Crime should not be used by politicians
tribune242 editorial
IT would be a tragedy if this country's escalating crime were to become an election football.
Crime in the Bahamas has been steadily building from the politically violent sixties into the drug violent seventies and eighties until it is now hitting a crescendo in our time.
The PLP believe that their Urban Renewal policy, which is still in existence in a new form, is the answer to all prayers. They are fooling themselves. The social deterioration in this society is so deep that it will take more than urban renewal to bring it back to health.
"The government must send a clear and strong message to criminals that they will be swiftly caught and swiftly punished and I am not satisfied that this is being done under this present government," Opposition Leader Perry Christie told a press conference, called yesterday to discuss the escalating crime.
Maybe justice under this government is not swift enough for Mr Christie, but nor was it swift enough during Mr Christie's administration when the backlog of court cases grew out of all manageable proportions.
Under both governments -- PLP and FNM-- we have been complaining about the justice system. In our opinion it needs a complete overhaul.
So on this score, no fingerpointing can be justified.
The problem on our streets is obvious - most crimes are being committed by criminals killing criminals, all out on bail when they should be behind prison walls. And as the Commissioner of Police has often commented, the police can't be blamed. They do their part by arresting and taking the offenders to the bar of the court, where the lawyers with their crocodile tears bleat for their release, and the courts send them on their merry way to terrorise society. Witnesses could not be killed, if those who threaten them were in jail.
We hope that when the House reconvenes after the summer recess legislation will be introduced to curb the courts in its release of persons who could be a danger to society. When that debate takes place there shouldn't be a squeak from the Opposition about interfering with a judge's discretion.
The only way to cut down on many of these murders is to keep these persons with long criminal records in prison until trial -- not only for society's sake, but, as has already been shown by the number of their bodies in the morgue, for their own sakes.
And if judges will not exercise their discretion with this objective in mind, then legislation is the only solution. Society cannot have it both ways.
The same analogy can be drawn by the rules that now have to be followed when one travels by air. No one likes to be searched -- it is demeaning and interferes with a person's rights and freedoms. However, for the sake of safety, travellers are willing to relinquish some of their freedoms.
It is the same with the judiciary when one has to make a choice between the exercise of a magistrate's discretion and the mayhem on the streets. We can't have criminals laughing at the courts.
They must understand that if they do wrong they will be punished -- swiftly and severely. And until their date in court, they will be incarcerated, not out on the streets pushing up the murder count.
In the meantime, this society has to be analysed as to what has gone wrong, what has caused us to move from a once courteous, decent people to what we see today.
To find a cure, we need parents, teachers, psychiatrists and a whole gamut of professionals to work together to try to save the next generation.
Persons complain that no one respects our institutions. That is true, and the reason is that many of the people who head them do not understand that in their positions they have to lead by example -- if they do not respect themselves, or their organisation, they cannot expect anyone else to have respect. Members of the House of Assembly should take note.
The breakdown of family life is our greatest tragedy - no father in the home, the mother out to work and the children left at home to join the village gang. In the old days when the mother was at work, the grandparents took care of the children.
Today children are having illegitimate children, so that when the young mother is at work, the grandmother is still young enough to hold down a job and so is the great grandmother.
As a result no one is at home to guide and correct little Suzy and Johnny. A great burden is put on the schools, not only to teach these little ones their ABC's, but also their manners, to point out what is right and wrong, and to make them understand that for every right there is a corresponding duty, and when they break the code, there are consequences, and those consequences can be serious.
Instead of pointing the finger of blame, these politicians should get back to basics. They should start with an examination of themselves, determined to lead by example, and then move on to helping society get back on course.
September 16, 2011
tribune242 editorial
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