Former British Colony of St. Lucia Alleged to Have an Interesting Strategy of Maintaining Attractiveness to Tourists: Marking Criminals For Assassination

Via @lachlan, this is actually the exact plot of Hot Fuzz. There, the little British country hamlet murders vandals, beggars, and "crusty jugglers" to preserve its best-village-in-England status.

But this is reality -- or at least the allegation is real.

Police in the former British colony of St Lucia have been accused of keeping "death lists" and carrying out extrajudicial killings of suspected criminals in an attempt to make the Caribbean island more attractive to tourists.

According to an independent report officers from the Royal St Lucia Police Force "staged" a dozen shootings and reported them as murders by unknown assailants, planting weapons at the scene.

Prime Minister Kenny Anthony delivered a televised address in which he said the findings of the report, which has not been published, were "extremely damning."
The shootings took place in 2010 and 2011 during a security drive called Operation Restore Confidence which was aimed at reducing violent crime and boosting tourism.

In January 2014 British tourist Roger Pratt, 62, was murdered as four men stormed his yacht near the southern town of Vieux Fort.

At the time of Operation Restore Confidence the St Lucia government issued a public warning to criminals that "there will be no hiding place for anyone."

Okay, this is also partly the plot from Clear and Present Danger.

posted by Ace at 02:43 PM

| Access Comments