Investigation into The Root Causes of Crime in The Bahamas is Urgently Needed

The Bahamas Government Can Best Prevent and Address Crime by First Setting Good Examples

Pursuing Sustainable Solutions to Combat Crime and Hostility in The Bahamas with a Collective Approach

By Dr Kevin Alcena

Nassau, The Bahamas

The Bahamas is grappling with significant challenges related to crime and violence, impacting communities and hindering progress within society. While legislation plays a crucial role, addressing these complex issues demands a comprehensive strategy that includes various sectors of society.

This article explores the key aspects of a collective strategy to curb crime and violence in the Bahamas, emphasizing the empowerment of communities, the establishment of a compulsory national service, the enhancement of education, the application of scientific approaches, and economic reforms.

Community Empowerment

Central to the reduction of crime and hostility in The Bahamas are initiatives that focus on the community, offering education, vocational training, and social support to at-risk youth. Such programs can divert these individuals from criminal activities by providing opportunities for positive involvement.

Furthermore, cultivating a relationship of trust and cooperation between law enforcement officials and community members via community policing can significantly decrease crime. This method promotes dialogue and partnership within communities.

National Service

Implementing a compulsory national service program stands as a crucial element in reducing violence and criminal actions. Involving youth in structured tasks such as environmental conservation or improving public amenities can foster a sense of responsibility, self-control, and collaboration. These activities not only equip them with skills valuable for employment but also open up educational opportunities, presenting a constructive alternative to criminal behaviors.

Education and Literacy

Ensuring access to quality education and literacy is vital to breaking the cycle of poverty and curtailing involvement in criminal activities. By launching literacy campaigns across the nation, The Bahamas can enable its citizens to pursue better employment opportunities, make informed decisions, and contribute to societal development. An increase in literacy rates can elevate economic conditions, reducing the desperation that can lead individuals to engage in crimes.

Scientific Initiatives

Investing in scientific research focused on crime prevention and social improvement can reveal important insights and innovative strategies. Utilizing evidence-based approaches is key in identifying the fundamental causes of crime and violence, leading to the development of effective deterrents and interventions. Collaboration among government agencies, academic institutions, and community organizations is necessary for creating tailored solutions that cater to the specific needs of Bahamian communities.

Economic Reform

Gaining a comprehensive understanding of both formal and informal economic sectors is essential for effective governance and crime reduction in The Bahamas. Meticulously recording economic activities, including those in the informal sector, enables authorities to monitor business practices and directly address illegal operations. Integrating informal sectors into the formal economy provides them with access to resources, legal protection, and growth opportunities, thereby reducing the allure of criminal endeavors.

In efforts to decrease crime and violence, The Bahamas must adopt a strategy that addresses social, economic, and administrative challenges. Strengthening communities, engaging citizens in national service, enhancing education and literacy, allocating resources to scientific research, and pursuing economic reforms can create an environment conducive to security, prosperity, and the well-being of all citizens.

The dedication of government officials, social organizations, and the business community is imperative for the successful deployment and lasting effectiveness of these measures. Through persistent efforts and a commitment to change, The Bahamas can establish a foundation for a future free from the scourge of crime and violence.

The Infestation of Crime in The Bahamas

Crime emerges from our lifestyles and the deliberate or inadvertent efforts by family members, friends, and acquaintances to hide criminal activities. Crime is a manifestation bred inadvertently by society’s actions.

According to the French nobleman Marquis de Sade (1740-1814), “Crime embodies lust. What would pleasure be without the thrill of crime? It’s not the debauchery itself that excites us, but the notion of committing evil.”

Former US FBI Director John Edgar Hoover (1895-1972) emphasized that within the upbringing and education of family members, it is crucial to “impart truthfulness to the children.”

CRIME: A SOCIOLOGICAL PHENOMENON

The term “CRIME” originates from the Latin word “CRIMEN” and is defined in BLACKSTONE'S CRIMINAL LAW BOOK as “the act of committing an illegal activity.”

The first recorded crime, a homicide or murder, was committed by Cain against his brother, Abel. Historically, crimes were considered sins. Hence, crime has existed since the sin of Adam and Eve and will persist till the end of days.

“Sociological” is derived from the French word “Societe” and the Latin “Socius,” meaning “Society.” The term “Phenomenon” comes from the Latin “PHENOMENON,” referring to “any observable fact that can be scientifically described” by humans.

