...for those Bahamians who think there is no reasonable offering to vote for at the next general election - 2012, ...you should rest assured that there are many other ways to participate in the advancement and governance of The Bahamas

Does it matter if you vote?

thenassauguardian editorial

Interesting debates always emerge when the question is posed as to whether or not citizens living in democracies should feel obligated to vote.

Most democracies were fought for. People who campaigned for freedom, self-governance and civil rights were jailed; some were murdered; some were beaten and many others were victimized. Some of these fights were actual wars.

In this context, we all should take the vote seriously. It is not a right, but a gift fought for by those who came before us.

As we all sit and evaluate the political parties and independent candidates who will offer for public office in the run-up to the next general election, we should make every effort to determine if there is someone on the ballot good enough to vote for.

Those who do not think there is anyone good enough to vote for should consider entering the race or the political process.

But if the ballot is filled with poor candidates, what should a voter do?Should voters feel compelled to vote?

No, they should not. Voting is an important part of the democratic process. However, voting should not be confused with democracy. Democracy is about self-governance. As citizens, we have a responsibility to do this everyday not just every five years.

By working at a charity, providing assistance to the homeless, democracy is at work; by volunteering as a mentor at a school, democracy is at work; by raising an educated, hardworking law-abiding citizen, democracy is at work.

So for those who think there is no reasonable offering to vote for at the next general election, you should rest assured that there are many other ways to participate in the advancement and governance of The Bahamas.

A group of residents in a community can easily come together, approach their public school, and start an after-school literacy program for the children falling behind, for example.

Simple initiatives such as these, if done by many individuals or by many groups, can do much to change the lives of the disadvantaged and the soon-to-be lost.

Elections are important; voting is important. But if you think the mainstream political parties are pathetic and the independents are incompetent, do not distress. You can exercise your democratic power everyday by doing something to help build the community.

Nov 04, 2011

thenassauguardian editorial

Caribbean Blog International

To address our crime problem comprehensively, we must address our way of life comprehensively... But we haven’t the will

Gangster’s Paradise Part 2

By Ian G. Strachan

This week we continue our series on crime in The Bahamas.  It seems fitting to take stock of the research and consultative work that Bahamians have already undertaken. We will work backwards about 20 years, with reports we have easy access to.

We begin with Police Sergeant Chaswell Hanna’s 2011 study, “Reducing Murders in The Bahamas: A Strategic Plan Based on Empirical Research” (available at 62foundation.org/resources).  These are among the more interesting facts and observations made by Hanna.

First, the murder rate for the past 12 years (I have added the last two years):  2000-74; 2001-43; 2002-52; 2003-50; 2004-44; 2005-52; 2006-61; 2007-78; 2008-72; 2009-79; 2010-94; 2011-109 so far.

Between 2005 and 2009, the period Hanna studies most closely, 13 percent of murders involved domestic violence, 18 percent took place during robberies, eight percent happened outside or in bars and night clubs and 61 percent involved a firearm.

Hanna notes that of the 349 classified murders between 2005 and 2009, police were only able to build 243 cases – 231 charges were filed but only 130 murder cases were sent to the Supreme Court.  Only 34 cases were completed in the time frame and there were 10 murder convictions, eight manslaughter convictions and zero executions.

So for cases that actually were completed, there was a 53 percent conviction rate.  But of the 349 classified murders between 2005 and 2009, only 37 percent resulted in a trial.  And, so far, only five percent of murders resulted in someone being convicted of either murder or manslaughter.  To put this another way, 95 percent of the murders during this period remain unpunished.  This is despite the fact that police believe they have identified the murder suspect 73 percent of the time between 2005 and 2009.  Hanna claims that 54 percent of murder suspects offered a full or partial confession.

Hanna noted that “most local murder incidents in New Providence occurred in communities where annual household incomes fell below the island’s average.  This indicates that preventive strategies aimed at particular offenses ought to be complemented by, and complementary to, broader long-term initiatives to address poverty and social exclusion.”

There’s more.  He adds: “Findings in this study revealed that 46 percent of persons charged with murder [2005-2009] had prior criminal records involving violence.  In fact, 15 percent of these suspects had been previously charged with another murder.  Further analysis disclosed that 34 percent of persons charged with murder during the study period were on bail.”

 

Previous crime reports

From Hanna’s report we move to the 2008 National Advisory Council on Crime Report (available at 62foundation.org/resources).  The council was headed by Bishop Simeon Hall.  This report makes an array of recommendations from the standpoint of policing, the judicial system, incarceration and rehabilitation and prevention.  In addition to calling on government to encourage and assist citizens to establish voluntary crime watch programs, such as the citizens on patrol program and to expand the educational, vocational and entrepreneurial projects and programs currently being taught at the prison, inclusive of the training of personnel, the report pays particular attention to youth development.  It calls on government to:

• Strengthen and/or develop community centers and national afterschool programs.

