Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham appeals to all Bahamians to assist in the crime fight... says the government is resolute in its effort to reduce the level of criminality

Ingraham: All Bahamians must assist in crime fight

By Krystel Rolle
Guardian Staff Reporter
krystel@nasguard.com

Acknowledging that crime is unacceptably high, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham yesterday appealed to all Bahamians to assist in the crime fight, adding that the government is resolute in its effort to reduce the level of criminality.

“On the issue of violent crime I use this occasion to appeal to all citizens and sectors of society -- schools, churches, civic organizations, the business community and others -- to support efforts to combat crime and its causes,” Ingraham said during the Free National Movement’s Anniversary Service of Thanksgiving at the Cousin McPhee AME Church on Carmichael Road.

“And I appeal to all sectors of society, including those in politics, to refrain from associating with and from making statements that excuse criminality or give comfort to criminals.  Together we can defeat those who seek to destroy our peace, tranquillity and economic well-being.  They are a small minority and we must determine, as the majority, not to allow the small number of bad apples among us to poison our environment.”

Ingraham said statistics show that crimes are being committed by persons from all walks of life, including those who come from good family backgrounds.  He added that the country is “challenged” by violent crime and unemployment. “We are best able to tackle both,” he said.

Ingraham noted that his government brought the country out of troubles before and is prepared to do it again.

“By our deeds, we and others are known.  Others governed during a time with violent crime and murder spiralled to unprecedented levels, unchecked drug trafficking and related crime changed the mores and behavior of far too many of our people and unemployment reached historic highs.  We brought our country back from those terrible lows and we are working diligently now to stop and reverse the threats to the quality of life of our people,” he continued.

His statement came one day after the 92nd murder was committed in the country.  A Haitian man was killed in his store on Palm Tree Avenue on Saturday evening.  He was shot in his neck during what is believed to be an attempted robbery.

The unemployment rate in New Providence dropped slightly from 14 percent to 13.2 percent.  Grand Bahama’s unemployment rate dropped from 17.4 percent to 15.4 percent. However, the number of people who are no longer looking for work (discouraged workers) also dramatically increased by 34.8 percent.

But despite those challenges Ingraham said the country has much to celebrate. “We also have significant national accomplishments, and are nowadays respected the world over.  It is in our power, with God’s help, to raise levels of civility and common accord between citizens and to win greater peace in our communities,” he said.

Ingraham, who is serving his third non-consecutive year as prime minister, noted some of the national accomplishments his government made over the years.

He said his government improved and extended telephone services, including cellular phone service to the most remote settlements of the country, and made the introduction of cable television and internet services throughout the country possible.

Additionally, he said the government made it possible for the further expansion of the broadcast industry.

“Now every Tom, Dick, and Harry can call radio stations and say what the Lord put in their hearts or what the devil put in their heads,” Ingraham said.

Meantime Dr. Ranford Patterson, pastor of Cousin McPhee Church, called on FNM’s to help restore the nation. He said it will take people who are willing to stand for righteousness.

“This is still the greatest nation,” he said, adding that Bahamians must return to the ideals of the past.

“We must become caring again,” Patterson added.

Aug 22, 2011

thenassauguardian

Caribbean Blog International

The murder rate for a country the size of The Bahamas has reached a crisis point... It is unacceptable

Are we doing enough to fight crime?

thenassauguardian editorial



Last Saturday’s triple homicide off Carmichael Road has shocked many Bahamians and residents of New Providence already reeling from a rising murder count that is certain to far outpace last year’s record of 94.

In what marked the 83rd, 84th and 85th murders for the year, two women, one of whom was pregnant, and a man were gunned down in an apartment on Montgomery Avenue early Saturday morning.

Police are investigating the possibility that the murders are connected to a double homicide that took place several weeks ago, not far from the site of the triple murder.

Police believe that many of the recent murders are connected and that generally speaking random killings are rare. This is the line that has often been used by senior officials trying to calm the fears of New Providence residents.

The murder rate for a country the size of The Bahamas has reached a crisis point. It is unacceptable.

