The Bahamas has acknowledged that its criminal justice system needs help

Adopting organized crime laws in The Bahamas

thenassauguardian editorial

The annual drug report prepared by the United States government usually provides interesting commentary on the state of drug trafficking to and through The Bahamas.

In the 2011 report, the U.S. government again made suggestions to the Bahamian government to reform the criminal justice system in this country.

“However, a need still exists to reduce the long delays in resolving extradition requests and other criminal cases as an existing trend of law enforcement successes have been undermined by an overburdened Bahamian legal system,” said the U.S. State Department in the report.

“As mentioned in previous annual reports, we continue to encourage The Bahamas to increase the resources and manpower available to prosecutors, judges, and magistrates.”

The Bahamas has acknowledged that its criminal justice system needs help. The government has set in motion a series of reforms aimed at reducing the backlog of cases before the court and speeding up the rate of prosecution in the country.

The U.S. made another suggestion in the report that should be considered.

The State Department noted that the country lacks legislation criminalizing participation in an organized criminal group.

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO Act) is a U.S. federal law that provides for long criminal sentences and civil penalties for actions performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.

Simply put, those proven to be involved with an organized crime group are jailed for long terms.

The U.S. government has used these laws effectively against the mafia. In The Bahamas, no such law exists.

According to the drug report, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Operation Bahamas Turks and Caicos estimate that there are 12 to 15 major drug trafficking organizations operating in The Bahamas.

A RICO law in The Bahamas would provide another tool to local law enforcement to take down some of these drug gangs.

However, local police and prosecutors would need to learn to conduct more comprehensive investigations for such a law to work.

Rather than arresting one criminal for one offense, investigators and prosecutors would need to build a case against entire organizations.  Evidence would need to be marshaled chronicling the various crimes it commits. The actors in the criminal activity would then need to be defined and linked to the criminal organization.

Comprehensive indictments would follow and large numbers of criminals would be brought to court at the same time.

These investigations could take years. But when done well, they cripple or dismantle entire criminal organizations.

For such a thing to work, The Bahamas would also need to change its overall prosecutorial response to drug trafficking. Traffickers are currently prosecuted in Magistrates Court where the maximum sentence is five years in jail. Some smugglers have been found in possession of millions of dollars worth of cocaine and they have only faced that five-year sentence, or less if they pleaded guilty.

The law needs to prosecute based on weight. Those found in possession of large quantities of drugs should face trial in the Supreme Court where serious penalties can be issued. RICO prosecutions, if adopted, would also take place in the Supreme Court.

Organized crime is a threat to democracy. Those who do not believe this need only look at Mexico. The cartels there are at war with the state.  And in some jurisdictions in that country, the cartels are winning the war.

Since Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched his war on the cartels in 2006, more than 30,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence.

The Bahamas must consider legislative tools such as the RICO law in the U.S. to assist in the local fight against narco-trafficking. We cannot just continue to hope that the U.S. requests the extradition of our major drug dealers. We must develop the capacity to lock them up for long periods of time in this country.

Sep 13, 2011

thenassauguardian editorial

Caribbean Blog International

The fact that persons are now engaging in vigilante justice in The Bahamas... is an indication that they don't have any more faith in the criminal justice system

Aggressive methods needed in crime fight


thenassauguardian


The criminals in this country don't fear the government at all. They don't regard the laws of the land. I understand that approximately 300 or so career criminals are the ones responsible for all the mayhem currently being experienced in Nassau. These villains are holding over 200,000 law-abiding citizens of New Providence hostage. I have also noticed a very dangerous trend that is currently developing in Nassau. It appears that some of the friends and family members of murder victims are now hiring hit men to bump off murder suspects who are released from prison. The government must now take its head out of the sand and face this reality.

The fact that persons are now engaging in vigilante justice is an indication that they don't have any more faith in the criminal justice system. They are just fed up with the system. As far as these vigilantes are concerned, the justice system has failed them miserably. Therefore, since the system is hell bent on releasing these cold-blooded murderers, the vigilantes are now going after them.