• Strengthen rehabilitative services for all special populations – youth, disabled, substance abusers and persons diagnosed with mental illnesses by the use of multidisciplinary support teams.

• Promote positive lifestyles and culture for young people.

• Ensure the wider dissemination of information on youth organizations, programs and services.

• Strengthen the national educational curriculum to instill a greater sense of national pride and self-esteem in young people.

• Significantly raise the standards and performance of our education system and our nation’s students.

• Support and/or expand existing parental training.

• Strengthen and make mandatory the family life studies program in all schools.

Thirteen years earlier, in 1998, Burton Hall, David Allen, Simeon Hall, Jessica Minnis and others submitted the National Commission on Crime Report.  I have a particular interest in the following points made by the team, although these are only a fraction of the ones made:

• The incidence of “domestic violence” throughout The Bahamas is of such a level as to be a cause for grave concern among all residents, and innovative measures are required to cure this plague which replicates its consequences among succeeding generations.

• Commissioners are of the view that the reversal of our present problems begins with the elementary need to teach people how to parent.

• Commissioners add their voices to the lament of the small number of men who have remained as teachers in the system.  This problem tends to perpetuate itself in that young men, seeing teaching as “womens’ work,” would not be inclined to themselves become teachers.  The reasons for this are complex, and obviously tied up in the question of remuneration.

• New Providence is filthy.  That is the stark reality ... squalid surroundings strongly suggest a mentality conducive to other forms of anti-social activities, extending even to criminal behavior.

• We have no evidence that Haitians are, as a people, any more prone to violent or criminal behavior than are other peoples, including Bahamians.

• While a number of churches have developed community centers and host, for example, afterschool homework quarters, it appears to us that the physical facilities controlled by various churches remain largely underutilized.

The 1998 report revealed that really, nothing much had changed since the Consultative Committee on National Youth Development, led by Drexel Gomez, shared its findings in 1994.  Among many other things, it called on government to:

• Discontinue social promotion and, at the same time, produce alternative programs for under-achievers.

• Establish a training/research center for teachers to provide ongoing monitoring of the educational system with appropriate emphasis on the social, emotional and cognitive needs of Bahamian youth.

• Provide ... special incentives to males to enter the teaching profession.  Our committee considers that the virtual absence of male members of staff in the primary system is adversely impacting on the performance of male members of the student body.  Our committee is also of the view that this matter should be addressed as a national emergency requiring special measures to alter the present imbalance.

• Commission the Department of Statistics to conduct a youth labor survey

• [Initiate] A “Media Summit” at which the government and all social partners, particularly the media, advertisers and sponsors, will be invited to consider a national policy on the media and to identify ways and means to establish stronger indigenous media.

• [Cause] The Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas [to] place special emphasis on the production of appropriate youth programs for television and radio.

• Encourage sponsorship of local educational programs by the creation of fiscal incentives.

• [Encourage] The private sector to promote and sponsor productions that convey a sense of Bahamian identity.

• [Develop] Community centers at the neighborhood level or constituency level.

The committee wishes to recommend that community centers be established as part of the fabric of each community to assist young people and adults with lifelong skills and personal enrichment programs.  Such facilities can rekindle the sense of community participation and cooperation among the people who must take charge of their communities.  The strategy employed by the government to ensure that at least a park is in each constituency throughout The Bahamas is an important step in the right direction. Equally important is the need for a policy decision to ensure that a community center is part of each community.

 

What have we done with this research?

More on this final note.  The committee envisioned that these centers would develop programs to “satisfy the educational, social, economic, spiritual, cultural, sporting, civic and community service needs.  Additionally, areas of day care, children’s programs, afterschool programs, teen programs, school drop-outs and adult education and senior citizens activities can be provided at the community center.  The goal should be to establish a community center in each neighborhood or settlement.”

Of course, former MP Edmund Moxey tried to model this in Coconut Grove as far back as the late 1960s and early 1970s, with his Coconut Grove Community Centre on Crooked Island Street and the now demolished, but not forgotten, Jumbey Village.

These initiatives involved a high level of community effort.  Sir Lynden Pindling is credited with calling for national service in the 1980s, but this idea was being advanced in his cabinet by men like Moxey from the nation’s first years.  Sir Lynden bulldozed and starved Moxey’s dream to death.  And in the 44 years since majority rule, I know of no other effort like the Coconut Grove initiatives by any church, state or civic group.

