The writing was on the wall for young black males

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30:

Editor’s note: This column was first published in the Bermuda Times in July 1992. Larry Burchall invites readers to draw parallels with what is happening today.

We have in our midst a large, strong, but hidden army of mostly male Bermudians. The existence of this army has already had a strong impact on all our lifestyles.

As short as ten years ago, it was almost unknown for ordinary Bermudians to be fitted out with home burglar alarms or ‘security systems’. Today, more than 1,500 ordinary Bermudian homes are so equipped. A large number of ordinary Bermudian neighbourhoods now have ‘neighbourhood watch schemes’. Neighbourhood Action Groups are now being encouraged.

Why have ordinary Bermudians begun to retreat into fortress homes?  Why are ordinary Bermudian neighbourhoods becoming enclaves? Could it be that many ordinary Bermudians sense a very real threat? Do they feel the close presence of a force that will invade their homes and steal or damage their possessions, and possibly cause them physical harm?

Perhaps they are doing the right thing. Perhaps it is right that they should go into their little fortresses, pull up their little drawbridges, and then hunker down in a state of alert watchfulness.

Seriously though, is there really a silent, hidden, threatening force in our midst? A force that is seen as posing a threat to any one of us, or to all of us? Once again, look at the sales figures for home burglar alarms, look at the number of neighbourhood watch schemes; look at the growth of the private security business; look at the level of crime as shown in our court system; listen to the recent threat by taxi-drivers to curtail their service to ‘certain areas’; listen to the Attorney General’s recent comments.

When you’ve looked and listened, you will recognize that – as a whole community – we have, especially within the last ten years, taken an awful lot of measures, and spent an awful lot of money, to protect ourselves and our possessions from something.

 That something is what I call “the silent, hidden army”. Others have called it a “significant minority”.

How big is this army? You can get an idea of its size by looking at the US Government’s “stoplist” of Bermudians. In 1984, the US stoplist contained the names of more than 1,500 Bermudians. Given the number of drug convictions since then, the stoplist is likely to hold more than 1,600 males on today’s list.

I’ve never seen this army marching on parade. It wears no easily identifiable uniform. It has no visible commanders or leaders. I do not know where it places its loyalty. I do not know what its objectives are.

Who created this army? It came into being as result of the sustained efforts of two people, with occasional help from a third. These two people are Mr Somebody and Mr Nobody, with Mr Everybody lending intermittent assistance.

Every person who is sent to prison (this army’s prime training camp), is committed only after careful deliberation by intelligent and learned jurists. But it is clear, now, that it was really Somebody who was sending people to prison while Nobody was making any real effort at rehabilitation; with Everybody accepting this lack of effort.

When Somebody greatly expanded, improved, and gave new direction to our whole education system; Nobody made a clinical, objective, and honest examination of the real output of the new ‘improved’ system. Thus Nobody observed the enormous squeeze-out rate for young males. And Nobody noticed the enormous growth in the rate at which young males were going off to jail (the army training camp).

All of us, but with each of us in his own separate little community, conceived and bore our cute little baby boys; busily built our personal careers; started our successful businesses; grew our grand institutions; put up our pretty houses; and then laid out our luxurious swimming pools. Even as we were building our ‘well-deserved’ comforts, Somebody was assembling hundreds of our uncared for young males into an army – under the watchful eye of Nobody.

And that is how we came to have a hidden, silent, but obviously effective — and feared — army in our midst.

Clearly, all too clearly, and especially over the last ten years of fighting this army, we have been pursuing the wrong strategic objectives. We have been defending ourselves with the wrong weapons and inappropriate tactics; because over the last decade the silent, hidden army did not diminish or retreat. Instead, it grew stronger! Much stronger!

Our own new, expanded, and strengthened defences are proof! (But having improved our defences – why the devil are we building a bigger better Training Camp?) [*2011 Note – Work on the bigger new Westgate Correctional Facility had just begun.]

All military strategists and tacticians know that every defence system is finally penetrable; and that all defenders who cower in shelters are easily vulnerable. Thus, if all that we do is to try to defend, we will ultimately lose.

What can we do? The very first thing, the most important thing, that we must do is to get to know our hidden adversaries. Where they are! What they are!