By the end of July last year the murder count was at 54. This year that number had jumped by 31 by the end of July. Last month a recorded-breaking 20 murders were recorded.

Our average so far for the year is 12 murders per month. On that pace we could surpass the 94 mark before this month is up. It could also mean that we could record more than 140 murders this year.

We know that this point is not lost on police and government officials who have invested efforts and resources in the crime fight. And who obviously want to see crime brought under control.

The Gun Court has been an important step in the right direction and has so far been productive in helping to deal with our significant case backlog. There has also been a significant investment to increase resources for our police officers. And steps have been taken to improve the physical infrastructure of the judiciary.

But have those efforts and resources been enough? Obviously not.

More needs to be done to bring down crime in the country.

We acknowledge that the onus is not just on the government or police to come up with solutions, the community must also do its part.

However, the commissioner of police and minister of national security have been given as a part of their mandate the management and prevention of crime to the highest extent possible.

It is a difficult task, but we must do better than we are doing now.

The crime phenomenon is not unique to The Bahamas, the Caribbean or anywhere else.

We need to look at how other developed countries are approaching their fight against the scourge of crime and violence.

Jamaica, which has had one of the highest murder rates in the world, has seen a significant drop in its murder count this year after a gang crackdown, according to officials.

Based on what is often said by our local police and government officials, it would seem that a similar approach could prove successful here.

It may also be time to look at how existing youth, community and rehabilitation programs can be improved.

Perhaps it is time to consider — as some cities in the U.S. have done — the appointment of a crime prevention coordinator who works closely with the commissioner of police and Ministry of National Security to help implement crime prevention programs, among other things.

We do not have the answers, nor do we pretend to have them.

But we must do something more, and quickly.

Aug 05, 2011

thenassauguardian editorial

Caribbean Blog International

Suggestions for lowering crime in The Bahamas

Limiting the number of children a woman can have 'could fight crime'

tribune242




LIMITING the number of children a woman can have to two could be one way of fighting the growing crime problem, a panel hosted by the New Covenant Baptist Church suggested.

The proposal is one of more than a dozen that the group presented to those attending a community meeting at the East West Highway church last night. The meeting was held to get public input on ways to curb the escalating murder rate.

Bishop Simeon Hall, who did not come up with the suggestion, said such a policy could be instrumental in limiting the number of unwanted children in the country - who often end up as statistics or in penal institutions.

"The person who proffered that idea is suggesting that at the core of our social problems is the indiscriminate way Bahamian women have children - now obviously women can't have children by themselves so the blanket statement (should be) the indiscriminate way we have children," said Bishop Hall, pastor of New Covenant Baptist Church.

"Since the majority of our children are born to unwed parents, we need to look at the unwed parents who have the children and just lean on the rest of society to care for the children.

"What we are saying is in the long term, a child who is born to parents who didn't want them and is left to rear himself, he is likely to become a statistic so there is some merit to that (idea)," he told The Tribune.

The panel's other suggestions for lowering crime include:

* carry out capital punishment;
* give life sentences without the possibility of parole to more classes of convict;
* institute a national curfew for minors;
* bring foreign officers into the Royal Bahamas Police Force;
* remove the Privy Council as the highest court of appeal;
* charge parents in connection with the minor criminal offences committed by their children;
* radically restructure the country's educational system.

August 05, 2011

tribune242

Caribbean Blog International

The less tolerant and accommodating we are of criminal enterprise and behaviour, the more effective will be our fight against crime...

The corrupters of the judicial system

tribune242 editorial



IN 1981 then Attorney General Paul Adderley considered a court system not in tune with the society in which it functioned, lawyers with neither a good nor high reputation, and corrupters of the system as part of this country's problems in getting criminals off the streets.

On the floor of the same House from which Mr Adderley had made that observation 30 years before, Prime Minister Ingraham advised politicians to distance themselves from criminals.

"The stark reality is that we did not reach the current level of crime overnight.