Why haven’t we acted on these recommendations as common sense as so many of them are?  What are we waiting for?  The people’s anguished call for the blood of the murderer will continue to go unanswered.  There will be no shortcut to peace and prosperity.  The hangman’s noose won’t save us.  The policeman cannot be everywhere at all times.  The prison cells cannot hold all the people who need to be confined, disciplined and punished.  There will be no shortcut to commonwealth.  To address our crime problem comprehensively, we must address our way of life comprehensively.  But we haven’t the will.

More next week.

Oct 31, 2011

Gangster’s Paradise Part 3

Gangster’s Paradise Part 1

thenassauguardian

Caribbean Blog International

Castro and the US Cuban embargo: Be afraid, be very afraid

By Rebecca Theodore


Deck the halls with boughs of holly. It’s the season for propaganda. The spurs of the Florida electoral school are freshly cut. There is a sweet perfume. It is the perfume of votes renewed on the minds of Republicans. The US Cuban embargo is now inconsistent with traditional American liberties. Isolating Cuba was a mistake. It is time for a different policy. An image of flexibility has arisen just before the 2012 elections, as talks on Cuba always do. Afterwards, the blockade and the sanctions will remain intact.

So strike the harp and join the chorus. There is a need for dialogue. Cubans have been continually seduced and subverted and drawn across the line. They have been pushed almost beyond oblivion behind an iron curtain. The effects are jolting. It is not the season to be jolly.

Congress tells of Yuletide treasure but each time their efforts to ease the embargo are frustrated by Republican leadership. It is clear that it is Cuban-American activists concentrated in southern Florida which supports the embargo and Republicans feel indebted to please them at the expense of garnering votes in the upcoming presidential elections.

Hence, lifting the embargo is not about freedom for the Cuban people. It is about the unwillingness of Republicans to let the larger interests of the US and their own constituents be sacrificed to the gods of electoral politics.

In a country where education and health are triumphs of a revolution and where health care is a major export that it is in even paid for in oil, critics argue that the embargo now belongs to history; for in a post-Cold War zone it has outlived its main objectives.

Thus, the blazing Yule is as egregious as it is asinine and compounds fear and hypocrisy. Intriguing questions arise.

How can an embargo be lifted when the brutal abuse of human rights continue? What about the wrath of the Helms-Burton Act, where US courts continue to impose penalties on foreign companies doing business in Cuba?

It is true that the US can no longer continue to be the global laughing stock for using an embargo as a weapon of foreign policy against the Cuban people, while at the same time failing to impose trade sanctions against China because of its poor human rights record. It would be disastrous if we returned to business as usual without pausing to take note that the Chinese government has jailed and killed far more political and religious dissenters than has the Cuban government. Yet, China is America’s third largest trading partner while the maintenance of a blanket embargo on commercial relations with Cuba still prevails.

Rumours of lifting the embargo on the eve of an election year are dubious in theory and cruel in its potential practice. It is not a victory for Fidel Castro or his oppressive regime but just an overdue acknowledgement that a five-decade embargo has failed. While the Cuban people would be a bit less disadvantaged, lifting the embargo only shows that commercial engagement is the best way to embolden open societies abroad.

Henceforth, Obama’s ‘incremental design’ should be allowed to continue with the expansion of trade and tourism, for it is trade and development that give people tools of communication, i.e. cell phones, satellite TV, fax machines, and the internet in order to destabilize tyrannical regimes.

It is trade and development that increases the flow of goods and services and enlarges the scope of ideology, technically tailoring freedom in their path, thus giving birth to democracy and demands for better democratic institutions.

Following in fearful measure, America now bears the guilty burden before the world, while Cuba at 50 faces pressure for change. Stars shine in the Havana sky as if to answer the wind's defiant call. And the moon, crowned with yellow gorse dances fearful shadows in the courtyard of the dead.

November 2, 2011

caribbeannewsnow

Bahamas Blog International

Community policing, Urban Renewal and The Bahamas' crime problem

For those who want to see the ugly head of crime in The Bahamas crushed with the utmost speed, community policing is one of the many answers

tribune242 editorial

ANY POLITICAL party that tells a community that Urban Renewal, whether it be Urban Renewal 2.0 or 4.04, is a quick fix for this country's crime problem is fooling the people by encouraging them to clutch at moonbeams.

This is not to denigrate Urban Renewal, which is a long-term solution, the effects of which will probably not be able to be properly assessed until the next generation.

However, for those who want to see the ugly head of crime crushed with the utmost speed, community policing is one of the many answers. In fact, community policing - the initiative of the Royal Bahamas Police Force - morphed into Urban Renewal and, unfortunately, into the arms of politicians during the Christie administration.

