Prime Minister Gaston Browne has called on police to use physical force against young people suspected of snatching chains from victims, signalling a hardline stance on petty crime even as he acknowledged the remarks would draw criticism from human rights advocates.
According to Antigua News Room, Browne made the comments during his weekly programme on Pointe FM on Saturday, in the context of a broader discussion about the government's efforts to manage a proposed third-country deportee agreement with the United States.
"We have some little petty crimes of people pulling people's chains off their necks and so on," Browne said. "I don't know why the police don't set up some sting operation and put some licks in their skin. It's high time we start. Put some blows on them. Tell me about the human rights and some of them young thieves—they bang them, put some blows on them."
The prime minister said he was concerned by a recent uptick in opportunistic crimes, including gold chain robberies, and argued that law enforcement should respond more aggressively to deter such incidents.
Browne's remarks also addressed the ongoing negotiations over third-country nationals that the United States may seek to transfer to Antigua and Barbuda. He defended the government's position that any such individuals must have no criminal record and must not be suffering from serious illnesses, with U.S. authorities required to certify both conditions.
"The point I'm making here is that we are not in a position, obviously, to say that we can't take any. But I think that we can take the moral high ground on the issue of criminality," Browne said.
The only exception the government said it would consider is a violation of U.S. immigration law. "The only crime that we will accept… is if they had some immigration violation," Browne said, noting that Antigua and Barbuda has historically addressed undocumented migration through periodic amnesty programmes rather than criminal prosecution.
Browne further argued that the country lacks the infrastructure and resources to manage hardened or sophisticated criminals who may have developed criminal expertise while living abroad.
"I also said to them that we don't have the sophistication to deal with very sophisticated criminals, many of whom exist in your society," he said. "They learn the skills right in those countries, including the United States, and you're going to send them back here? What do you think of that? You're going to destroy our country."
The prime minister's call for police to use physical force against suspected petty criminals is likely to spark debate, particularly among civil society and human rights organisations.