Thus, when it is said that “crime is a sociological phenomenon,” it means that crimes are acts committed by individuals based on environmental or societal influences through the senses. Crimes are perpetrated through the senses of touch, sight, hearing, taste, and smell. By touching and feeling, one can commit the crime of homicide, through sight and hearing, the crime of pornography, and through taste and smell, the crime against consuming drugs in all their varieties.

A super predator, essentially a psychopath, can commit heinous acts like murder and rape without remorse, believed to be due to the absence of a functioning conscience.

Most crimes, such as murders, rapes, robberies, and other violent offenses, are committed through the senses of touch and feeling. Crimes are classified as blue-collar, committed mostly by the impoverished, and white-collar, committed by those more affluent.

The notion that charity begins at home extends to evil as well.

It follows that parents, with rare exceptions, are not to blame for their offspring's crimes, just as political parties, politicians, or police are NOT responsible for citizens’ crimes. Nevertheless, the governing party, whether PLP or FNM, alongside the Police Commissioner, has a sworn duty to prevent, reduce, and solve crimes. The Attorney-General commits to prosecute all crimes committed by anyone, “without fear or favour.”

The ruling government can best prevent and address crime by setting a good example, establishing proper infrastructure like more entertainment and sports facilities, and promoting friendly relations between the police and the populace.

Additionally, everyday citizens have a responsibility to look after one another and follow the golden rule.

The perspective above is merely a starting point. Further investigation into the root causes of crime is urgently needed.

Not every perpetrator is apprehended. Many cleanly-dressed criminals, in suits or uniforms with polished shoes, walk among us in The Bahamas. The French Philosopher Voltaire noted, "If every man had to display his crimes on his forehead, he would wear his hat over his eyes."

Focus must be on: (A) The Resolution of Crime, and(B) The Rehabilitation of The Offender.

A systematic cultural shift in addressing crime, including the restructuring of the Royal Bahamas Defense Force and establishing a commission to tackle corruption levels, is necessary for the Bahamian people.

This would inevitably foster a culture of respect within society. The government maintains zero tolerance towards corruption.

The Resolution of Crime

Two methods for resolving crime include: The Preventive Approach, and The Practical Common Sense Approach.

The Preventive Approach

The Book of Proverbs in The Holy Bible advises parents to guide their children in righteous ways, promising they will adhere to these teachings lifelong. In essence, instructing children to follow Biblical teachings, such as the ten commandments, love for God and neighbor, the golden rule, and manners.

Source

...had Hubert Ingraham walked on water to deliver emergency supplies in the wake of hurricane Irene, his critics, for political or other reasons, would have lambasted him for not coming by boat or helicopter; except, of course, the MP for MICAL, who would have insisted on an airplane even to communities with no airstrip

Post-Irene politics and mindsets

Front Porch

By Simon

Hurricane Irene laid bare homes, businesses, churches, public buildings, farms and vegetation across the archipelago.  It also laid bare certain mindsets.  Among them, rank political opportunism by the leader of the opposition and the knee jerk complaints of some whose stock-in-trade is the intellectually disingenuous.

One can almost give the former prime minister a pass as he grasps at just about any opportunistic straw to criticize the current prime minister, even when such criticism is transparently silly or even blatantly hypocritical.  In the aftermath of Irene, both were on display.  The knee jerk complainers are in a class of their own.

Most Bahamians see through Christie’s laughably insincere two-step charade of criticizing others for what he typically failed to do or accomplish when in office. These failures range from issues on crime and education, to disaster preparedness and response.  His administration’s failures following Hurricanes Jeanne, Frances and Wilma encapsulated its lethargic response to an array of policy matters.

 

DRAMATIC

As Christie took potshots at the Ingraham administration while simultaneously calling for national unity, and the complainers engaged in their anti-Ingraham tirade, more neutral observers rendered their independent observation of the country’s response to Irene.  In an editorial titled, “Taming one of nature’s most furious beasts”, The Jamaica Observer editorialized:  “If Mr. Ronald Jackson, the director of Jamaica's Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), wanted a dramatic demonstration of the benefits of being prepared for a hurricane, he can safely choose the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) or The Bahamas for that matter.

“Pounded by 27 hours of flood rains and gusting 100 miles-per-hour winds from Hurricane Irene last week Tuesday and Wednesday, the multiple island nations – in particular, TCI which was the worst hit – were a textbook example of staving off the horrors of one of nature's worst beasts.

“Instead, having to confront a trail of disaster, the [Turks and Caicos] islands can take much satisfaction from the fruits of preparedness and effective teamwork which helped to mitigate the effects of the hurricane, proving that any disaster can be made into a triumph when a nation works together in that indomitable spirit of the Caribbean.