We have been told that the Urban Renewal programme received an international award. In fact, it was not Urban Renewal that received the award from the International Association of Commissioners of Police (IACP). Rather, it was the Royal Bahamas Police Force. And this was how their community initiative was described in the IACP's 1999-2006 report: "The Royal Bahamas Police Force worked with area residents to form a community task force comprising officers, members of local churches, the business community, residents, and reformed gang members. The task force patrolled the streets on foot, and in vehicles 24 hours a day, seven days a week, leaving criminals little time or space in which to operate."

Now this is where Urban Renewal came in: "The task force," said the IACP, "also worked with the Departments of Social Services, Housing, Environmental Health, and Public Works to improve living conditions."

One of the award winners was Farm Road's marching band, started by the police with the assistance of business persons. There was no political affiliation with this programme. The boast today of the Eastern Division's marching band, again a police creation, is that they are of award-winning standard. When Urban Renewal came along, the police continued their community policing programmes, but got diverted to add muscle to the work of social workers who government had introduced into the various communities under the name of Urban Renewal. Of course, things moved more efficiently when backed by a police officers' orders.

For example, if an Environmental department employee gave instructions for the removal of derelict cars, they could expect some "lip". But for the order to come from a police officer, it was a "yes, suh" and a shuffle into speedy action.

However, one of the many criticisms of what is now known as Urban Renewal was that the workers who were attached to the programme were especially selected by PLP politicians. It was soon discovered that serious people were sitting around a table having discussions with persons who could hardly read or write.

It did not take the Ingraham administration long to understand how community policing had been hijacked. As a result, the police were removed from the social services side of the programmes and sent back to doing what they did best and for which they had won an international award -- community policing. That does not mean that if needed the various social services cannot call on them for assistance. They are called on, and they do respond.

According to Mr Christie, the urban renewal programme established by his government offered people hope. It had had noteworthy results in communities in which it had been established. He promised that if returned he would renew Urban Renewal with a stepped-up programme -- Urban Renewal 2.0.

"There is a compelling need in this country for us to recognise that we are out of control with crime and that we do know the influences that are affecting the young people," Mr Christie told members of the House in discussing the various crime bills then being debated.

Meanwhile, the police are continuing with their community programmes - among them after-school programmes for young people. There are the after-school programmes in the Eastern Division, highlighting Fox Hill, the Western Division, and the Central division with the 242 model programme for young people with behavioural challenges. The Southern Division has included in its programmes a Crime Watch Group for business persons to assist them in patrolling their businesses.

And so social services -- a branch of Urban Renewal -- continues with its programmes in the communities, while the police are now free to step up their community programmes in addition to tracking down criminals.

November 01, 2011

tribune242 editorial

Kerzner International's Bahamas Managing Director George Markantonis warned The Bahamas to expect a big hit on its tourism product if the three massive casinos proposed for Miami-Dade and Broward counties are built next year

A threat to the Bahamas' tourism industry

tribune242 editorial


IN A recent article in The Tribune John Issa of Breezes warned that "the Bahamas, and more particularly Nassau and Freeport, will have to put more effort into developing and promoting our other resort attractions because gambling will be less of a draw than it was in years past". Also, he said, the cost of doing business in the Bahamas would have to come down, if this country hoped to compete internationally.

On Friday, Kerzner International's Bahamas Managing Director George Markantonis also warned the Bahamas to expect a big hit on its tourism product if the three massive casinos proposed for Miami-Dade and Broward counties are built next year.

As Mr Issa wrote: "Since the birth of Las Vegas over 60 years ago, casinos were considered, during the earlier decades, a sufficient attraction to be the main draw for a resort or destination."

When gambling was legalised in the Bahamas - over the loud objection of the Baptists - the fact that these islands were only a 30-minute flight from Miami set the gambling addict's heart aflutter. Regular charter flights from the US were provided weekly by the Lucayan casino to fill its gambling tables. It proved a good business and was certainly a revenue spinner for the Public Treasury.

It eventually spread to Nassau and fairly recent legislation provided that any hotel with a certain number of rooms constructed on any of the Family Islands could include a gaming room as a part of its attractions.

While it lasted, it brought in good business. In those days, committed gamblers - and there were many -- had to travel many thousands of miles to find a casino. There were the casinos of Las Vegas, Monte Carlo, Maçau, Baden Baden, Havana and Nassau. These were the areas that rolled the dice.

Today, there is such a proliferation of casinos that one no longer has to travel any distance. A player can even stay at home and indulge in online betting. That indeed is the rub for the Bahamas. No one has to book a charter any more to get to the gaming tables.