"And our attitude towards crime makes a difference. Complaining about crime, yet aiding and abetting criminal behaviour hurts our shared fight against crime," Mr Ingraham said.

"The less tolerant and accommodating we are of criminal enterprise and behaviour, the more effective will be our fight against crime.

"The entire society has an obligation to assist the police in doing their jobs."

Mr Adderley was of the opinion that the police were not getting the assistance they needed from the courts. He believed the judicial system was demonstrating more sympathy for the law-breaker than for the long suffering public.

Mr Adderley criticised the category of people who perpetrate acts of corruption -- influence peddlers and people seeking permission by paying off someone.

Lawyers, he said, among other professions, fall into this category.

"For the most part," said Mr Adderley, "the vast majority of lawyers are entitled to a good and high reputation, but those who are entitled to a good and high reputation do not have either a good or a high reputation because there are some lawyers who have an atrociously bad reputation who are entitled to neither a good nor a high reputation.

"By the conduct of a relatively small number of lawyers in the Bahamas, lawyers generally today have a low reputation.

"This is to be attributed to those lawyers who belong in the category of the corrupt."

He also had something to say about the category of lawyers who charge clients "outrageously, almost criminally high fees."

He then moved to those -- especially drug dealers -- who bribed the courts.

"One of the most corrupting influences on the total system is the amount of money which is in the hands of the drug traffickers," he said.

As attorney general he found it necessary to have drug cases put in a distinct category.

Two years before he felt he had justifiable reasons to give directives to magistrate's court prosecutors that any case involving drugs could not be withdrawn without the consent of the Office of the Attorney General.

He knew of "prevalent incidents" that justified his decision "because some way along the way the system had been corrupted."

Even juries in the Bahamas were bought, he said, but unfortunately, sufficient evidence could not be found to prosecute.

We leave it to our readers to judge whether much has changed in the profession since Mr Adderley's 1981 observations.

What he as Attorney General complained of in 1981 remains among the many problems that make the fight against crime difficult today.

June 08, 2011

tribune242 editorial

The culture of the Attorney General’s office needs to change

Standing with the commissioner
thenassauguardian editorial



The Bahamas has a crime problem. No reasonable person would question this statement.

There have been three homicide records in four years. This month the killings have continued at the same record pace as in 2010. The Bahamas has one of the highest murder rates in the region.

Whenever there is a crime problem, Bahamians look to the commissioner of police. He is expected to bring things under control and stop the bad guys. This view is overly simplistic.

On the response side, there are four divisions of the state that are critical regarding the crime fight. Police, the Office of the Attorney General, the court and prison must all function well if a society is to have a functional response to crime. No one of these divisions can fix a crime problem alone.

Others must step forward as public faces in this fight along with the commissioner. Here we will address one of the other three agencies: the AG’s office.

Prosecutors are as important as police in ensuring that criminals are dealt with. Police arrest those responsible for committing violent crimes. Police then marshal evidence and prosecutors lead cases in the Supreme Court.

If the prosecutors are incompetent, then there is little consequence to committing violent crime. As we have said before, the AG’s office is too detached.

The police commissioner speaks regularly. He is also criticized regularly. Police release crime statistics regularly. The police commissioner is mandated to release a policing plan annually. The director of public prosecutions and the AG’s office, however, are not held to the same standard.

Where is the DPP’s prosecution plan for 2011? Has the office prepared one? Shouldn’t Vinette Graham-Allen have to present such a plan to the public and defend it in front of the media just as Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade has to?

Why do the AG’s office and its Department of Public Prosecutions not regularly release data about its work? They must keep records. Does the office think it is above scrutiny? Or is it that the performance of the office is so poor that it does not want the public to know the depths of the failure?

Recently, the AG’s office released its annual report for 2010. This is a good thing. Annual reporting is a part of the accountability process. The AG’s office now has a website. This is also a good development. However, the annual report had no data included in it regarding the work of the Department of Public Prosecutions.