“The same could be said of another archipelago, The Bahamas, which also took a severe battering from the category three hurricane.”

The editorial continued:  “Disaster preparedness personnel and businessmen who have heavy investments in the two countries said they reaped the benefits of designing buildings to code specification and to minimize the effects of flooding, while suffering minimal structural damage.

“In some cases, anything that could be moved was tied down or taken indoors.  Equipment that would be necessary for the recovery process after the storm, [was] readied and protected.  As a result, the clean-up exercise began the minute the storm allowed.

“A day after the winds and rains abated it was difficult, but for photographic evidence, to tell that a major hurricane had struck the islands.  It was testimony to the resolve of the government and people of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and The Bahamas, and a model for our disaster-prone Caribbean region.”

 

COMMENDABLE

The editorial further noted:  “Both countries depend heavily on tourism and it was commendable to see staff from the hotels volunteering to ride out the storm with guests who could not or did not want to leave, knowing that their own homes could be flooded out or suffer structural damage.

“That is the spirit that should permeate the entire Caribbean, not only during the hurricane season which runs officially from June to November, but even when there is no disaster threatening.”

 

One of the editorial’s conclusions:  “Had the TCI and The Bahamas not heeded their disaster preparedness offices, they might now be on hands and knees begging for assistance.  Instead, they have set an example of how to tame one of nature's most furious beasts.

“Still, we are aware that many lives have been disrupted even if none was lost.  We are therefore pleased to hear that the U.S. Agency for International Development's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance is working with Jamaica's ODPEM and other Caribbean disaster-response agencies to conduct aerial reconnaissance of damage to The Bahama islands.

“The mission will focus on the worst-hit islands, enabling participating agencies to assess damage and plan relief operations.”

The preparedness and response of which the editorial spoke were not perfect.  By example, the Bahamas Information Services could have performed better in supplying a more consistent and comprehensive flow of information to the public and the media during and after Irene.

But in the main, officials met the challenge of responding to significant and diverse emergency needs and services across our far-flung archipelago as quickly as possible.  Understandably, some were frustrated by a lack of electricity and water, especially in various Family Island communities.

Likewise, officials in a number of states in the United States have been similarly challenged by a massive hurricane that affected millions from the Caribbean to New England.

These states had at their disposal the massive resources of the U.S. federal government; assistance from other states which could be transported by road; and help from as close as Quebec and as far away as British Columbia in Canada.  Yet many residents in these states are still without electricity and water.

Hurricane preparedness revolves around a complex set of issues and readiness mechanisms many of which Hubert Ingraham has addressed, though few of which his dogged detractors will admit.   He continues to advance environmental initiatives from wetland protection to land and town-planning that will mitigate the impact of hurricanes.

 

COMICAL

It was the Ingraham administration that created the National Emergency Management Agency in the first place.  And, it is building a permanent state-of-the-art facility for NEMA while continuing to improve the country’s capacity for national emergencies.  Christie would be thought less comical and more credible had he done as much for emergency management as has Ingraham.

The Ingraham administration’s hurricane preparedness efforts include another component of which the opposition and the inveterate complainers have criticized for diverse reasons.  That component is the ambitious and comprehensive New Providence roadwork -- much of which is nearing completion.

Perry Christie doesn’t hate Hubert Ingraham; he simply wants his job.  But the Ingraham-haters do dislike the man.  Yet, both connive, often unwittingly, to deny the prime minister of achievements plain for all to see.  Christie can’t give Ingraham credit because it doesn’t suit his political interests.  The Ingraham haters can’t because hate renders one blind and incapable of reasonableness.

The massive New Providence road corridor project that is helping to transform and modernize New Providence will place more utilities underground, better securing them from future hurricanes.  The project will also help significantly to mitigate flooding because of an extensive new drainage system.  The complainers are incapable of admitting as much.

Before Irene, Prime Minister Ingraham took to the airwaves warning of the potential impact of the hurricane.  Fortuitously, there was no loss of life due to the actions of citizens as well as public officials including the prime minister whose quick action may have helped to save lives and avoid injury.

Ingraham also quickly reported to the nation in the aftermath of Irene after initial assessments and his immediate visits to affected Family Island communities.  In his long-term efforts in disaster preparedness and the rapid response to Irene, the prime minister has demonstrated a comprehensive approach to disaster management.

In a twist on a well-known parable, had Ingraham walked on water to deliver emergency supplies in the wake of Irene, his critics, for political or other reasons, would have lambasted him for not coming by boat or helicopter; except, of course, the MP for MICAL, who would have insisted on an airplane even to communities with no airstrip.