Baha Mar's 1,000-acre, $3.5 billion Cable Beach resort, which aims for a 2014 opening, boasts that with a 100,000sq ft space it will have the largest casino in the Caribbean. It says that it will be twice the size of Atlantis, which when it was opened on Paradise Island by Resorts International boasted that it was the largest casino complex in the Bahamas. In those days, that was indeed a proud boast -- it had put Freeport in the shadows.

And now comes Florida -- just a half hour away -- threatening all of them with the world's largest casinos.

The obvious difference between Atlantis and Baha Mar is that the Cable Beach venture - misreading the market trend -- is banking on attracting the convention and gambling crowd. Atlantis - although it too went for conventions in a big way just before conventions were being curtailed in the US, and nurtured its casino business - decided to create a family-oriented resort. In the end, it might find itself -- with its magnificent display of marine life and water attractions -- in the best position to weather the resort storm when the need for offshore gambling starts to fade.

Tempting Florida, which was hard hit by the collapse of the housing market, and high employment, is an offer by Genting Corporation, a Malaysian company, to build three lavish $2 billion casinos in South Florida.

"And with the promise of tens of thousands of sorely needed jobs and many millions of dollars in tax revenue, Florida politicians are recalibrating their positions," reported Lizette Alvarez of the New York Times on Friday. The artist's drawings of the three casinos are indeed surreal as they point skyward on what appears to be layer upon layer of large saucers. Obviously, they have not been designed with hurricanes in mind.

Already Genting, according to The New York Times, has paid $236 million cash for The Miami Herald's headquarters on Biscayne Bay. It has also bought neighbouring properties to make up 30 acres for one of the casinos.

In addition, Genting has promised Florida the world and more besides to get its commercial heart beating again. It is an offer -- considering the economic times - that will be hard to refuse.

In January, a casino bill will be debated in the Tallahassee legislature. It will have to change Florida's position on gambling if the Genting project is to get off the ground. And this is where the future of the Bahamas' tourism hangs in the balance.

Although there is a strong lobby supporting the Genting proposal, Disney, Florida's most powerful corporation, is totally against. Disney claims that casinos - certainly casinos on such a large scale - will destroy Florida's theme park image. Disney is backed by the Chamber of Commerce.

"Expanding casino gambling in Florida would never make sense in a good economy," said Mark A Wilson, the president and chief executive of the Florida Chamber of Commerce. "And the only reason they are even targeting Florida is that they are hoping that desperate people will reach for desperate measures. There is never a good time to push a bad idea."

Not only does Florida's future hang in the balance, but come January so does the Bahamas'. As Mr Issa and Mr Markantonis have said, it is now up to the Bahamas to improve its product. Mr Markantonis pointed out that the advantage that Florida has over the Bahamas is that it has "drive traffic and we have airlift".

Airlift is another sad story for another day.

October 31, 2011

tribune242 editorial

Caribbean Blog International

The marriage of politics and crime in The Bahamas is a long standing one shrouded in silence

Gangster’s Paradise Part 1

By Ian G. Strachan

Crime and the political class

There is no greater problem facing The Bahamas, as far as the average Bahamian is concerned, than violent crime.  Unfortunately, violent crime is itself merely a manifestation, a symptom of deeper problems, troubling weaknesses in our systems, institutions, communities, families, psyches.  Some of the weaknesses are beyond our control – such as our size, our geographical fragmentation and proximity to the largest consumer society in the world.  Others exist because of our own neglect, incompetence, complicity, fear and ignorance.

It seems sometimes as if we want with all our hearts to do away with the shameful symptoms of our disease: Murder, rape, armed robbery, as if these were ugly, painful lesions on a pretty face, but we have no matching zeal to cure ourselves of the disease that lurks deep within, creating these conspicuous eruptions.

Over the next few weeks we will explore the vexing matter of crime in The Bahamas.  We will try to be guided by the research and considered thoughts of those who have already dedicated time and effort to these problems (because I have no interest in re-inventing the wheel).

Where we are

First, let us put our current situation in The Bahamas in perspective – regional perspective.  Here, we are alarmed at our murder rate.  I don’t wish to say that the alarm is misplaced, but I’d like to look at the murder rate for a moment as a regional phenomenon.  Where do we stack up?  In 2010, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Trinidad and Tobago had 472 murders or 35 per 100,000 people.  The Dominican Republic had 2,472 murders or 24 per 100,000.  St. Lucia had 44 or 25.2 per 100,000.  Puerto Rico had 983 murders or 26 per 100,000.  Jamaica had 1,428 or 52 per 100,000; Dominica 15 or 22 per 100,000 and The Bahamas 96, or 28 per 100,000 people.  (Police now say we only had 94 in 2010.)

