or hiding behind a wall. With a machete you?re right there, face to face, looking someone in the eye while you attempt to slice off their arm or split their head open. It?s long past time to put a stop to this. We can?t allow these brutal and barbaric butchers, people who are willing to invade busy public streets at lunchtime, to settle their petty personal vendettas and take over the island.

The prospects of progress are bleak unless the Government admits that we have a serious problem. Sadly they?re unwilling or incapable of taking that step, preferring instead to play on the fringes rather than tackle the problem head on. So I?ll say it for them: We have a gang problem. A major one. These are not rowdy kids, they?re not young men who sit on a wall, they?re gangs, and violent ones at that. Rather than go after the criminals directly, the Government has attacked the press for printing these stories, demonised the Opposition who are begging for action, or complained about the US Consulate?s travel warnings. This neglect has helped the problem to explode to its current levels.

What they should have been doing was equipping the Police Force ? not a Police Service but a Force ? with the resources, skills and manpower to end this once and for all. If this means recruiting another 100 officers, Bermudian or otherwise, then let?s do it. Sadly, until the Premier stops seeing the Police as primarily an independence pawn, this won?t happen. The Government has to get serious before they can get a clue.

Someone once told me that the majority of crime in the 70s and 80s was committed by a core of 50 repeat offenders. His solution? Hire 150 cops, working eight hour shifts, to follow these 50 guys around 24 hours a day. His comment was half serious, but there?s some logic to it. While our criminal element has clearly grown since the 70s and 80s, our gangs are a relatively small group. So let?s assign some cops to follow them around.

So far the legislative changes seem to have the effect of making it more difficult for the Police to police, with PACE and ATI skewing the system in the direction of the criminals and turning cops into desk clerks. Before we spend time and resources on the pet projects of politicians, let?s secure our community. Tackling this epidemic probably includes upping the salaries of our prosecutors to attract more and better lawyers. It means increasing the penalties on witnesses who withhold information.

It requires a total revamp of the criminal justice system, both punishment and enforcement. So let?s do it. Bermuda is a small place. We know who these guys are. The offenders are known to many of us, and almost certainly the Police. A good place to start looking would be through the long list of outstanding warrants.

So let?s get out there and follow them around, round them up. It?s time to put the law-abiding citizens first for a change.

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