 

frontporchguardian@gmail

www.bahamapundit.com

Sep 06, 2011

Caribbean Blog International

Bahamian Communities have called for police to stop the bloodshed

'Stop the bloodshed'

It is also up to the Bahamian People in The Bahamas to ensure the place in which they live is a community

By MEGAN REYNOLDS
Tribune Staff Reporter
mreynolds@tribunemedia.net:

A spike in murders once again has everyone on the alert.  Communities have called for police to stop the bloodshed.

They want to see more officers on the streets preventing the murders - like the six that occurred in a space of just six days last week - from happening in the first place.

This is a challenge police will struggle to face on their own,

Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade explained as he sought to reassure residents of Pinewood in a walkabout with his senior officers on Tuesday...

But as residents saw the convoy of shiny police cars crawling through their corners with a small fleet of media vehicles, they closed their doors.

One young man came out to talk to Mr Greenslade, but upon seeing the magnitude of the procession, the swarm of police officers, and reporters with television cameras, others ducked back in behind the safety of their own four walls.

Talking to the police does not look good in Pinewood.

A man was gunned down here just days ago and that was the latest in a string of violent killings over the years.

Although the majority of people say they feel safe in Pinewood (85 per cent according to MP Byran Woodside's August 2009 survey), it is also well known that being too cosy with law-enforcement does not make you popular with "the people in power."

By "the people in power" they do not mean the police, or Mr Woodside and the political big-wigs, but the young men, and less frequently women, who are arrested, charged and arraigned in connection with crimes as serious as firearm possession, armed robbery, or violent assaults, and then walk freely from jail, their bail bonds secured by self-interested lawyers.

They are released and welcomed back into the working-class families of Pinewood Gardens, and other neighbourhoods like it.

These criminals are not foreign to us, Mr Greenslade said.

They are not from the immigrant Haitian or Jamaican communities who Bahamians so willingly blame for our social strains and rising violent crime.

None of the six murders over six days bear signs of Jamaican-style "yardie" killings.

The deaths were not connected to any particular ethnic group or nationality.

They were simply committed by people with "evil in their hearts", the Commissioner concluded.

He also said the bloodshed is not confined to "hot spots" or no-go danger zones to be avoided in order to avoid gunfire.

No, the senseless killings, the unconscionable shootings, such as that of pregnant Marie Claude-Saintilien, 23, and of 30-year-old Fresh Creek, Andros, resident Tevaris Minnis, the week before last, are not indicative of good neighbourhoods turning bad.

The deaths are not happening as a result of an influx of violent foreigners carrying out an attack in an otherwise peace-loving nation.

No, these violent crimes are being committed by people in our own families, living in our homes and in our neighbour's homes, in suburban areas like Pinewood Gardens, where they are not only known to us, but they are known to their local police officers, detectives, prosecutors, magistrates and prison guards.

"These are people known to you," Mr Greenslade said.

"These are our relatives, and they are in and out of the system, having been arrested and then allowed to walk freely in our communities. That is very powerful."

How or why those suspected of such serious crimes are released into communities at the risk of being a menace to society - which the Commissioner asserts they are - begs a bigger question and one the Commissioner was unwilling, or unable, to answer.

But his unnerving assertion, said to reassure Pinewood residents and other neighbours of the most heinous crimes that it is not their community that poses a threat but people in it, is still not the most comforting of statements.

Nor is it any comfort to know many of those who have been killed have also been through the wheels of the criminal justice system.

Because several of them are also due to appear as witnesses in court, or like the four-year-old boy shot in Pinewood recently, they just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Perhaps Mr Greenslade wanted to somewhat diminish the power these bailed criminals have by showing the people being killed are also not strangers to crime.

It certainly puts a damper on the attraction of the gangster lifestyle presented by these freed suspects who serve as examples of just how much Bahamians can get away with.

Sadly they become role models for the most vulnerable youngsters who lack the support and protection of good parents and guardians who might tell them any different, Pinewood resident Angelo King, 21, told me last week.

They show these youth how easy it is to get by in a bad economy if armed with a handgun.

Dealing drugs, robbing people in the street and breaking into their homes at opportune times to steal whatever may be worth selling will surely help you get by without having to worry about the high unemployment rate, taxes, traffic, and all those other hassles and stresses associated with having a job and being a functional and productive member of society.

And with no repercussions - at least not in the criminal justice system - it would seem to many a smart path to choose.