The Caribbean nation most like our own demographically and historically, Barbados, had 31 murders in 2010.  By comparison, the U.S. had five murders per 100,000 people, Canada had 1.8 per 100,000 people, Japan and Singapore had 0.5 murders per 100,000 people and Germany 0.8 per 100,000.  You can see then that as a region we are recording very high murder rates compared to the industrialized countries.  In fact, the Caribbean has many of the highest murder rates in the world.  I could not find murder rates higher than The Bahamas’ anywhere outside of the Caribbean, Africa and Latin America.  Before this series is done I shall have discussed that phenomenon with some of our criminologists and sociologists.

Crime is much, much broader than murder, as we know, but murder captures everyone’s attention because it is the most serious, most shocking of crimes.  A 2007 World Bank report on crime and its impact on development in the Caribbean noted that: “The high rates of crime and violence in the region have both direct effects on human welfare in the short-run and longer run effects on economic growth and social development.”

That should sober us.  Crime and violence have deep seated economic impacts.  The report also noted that “the strongest explanation for the relatively high rates of crime and violence rates in the region – and their apparent rise in recent years – is narcotics trafficking.”

The drug trade drives crime in a number of ways: Through violence tied to trafficking, by normalizing illegal behavior, by diverting criminal justice resources from other activities, by provoking property crime related to addiction, by contributing to the widespread availability of firearms, and by undermining and corrupting societal institutions.

Perhaps most importantly, the report warned that in trying to reduce crime, violent crime especially, “There is no one ‘ideal’ approach.  The common denominator is that successful interventions are evidence-based, starting with a clear diagnostic about types of violence and risk factors, and ending with a careful evaluation of the intervention’s impact which will inform future actions.”

Whose side are the legislators on?

Over the next few weeks we’ll discuss a variety of crime fighting strategies available to us in this country.  But I wish to begin by discussing the role lawmakers and aspiring lawmakers have played in sanctioning, enabling and rewarding criminality in this country.  To put it bluntly, our politicians must choose sides: Either they are on the side of those who are accused of committing crimes or they are on the side of the rest of society.  They should no longer be able to have it both ways.  What do I mean?

We have sitting members of our Parliament and men aspiring to sit there, who have represented and continue to represent, accused drug dealers, accused rapists, accused operators of illegal gambling houses, accused murderers.  I distinctly remember interviewing a very accomplished politician once, a man at the center of many of the nation’s most important political events of the last 50 years.  This gentleman boasted to me of the number of accused murderers he had gotten off (it was close to 30 if I recall correctly).  His intention was to convince me of his legal prowess.  Instead I was chilled at the thought that this legislator, this champion of our democratic achievements, had also possibly had a hand in freeing nearly 30 cold-blooded murderers.  Someone’s got to do that job; I understand that.  But I cannot accept that it must be my elected representatives.

I have mentioned on a number of occasions the troubling fact that the Member for Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador, and now deputy leader of the PLP, Philip “Brave” Davis, was the lawyer for the most wanted drug trafficker in this country, Samuel “Ninety” Knowles.  But Davis is not special, nor is he unique.  We simply happen to remember the name of his most famous client.  What about Carl Bethel, Desmond Bannister, Dion Foulkes, Alfred Sears, Glenys Hanna-Martin, Branville McCartney, Damien Gomez, Allyson Maynard-Gibson and Wayne Munroe?  Who have they defended over the course of their careers?  How many people accused of violent crime, or of brazenly flouting our laws, have they defended for a handsome fee?

These men and women will no doubt defend themselves by insisting they are not doing anything that is contrary to the rules of our Westminster system.  They will no doubt ask why they should be singled out and denied a living while physicians, accountants, engineers, businessmen are allowed to conduct their affairs and are subject to no such criticism if they serve or aspire to serve in Parliament.

I believe all MPs should be full time and should not be allowed to work for anybody else while they serve the people, first of all.  But that aside, the practice of law must in my view be treated differently, since the business of the parliamentarian is to create laws.  Doctors make a living making people sick (they’re not supposed to anyway).  But the criminal defense attorney makes a living helping men and women evade punishment who are, in the considered opinion of police, guilty of violent crimes.  I repeat:  Someone’s got to do it.  But if you do, how dare you then ask me to make you attorney general, or minister of this or that, or member of Parliament.  And how dare you give speeches about how you feel for suffering victims.  What kind of country is this?

