The re­gion­al as­so­ci­a­tion for po­lice of­fi­cers is call­ing for tougher penal­ties—even the death penal­ty—for crim­i­nals who at­tack or kill po­lice of­fi­cers while they are per­form­ing their law­ful du­ties.

Ac­cord­ing to the Caribbean Fed­er­a­tion of Po­lice Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tions (CF­P­WA), it is the on­ly way to guar­an­tee law and or­der re­turns.

In a strong­ly-word­ed state­ment, the re­gion­al po­lice of­fi­cers’ as­so­ci­a­tion ex­press­es con­cern that the killing of po­lice of­fi­cers is be­com­ing com­mon­place, and laments the fact that the re­gion re­mains al­most silent on the is­sue.

In the state­ment, the CF­P­WA points to two re­cent fa­tal at­tacks on po­lice of­fi­cers in the re­gion—in one in­stance, a po­lice of­fi­cer's car was fire­bombed, while an­oth­er po­lice of­fi­cer was shot.

“It ap­pears that the at­tacks on and the killing of po­lice of­fi­cers have been nor­mal­ized in­stead of be­ing viewed as an at­tack on the state,” CF­P­WA said. “We note with great dis­ap­point­ment that very few voic­es have come out to con­demn these acts against our mem­bers, yet many will come out prompt­ly in de­fence of crim­i­nals.”

It added: “A po­lice of­fi­cer has a fam­i­ly too. We want to ask, where is the pub­lic out­rage or out­cry when a po­lice of­fi­cer is at­tacked or killed?”

The CF­P­WA called for harsh­er penal­ties to be ap­plied to those who at­tack po­lice of­fi­cers.

“We stand firm­ly be­hind the calls for the death penal­ty to be ap­plied to any­one found guilty of killing a po­lice of­fi­cer,” the re­gion­al body stat­ed.  “We urge the coun­tries with the death penal­ty on the books to use it; hang them. They need to be put to the gal­lows in front of their fam­i­lies and friends. Crim­i­nals must un­der­stand that their ac­tions have con­se­quences.”

“It must be made un­equiv­o­cal­ly clear to crim­i­nals that when you take the life of an agent of the state, you have giv­en up your right to life when you are found guilty in a court of law,” the CF­P­WA as­sert­ed

It al­so called on re­gion­al leg­is­la­tors to join the fight.

“Make the nec­es­sary amend­ments to re­flect harsh­er penal­ties for peo­ple who at­tack agents of the state, those peo­ple who have been en­trust­ed to pre­serve and main­tain law and or­der,” the re­gion­al body added.