Children as young as 10 are drawn into housebreaking rings and trained to steal anything worth selling instead of going to school.

Mr King said the only thing that saved him from the influence of this path was his basketball talent, which he developed and worked hard at to earn a university scholarship and then graduate degree in psychology.

He said more positive role models are needed, and the police Commissioner tried to live up to this need when he invited the 4ft members of the Bahamas American Football Alliance team to Police Headquarters to meet some positive role models.

He explained how it is possible to carry a gun on the right side of the law and still get to play in Nassau's great game of the Wild West.

Certainly police appear to be stepping up to the plate as the Commissioner responds to calls from the public to speak out when they need reassurance, and shake-up the force as necessary, increasing the number of detectives on the homicide squad from two to five in recent months.

Duty officers have taken more than 133 illegal firearms and over 2,600 rounds of ammunition off the streets since January.

And as the rate of crime continues to plateau at a stomach-churning level, with the occasional peaks and troughs making us feel either less sick or more so, police are consistently charging suspected criminals and bringing them before the courts.

As of Friday, at least three people had been charged in connection with three of the six murders, which took place between June 21 and 26, and the Commissioner expects investigations will result in the charging of suspects in the remaining cases.

Among those arraigned last week was Kendrick Sands, 33, of Matthew Street, Nassau Village, who was charged in connection with the fatal shooting of Atlantis worker Kifftino Davis, 20.

Mr Davis, of Peardale Street off Wulff Road, was gunned down by an unknown assailant, near his home at around 2am last Sunday.

His mother said he was due to testify in the upcoming murder trial of Pinewood Gardens resident George Carey, 21, a friend and colleague of Mr Davis' who was stabbed multiple times near Lockhart's Bar, Wulff Road, in May.

For Sands it is the second murder charge he has faced in just over a year, as he was arraigned on charges in connection with the January 2009 Nassau Village shooting of Onando Newbold in February last year and had been released on bail.

After his arraignment on Thursday he was remanded in custody. Police also charged Prince McPhee, 34, of High Vista Estates, last week, in connection with the fatal shooting of murder-accused Bradley Ferguson in Sequoia Street, Pinewood Gardens, on Saturday June 26.

Ferguson had been acquitted of murder charges earlier this year, having been accused of killing pregnant Rosemary Bennett-Wright and her five-year-old son Jakeel Wright in March 2002, as well as of the attempted murders of Devonna Brown and Omega Fox.

Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade and his team stopped near Ferguson's home during their procession through Pinewood, which is within site of the crossroads where seven murders had occurred in recent memory - including the double murder of a mother and son in January last year.

But police did not make clear whether this unmarked road - first said to be Sequoia Street and then Avocado Street - was also the place where Ferguson - armed with a handgun and bleeding profusely from multiple gunshot wounds - forced himself into the parked car of a mother and her three children and severely traumatised the whole family before he became the country's 47th homicide victim last Saturday.

Mr Greenslade spoke to people in the strip-mall business places on that corner in an effort to reassure upstanding members of the community that police were doing their utmost to prevent violent crimes, but he also had to remind the suffering public there is only so much he and his men can do.

With the criminal justice system bursting with a whopping 257 murder cases pending as of April this year - and areas of the prison also oversubscribed - the crime level is more than just a policing issue.

As Mr Greenslade said in his roundabout way - there are other executive bodies to also be held accountable.

Just last week Magistrate Carolita Bethel granted $10,000 bail to a suspect arraigned on several serious charges, including the shooting of a child in Pinewood Gardens two weeks ago.

Pinewood resident Tyson Deveaux, was charged in connection with the shooting of a four-year-old boy in Brazilletta Street, on June 14, an incident in which he also was shot.

He had previously been accused of the murder of Marlon Smith on April 19, 2009, and was also accused of the murder of Corrie Bethel on May 10, 2007.

When he was first arraigned on June 18, Deveaux was remanded in custody by Chief Magistrate Roger Gomez.

But when he reappeared before Magistrate Bethel, facing two additional firearms possession charges in connection with the Pinewood shooting on June 24, he was freed on $10,000 bail with two sureties - one being that he had to surrender his travel documents to ensure he stayed in the country.

Why the suspect in connection with such a serious succession of crimes was granted bail by a magistrate regarded as one of the strictest in Nassau's court system is not known, but the public has no choice but to welcome him back into their communities until he returns to court on August 14 for the rest of his future to be decided - or adjourned.

Because if some of them are not welcomed with open arms, the fear is that by resisting their return we will become the next bloody mess, and murder victim number 48, 49 or 50 - no small number for halfway through the year.