What is the message you send to the street thug, the murderer, the drug lord, the rapist, the arm marauder, or to the impressionable admirer of such people, or to the victims of such people, when you choose to represent them before the courts and potentially help guilty men escape justice – not just before you run for political office, but while you hold such an office?  Yes, we are all innocent until proven guilty, but with 1,000 lawyers, I think it is safe to say that criminals won’t have too much trouble finding legal representation.

The 41 men and women who sit in the lower house and those who sit in the Senate should be people who have spent their whole careers defending and building us up, not defending and assisting those who are tearing us down.

The marriage of politics and crime

There’s more.  The marriage of politics and crime is a long standing one shrouded in silence.  Remember the 1967 Commission of Inquiry into the connections between organized crime in the U.S., casinos and the Bahamian government?  Remember the 1984 Commission of Inquiry into drug trafficking and governmental corruption?  How many arrests and incarcerations of Bahamian politicians on charges of corruption have occurred in the last 50 years? What has become of the so-called investigation into the handling of Crown Land for instance?

And what connection has existed between politics and the numbers business?  How far back does that connection go?  To the very heyday of the majority rule struggle?  And how many politicians, FNM and PLP, walk the streets campaigning with accused criminals on bail, or ex-cons or men “known to the police”?  Do their services as campaign generals buy them immunity?  Free legal help?  In the fight against crime, we must strike at the root.  Zero tolerance begins in our own house –  the House in Parliament Square.

Oct 24, 2011

Gangster’s Paradise Part 2

thenassauguardian

Caribbean Blog International

Frankly, the easy accessibility of handguns in The Bahamas is a cause for consternation and a national issue that should be effectively addressed... Illegal firearm sales and smuggling operations within the archipelago has led to a number of killings of youngsters—most likely with drugs, money or women as the central figure of a dispute... and has created a breeding ground for the criminal element (drug traffickers, gangs, migrant workers, terrorists, organized crime, etc) to access these dangerous weapons and cause mayhem

The Great Gun Trade-In

By ADRIAN GIBSON

ajbahama@hotmail.com




THESE days, maniacal criminals are increasingly using guns as their weapon of choice as they disrupt the serenity of our once tranquil islands, going on murderous rampages, robbing families of loved ones and callously committing heinous crimes with no regard for the law. That said, it is high-time that the government imposes a heavily promoted amnesty (28-30 days) for the turn over of illegal guns whilst instituting a no-questions-asked, gun buy-back programme.

Although there will likely be challenges and valid concerns such as the uneasiness about persons possibly using money’s given for trade-ins to purchase weapons, genuine interest for public safety dictates that something must be done and that those fears, whilst likely, will not be predominant.

The wave of gun violence that appears to be sweeping across the streets of New Providence week after week has left many residents terrified by the thought that this small island is becoming like the Wild West as we are constantly inundated with reports of the grisly carnage caused by gun violence or told about high-speed chases and dramatic gun battles between rival gangs or of emboldened outlaws engaging the police in gun fights.

As of today, there have been 109 murders for the year 2011, most of which involved a gun. These days, gunshots are fired from cars—in broad daylight— on busy thoroughfares, in bustling neighborhoods, in crowded nightspots and hoodlums have no qualms about nonchalantly engaging the police in shootouts.

The growing trend of anti-social behaviour is rapidly leading to a state of social chaos, where boorish persons barbarously roam the streets like wild animals engaging in feral, homicidal behaviour to indulge their unabated anger. The senseless actions of uncivilized, dim-witted persons are rapidly casting the Bahamas in the image of a crime-ravaged hellhole on the brink of social implosion. There is no wonder why Bahamians—stricken by fear—have voluntarily chosen to live in virtual imprisonment, locked behind iron bars (windows), bolted doors and screens, and sheltered behind iron gates. In their state of paralysis, law abiding Bahamians have become more distrustful and are swiftly arming themselves with cutlasses, shot guns, bats and other safety measures to ensure their security.

Admittedly, I am a licensed gun owner and I support the right of Bahamians to legally bear arms, particularly in instances such as hunting or self-defense. Moreover, I would support a greater issuance of hand gun licenses to those Bahamians who meet the strictest of qualifications. As it stands, as a policy of the government, the issuance of hand gun licenses is strictly within the purview of the Prime Minister.

'Black market'

The Bahamas, a country with a recently proposed regime for implementing stricter gun laws, has seen a proliferation of guns/ammunition on its streets that I’m told is easily accessible and for hire to any deranged criminal. Undoubtedly, the spiraling street warfare in this country—particularly New Providence—is fuelled by the alarmingly high importation/smuggling and circulation of illegal firearms (from assault rifles to hand guns) primarily from the United States, that has given raise not only to the lawless behaviour that we now see but also to a ‘black market’ that profits on the trade of illegal weapons.