If the level of violent crime is to be reduced in The Bahamas, citizens and the political ruling class must demand more from our prosecutors. The office must be subjected to greater public scrutiny. It should be mandated by law that the AG’s office and police release quarterly statistics. It should be mandated by law that an annual plan is released by the chief prosecutor just as such a standard is mandated of the police commissioner. And the politicians should mandate that the chief prosecutors hold regular news conference to inform the public of the work of the department.

If the prime minister can subject himself to questions from the media, then surely the DPP can do the same.

This commentary is not a criticism of Graham-Allen. The culture of the AG’s office needs to change. Greenslade subjects himself to scrutiny and take the blows that result. In the process the democracy is strengthened. The DPP must be made to do the same.

1/24/2011

thenassauguardian editorial

Bahamas Blog International

The issue of crime will dominate public discourse until Bahamians vote for a new government in 2012

The use of deadly force and the crime fight
thenassauguardian editorial


The political parties are piecing together crime platforms for the election campaign, which started when Hubert Ingraham announced on November 7 that he would seek a fourth term as prime minister. We hope they find advisors who can help them. The issue of crime will dominate public discourse until Bahamians vote for a new government. The public will need to hear solutions from both major parties, not just idle talk.

We advocate tough responses to those seeking to disturb the peace.

The Bahamas has drifted too far over the past three decades from being a peaceful set of islands to being islands racked with fear and anxiety. We will set a third homicide record in four years this year. And with no measures in place yet to stop the trend, it is likely there will be a fourth homicide record in five years come the end of 2011.

A part of the crime fight is improving the quality of police investigations, case management by prosecutors and increasing the number of criminal courts to hear cases. The government is working on all these measures.

Another equally significant part of the crime fight is the war on the streets.

Hardened hit men, armed robbers, rapists and armed home invaders exist in The Bahamas. They have destroyed the lives of so many Bahamians over the past few years. These crimes have led to much fear and anger. Honest Bahamians want someone, or some group, to push back in their defense.

Walden Mitchell, on Monday night, shot a police officer; several days before he had shot at and assaulted others. In an operation then led by the police to capture and arrest Walden Mitchell the police, in the course of their duty, shot and killed Walden Mitchell.

He reportedly sent a message to police that he was armed and ready.

In an editorial earlier this week we commended the police for doing their job. In doing their job Walden Mitchell was shot. We called on the police to just do their job. If as a consequence a criminal is shot, so be it. Some have misunderstood our position in this regard and we apologize for any misunderstanding. We are not calling for extra-judicial killings.

Section 103 of the Penal Code allows for the use of deadly force by citizens or law enforcement officers in the capture and detention of someone who has committed a felony.

Section 107 of the Penal Code authorizes the use of deadly force for the protection of self and others in connection with the following crimes: Treason, piracy, murder, manslaughter except manslaughter by negligence, robbery, burglary, housebreaking, arson of a dwelling house or vessel, rape, forcible unnatural crime and dangerous or grievous harm.

When criminals are on the streets of our islands armed with weapons with the intent to harm citizens, police have a legal responsibility to intervene. In this intervention the law allows officers to use deadly force. No right-thinking citizen should have a problem with this. It is the law.

When police use legally appropriate force against criminals, society usually applauds their effort. Complaints usually only arise when police are unnecessarily and inappropriately heavy-handed in carrying out their mandate. Police must protect citizens against those disturbing the peace.

The proper use of force by police has an effect. It lets criminals know that there is an immediate consequence to harming citizens. It lets criminals know that if you are riding around our neighborhoods armed and searching for an innocent mother to rob, or a hardworking father to molest, police are not afraid to apply the law to you.

The breakdown of the criminal justice system has had consequences in The Bahamas. Many fear the law less than they used to. The ongoing reforms hopefully will speed up the prosecution process so that once placed in the system, justice can be meted out in a timely fashion.

We just ask that criminals be found and dealt with appropriately according to due legal process.

The Bahamas is at a crossroad. Some do not seem to realize this. Either we return to being an orderly society or we become like some other societies and countries that have already gone too far.

11/26/2010

thenassauguardian editorial

Bahamas Blog Inernational