The Commissioner was right when he said their bail release is very powerful indeed.

Perhaps this is why Bahamians are so "tolerant" as the Commissioner said.

"I am very concerned that we as Bahamians are so tolerant," said Mr Greenslade.

"We cannot allow young Bahamian men to continue to walk the streets of our country 24/7 with illegal weapons, selling drugs in our communities, and poisoning our children.

"That's not a policing problem - that's a Bahamian problem.

"If a person is walking our streets on bail and believes he or she is above everybody else, I don't know how policing will prevent that.

"It's very important that all Bahamians report these matters.

"This is about all of us as Bahamians saying 'enough is enough'."

I am certain for many of those who heard or read his statements genuinely feel "enough is enough" whether they have experienced murder and violent crime directly, read about them daily in the newspapers, or choose to avoid the news altogether in an effort to protect themselves from having to digest the unsavoury facts.

I am sure the residents of Pinewood who were intrigued by the uniformed police chiefs parading through the area, but were too intimidated - either by the police officers themselves or the criminals living in their neighbourhoods - to speak to Mr Greenslade and his colleagues, have had enough of the crime.

Who wants to live in a community where you are afraid to speak out?

Where if you witness a murder, you could be the next victim?

Perhaps it is a situation people have become used to, but surely it's not the lifestyle of choice - and, yes, you do have one.

Unfortunately the intimidation of witnesses has become so common it may seem to be the only way of going about things.

As suspects' families celebrate the homecoming of their bailed loved-ones, witnesses of crimes that the suspects may or may not have been involved in, cower in their homes and lock their doors.

Pinewood mother Maria Scott lost her son Marcian Clarke, 31, four years ago. He was shot dead outside their Willow Tree Avenue home in Pinewood Gardens shortly before he was due to testify as a key witness in the murder of his former police patrol partner.

It's hardly surprising that after his partner was killed Mr Clarke left the police force for a job at Atlantis, but changing jobs was not enough to leave the front-line.

As a key witness, even his own efforts and the efforts of police could not protect him.

And with the recent case of Mr Davis's killing, it's little wonder people are so unwilling to come forward when it comes to informing the police.

As a reporter I have walked through neighbourhoods in Pinewood, off Wulff Road or East Street, to try to talk to residents about the latest crime, and the dozens of people sitting around who may or may not know something about it will not say a word.

Sometimes an unwary child will point me in the right direction, or divulge some interesting details, and very occasionally someone bold enough to speak out will do so.

But the long and short of it is - they do not feel safe to appear to be on the right side of the law.

Just as witnesses in murder cases whose names appear on court dockets and are called to testify in court may be vulnerable to freedom-hungry predators with blood on their hands, anyone who happens to see one of the dozens of cold-blooded killings committed in public places, and often in broad daylight, is also exposed to the vulnerability of a witness.

Ways of protecting witnesses could be worked out - by removing their names from the dockets, and having them sign a sworn statement rather than appear in court.

Ways of protecting people from bailed suspects could also be maintained by keeping enough officers on foot patrols in neighbourhoods to ensure the criminals are the ones who are cowering and not the law-abiding citizens.

This simple suggestion was put to me by a pair of bright young men who spoke candidly about Pinewood, the home they know and love, as a place neglected by anyone with the power to change it, as it lies hidden from critical eyes in some central south-eastern area of New Providence to be visited only by those who live there.

They brushed off the police "walkabout" as a PR exercise that would not change the problems of their community, because under the scorching mid-morning sun, there is little criminal activity for them to survey in Pinewood Park.

The officers need to be there on the streets day and night if they are going to maximize police efforts to stop the bloodshed; then even if the criminals are going to be freed on bail, at least they will not get the opportunity to strike again.

As Mr Greenslade said, without these "evil-hearted" individuals the neighbourhoods would be safe, so the balance has to be altered to bring it back to the good.

Young people in Pinewood want more resources to be given to community groups, or invested in the beautification of the community, and they need positive role models.

They criticised their FNM MP for not doing enough to support community groups, and for letting community resources fall into disrepair.

And taking the criticism with the sensitivity of an insecure teenager, or a politician, Mr Woodside chose not to return my call to answer questions about why the swings in Pinewood Park hang broken, why the basketball hoop has not been repaired for years, or why the garbage cans are overflowing, and the grass is overgrown and dumping is so common on empty lots, home to rusting abandoned vehicles.