Frankly, the easy accessibility of handguns is a cause for consternation and a national issue that should be effectively addressed. Illegal firearm sales and smuggling operations within the archipelago has led to a number of killings of youngsters—most likely with drugs, money or women as the central figure of a dispute—and has created a breeding ground for the criminal element (drug traffickers, gangs, migrant workers, terrorists, organized crime, etc) to access these dangerous weapons and cause mayhem.

A few years ago, in a speech given at the CARICOM-US Partnership to Combat Illicit Trafficking in Arms Seminar, held in Nassau, National Security minister Tommy Turnquest said that the illegal trade in small arms, light weapons and ammunition was creating an “illicit trafficking phenomenon” as the illegal migrant and drug trade has created a single criminal enterprise.

‘Engaging Persons’

According to Mr Turnquest:

"Such criminal enterprises are engaging persons across national borders in much the same way that legitimate multi-national businesses do, bringing serious distortion to the concept of globalization."

"Whether arms in such enterprises are exchanged for money or for drugs, or are used to protect illicit shipments of persons or commit murders, assaults, robberies and other crimes; to intimidate and threaten and to enhance status, or other reasons, they contribute to the widespread availability of firearms in the region.”

The Bahamas is extremely vulnerable to the trafficking of nearly all illicit items—including small arms and automatic weapons—primarily due to its central location between the air and sea routes of North and South/Central America as well as Europe.

It is therefore imperative that we implement gun trade-in and buy-back programmes, similar to those adopted by places such as Baffalo (NY) and Atlantic City, to encourage persons to fork over illegal firearms to the authorities. Furthermore, a conscientious effort must be made to curb the importation of other potentially lethal weapons such as low power air pistols, replica guns and paintball guns. Sadly, it seems that our strict gun laws may only affect those law-abiding citizens, as thousands of handguns remain in circulation and outlaws are constantly packing heat, while striking fear into the hearts of already caged-in residents.

I would propose that such a programme is financed by an asset forfeiture fund, using seized money or money garnered from the auctioning of seized properties belonging to persons convicted of criminal acts such as illegal drug smuggling.

Frankly, the government, corporate partners and the church could highlight such a programme using the airwaves, the pulpit, disc jockeys in clubs, marketing companies, etcetera, whilst also affixing a firm deadline that concludes both the amnesty and buy-back period.

Indeed, a gun buy-back initiative should be inclusive of a multipronged approach. Individuals turning in unlicensed firearms should be given gift certificates and/or, more so—in conjunction with a cooperating banking facility—these persons could be issued pre-paid cash cards in varying denominations, which bear the monies collected from their turn over of such dangerous weapons. There are some jurisdictions that even incorporate a guns-for-groceries approach. For such a programme to work, the types of guns/ammunition and buy-back monies must be categorized—that is, $25 for all non-working guns (inclusive of pellet and BB guns); $80 for rifles/shotguns; $200 for handguns; and $350 for assault weapons (eg, Uzis, AK 47s, etc).

Reduce arsenal

Indeed, whilst a gun buy-back campaign can yield mountains of guns, due care must be given not to have the approach bastardized by gun dealers and/or collectors who may wish to unload cheap or old guns at a profit and careful accounting must be taken of the guns collected at all gun buy-back outlets. The goal is to reduce the arsenal particularly within the inner city and effectively bring about a widespread disarmament across the archipelago.

The police should also check their databases to determine the number of gun owners who are not up to date with their licensing and get on with the business of seizing these firearms and apprehending these persons.

Instead of pontificating about petty political matters, the church could have a huge impact in the fight against violent crime and the removal of guns off of the streets. In fact, there should be an amnesty period where unlicensed gun toters can feel protected if they take a gun to one of the many churches in our communities.

Furthermore, in taking guns off the streets, we must launch a practical, effective campaign that incorporates the government, the private sector and the public. There should not be a hint of the petty politics and political gimmicks portrayed by many self-serving politicians!

Gain intelligence

In the Bahamas we may soon need to establish an agency or department similar to the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agency in the US, whose sole purpose would be to gain intelligence and crackdown on the illegal weapons trade. These days, it is imperative that the police force continue upgrading its armaments as I continue to see officers on the beat without bulletproof vests and carrying six-shooter (.38) revolvers that they hope would counter the sophisticated, high-powered weaponry of criminals that wear body armour and carry guns with magazines that hold 15 or more rounds.

Police officers must be heavily deployed in those boroughs with the highest instances of crime and must strengthen their relationship with certain communities, thereby bettering their intelligence-gathering abilities.

Published: October 29, 2011 in the column Young Man’s View in The Tribune’s ‘The Big T’
 
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