Instead, Mr Woodside released a press statement highlighting what he had done to clean up the area, including spending nearly all of the $200,000 allotted to the community between 2007 and 2009 on community projects, including a clean-up campaign ($34,500).

And to be fair to Mr Woodside, it's not really up to him to baby-sit the children, teenagers and young adults who keep breaking the basketball hoops, or are reluctant to stop tinkering with rusted broken down cars over the decades so new cars may feed off their old parts.

It is also up to the people themselves to ensure the place in which they live is a community.

If Kevin Moss, the 20-year-old Pinewood resident who spoke to me this week, is as passionate about helping the young people in the community as he said he is, surely he can do that without a handout from his MP.

Yes, he needs support, but if the handful of families who want to keep Pinewood crime free can work together, perhaps they can crystallise those common ideals they have for their children and their neighbours' children, and realize those opportunity for the next generation.

By taking their own angle on the fight against crime, through increasing positive activities, showing they are not afraid, and being courageous enough to reclaim their neighbourhoods, they can help improve their communities while the police keep an eye on those system-worn suspects they know to look out for, and court administrators can get to work on addressing that mammoth backlog churning out bailed suspects who put us all at risk.

July 05, 2010

tribune242

The Bahamas Prime Minister, Perry Christie Announced His Government's Social Agenda

Prime Minister Perry Christie said that it is a priority of his government to continue what he called an innovative approach to social policy formation...

PM Unveils New Social Agenda

 

By Candia Dames

Nassau, The Bahamas

Journal Staff Writer

05/27/04

 

The Government of The Bahamas will in the coming fiscal year create an Urban Renewal Authority to continue a social programme of which the prime minister is becoming increasingly passionate about.

Prime Minister Perry Christie made the announcement Wednesday while making his budget communication in the House of Assembly.

“The Authority will be provided with its own budgetary resources to pursue the process of urban renewal on an expanded basis with the greatest possible vigour,” he said.

Mr. Christie said that it is a priority of his government to continue what he called an innovative approach to social policy formation so that better housing, health and youth development services are provided as budgetary resources become increasingly available for allocation to these services.

He labelled the Urban Renewal Programme – an offspring of his Farm Road Project – a closely coordinated, multi-faceted and comprehensive strategy aimed at transforming the country’s inner-city communities into vibrant, dynamic and healthy centres of human habitation.

“At the same time, individual lives will be transformed positively,” Mr. Christie said.

He announced that 128 additional lots have been earmarked for low-cost housing and community parks as part of the programme.  Mr. Christie also pointed out that in the last two years, his government has constructed 558 new houses.

Pointing to a “crucial” feature of the programme, the prime minister said it involves the private sector making a contribution, including computers and musical instruments for youth development initiatives.

The social programme contains a component supported by the Inter-American Development Bank for skills training and other activities to assist in the formation and execution of strategies for youth development, he announced.

“Since the Urban Renewal Programme is intended to draw on increasing resources and participation from our partners in the private sector, the budgetary component derived from the Public Treasury and from the Inter-American Development Bank constitute a part of the overall financial mass which is being dedicated to the programme,” Mr. Christie said.

He also announced that the Inter-American Development Bank has accepted the extended invitation of The Bahamas to host the 2006 annual meeting of the Bank in Nassau.

“This reflects the excellent relations between the Bank and the Government of The Bahamas,” Mr. Christie said.  “The meeting will be a major international event at which The Bahamas will be positioned centre-stage.”

Bahamians Should Be Critically Concerned about The Level of Criminality in The Bahamas

Some members of the Royal Bahamas Police Force (past and present) have been accused of working on the opposite side of the law and in engaging in misconduct in the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases

The Bahamas Crime Crisis

The Police, Crime And Criminality

By Charles Fawkes

Nassau, The Bahamas

07/05/2004

HOUSE OF LABOUR:  Given the revelation of the Lorequin Commission of Inquiry regarding the alleged criminal conduct of individuals of the Defence Force and the shortcomings of the police force, Bahamians should be critically concerned about the level of criminality in The Bahamas.  Bahamian workers these days are living behind barbed wire fences, steel barred windows and doors because of the fear of crime- despite the high profile of the police and their high-powered public relations campaign.

Crime in The Bahamas continues to climb despite mounting national concern, the introduction of stiffer penalties for offenders and increased police visibility throughout local communities.  The crime figures for this year are expected to continue the upward spiral and all indications are that crime will continue to mushroom.

In almost every area of serious crime, the trend continues to be a movement upward – upward in terms of both quantity and severity.  Most social analysts do not wish to accept the quarterly figure that the police some times use to justify their approach to crime as correct.  Statistics can be manipulated unless the whole picture is given.

The crime issue has been the subject of widespread public debate and will continue to be an issue of national importance.  Before coming to power the PLP had foreshadowed taking a heavier hand in the control of crime and in the administration of justice.  From subsequent debates in the House of Parliament, many politicians seemed prepared to deny convicts all civil liberties and to transform The Bahamas into a police state in the name of combating crime; and, on this wave of alarmism, support could be galvanized for laws with stiffer penalties for criminal offenses, for capital punishment and for the enforcement of archaic laws mandating the beating of convicts as part of sentencing.

Despite all of these perceived crime-fighting initiatives, there has been no noticeable impact on the crime crisis.  As a matter of fact, a more daring and open element has been added to criminal activity in recent years and even some members of the police force (past and present) have been accused of working on the opposite side of the law and in engaging in misconduct in the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases.

While crime continues to escalate and officials persist in suppressing crime statistics, the gloom of rampant social and economic hardship are overtaking Bahamian communities and strangling the hopes and aspirations of law abiding citizens.  These communities are becoming incubators for infectious criminal mentality and a social decadence that touches every strata of Bahamian society.  The more people know about the crime problem, as it exists in The Bahamas, the more intelligently they can approach the question of solution.  Holding back the crime statistics the way it is practiced now runs counter to this idea and is a tremendous disservice to the public who, in the end, are victimized by the epidemic.

“Varnished Brass”, a book by John Gregory Dunne has these opening lines: “What most people do not understand about policemen is that they are bureaucrats and, no matter how dedicated, all but the most exceptional adhere to that most fundamental commandment of any bureaucracy – “protect your backs”.

There are, however, fundamental facts about police work that most people do not understand and seem to forget.  One of these facts is that in our class divided society, policemen like all workers are exploited.  They are also used as instruments of coercion and enforcement by the ruling class.  We know that the ruling class in societies like our own consists of the monies interests for whose benefits the laws are passed.  Because of their special role, the police are usually the object of the anger and the frustration of the people,  when the real oppressors are the members of the ruling class who make the laws and in effect give the orders.  Given what has been said, when things go sour for the rulers as we are now witnessing, the policemen are the first to be sacrificed and thrown to the wolves.  It is because of occupational hazards like these that policemen even more than other “bureaucrats”, adhere to the bureaucrat’s commandment – “protect your back”

It is also true that because of the nature of his work, we tend to think that the policeman is different from other workers.  He is not.  Conditions in society, which affect other workers, also affect the policeman.  He has a wife who goes to the food store and must decide what will be cut from the shopping list because her budget is too small.  He has a child with promise attending a government school, but he knows that his dreams for his child and the profession that he has in mind for it may not materialize, unless he can get him or her into St. John’s College, Queen’s College, or similar schools.  It is to the private schools that senior police officers and the other privileged members of society send their children, and average workers are killing themselves trying to send their children to such schools.  It should be obvious by now that the average policeman faces the same obstacles that stem form class and privilege as his fellow workers.

The typical rank and file policeman is tired of paying rent, but even with their combined salaries, his wife and himself still have difficulty saving the down payment for a home of their own.  He like the average worker also has a car, which it seems is always in need of expensive repairs, but he has to scrap the money, for the car is absolutely essential for family transportation.  The policeman or policewoman like every other worker must also contend with the emergencies which make demands onto heir inadequate salary, so he or she is denied luxuries and has to scuffle just to meet medical and dental bills.

What makes the policemen’s plight even worse, is that in neocolonial countries such as The Bahamas, they work under an archaic and repressive colonial system that gives a minimum of expression to the aspirations of the rank and file.  In some cases, it is very dehumanizing.  Most policemen despite all this talk about a ‘new police force’ and devolution are concerned, that the colonial masters have not left.  The same rigid, hierarchical system, which our former English masters, established in the colony to keep the native policeman in his place, still exists.

In The Bahamas, rank and file policeman constantly complain of favoritism and victimization in the department but have few avenues for redress.  Many would leave the force immediately, if they were not trapped by a contract and if there were other jobs available.

Finally, it is true that most policemen are honest and try to do the best job they can.  However, with the recent charges of brutality as dishonesty, it is easy to think otherwise.

 

Charles Fawkes is President of the National Consumer Association, Consumer columnist for the Nassau Guardian and organizer for the Commonwealth Group of Unions, Editor of the Headline News, The Consumerguard and The Worker’s Vanguard.