The justice system is breeding a whole new kind of criminal in this country. Analysts have been warning for years now that this very dangerous situation would occur if the system continued to tap murderers on the wrist. No one paid them any mind. Now the chickens have come home to roost. My brother told me that while working in a barbershop in Freeport he overheard a young man who appeared to be very upset, vowing that he would take revenge on a person he believed had murdered a family member of his. This person was livid that the justice system had let the suspect in the case get off scot-free. I believe that the government must now move to implement drastic measures in order to put an end to the crime wave that is gripping The Bahamas.

The murder rate has skyrocketed in 2011. We have had a staggering 72 murders committed in just over six months in this small country. We are becoming like lawless Jamaica. Armed robberies and house break-ins are rampant, especially in the inner city communities of Nassau.

Governments were instituted by God to punish criminals. When the government fails to carry out its God-given mandate to punish murderers, thieves and rapists, then these monsters continue to break the law.

The government has been too soft in its approach to dealing with these criminals. It is high time that the government starts executing murderers and rapists. The criminals who are terrorizing Nassau know that institutions such as the Privy Council are fighting tooth and nail to keep them from marching to the gallows.

The government should immediately abandon the Privy Council. We are an independent nation. We have been independent now for 38 years. Why is the government so afraid to execute convicted murderers?

A relative of mine told me that a young man who was convicted of murder bragged to her about killing a young woman who had rejected his sexual advances. According to my relative, the ex-convict appeared to be very proud that he had killed another human being. There was absolutely no remorse in the young man. These are the kinds of people defense attorneys are fighting hard for. Yet, we wonder why so many persons are now taking matters into their own hands by engaging in vigilante justice.

The family members of murder and rape victims know that the culprits are going to get a simple tap on the wrist for their hideous crimes. The government had better start executing convicted murderers before this new trend gets way out of control. Otherwise, Nassau will become another Dodge City.

The government must also give serious thought to implementing corporal punishment for sex offenders such as pedophiles, sodomites and rapists. These sex offenders should be flogged in public. Those who are contemplating committing rape, or any other sexual offense, would think twice before going through with the crime if they were to see a convicted sex offender publicly humiliated. These rapists must be taught a lesson.

In regards to armed robbers and thieves, the state should make them pay restitution to those they stole from. For instance, if a thief steals a $800 laptop from me, he should be made to pay me fourfold for his theft. That would mean he would pay me $3,200 for my laptop. This was the law that God gave to Old Testament Israel in Exodus chapter 22.

I understand that the prison system already has a work program. The thieves should work off their debt before being released from prison. If they are unwilling to do this, then let them rot in prison.

I often hear people talking about convicts paying their debts to society. But how is a convict paying his debt to society when he hasn't been forced to make some kind of restitution to the person he wronged? He may have repaid the state by serving time in Fox Hill prison, but let us bear in mind that he wronged a citizen, not the state. This is unfair to the person who was wronged. This has to change in order to bring to a screeching halt this menacing crime wave that is destroying this country.

Additionally, persons found in possession of illegal firearms should get an automatic 10 years in prison. There are too many illegal guns on the streets of New Providence. Regarding drug traffickers, they should be put to death. Drug trafficking is a capital offense in Singapore. Drug dealers would think twice before engaging in their illegal trade in this country if such a move is made.

How many people have died from drug overdoses? How many of us have had items stolen from us by drug addicts, who then sold them in order to buy more drugs? I believe many of the murders committed in this country are somehow connected to the illicit drug trade.

Granted, these are radical suggestions. But, these are unusual times.

Jul 15, 2011

thenassauguardian

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

Branville McCartney calls for the enforcement of penalties for minor offences to bring a sense of order to The Bahamas

'We are living in a lawless society'
tribune242



A disregard for the country's laws and rising crime levels have created a "lawless" society, said former Cabinet Minister Branville McCartney as he called for the enforcement of penalties for minor offences to bring a sense of order to the Bahamas.

"When you look at crime, crime is out of control, we live in a lawless society, I don't care what the politicians say. We need to start sweating the small stuff," said the Bamboo Town MP during a recent interview with The Tribune.

The "small stuff", according to Mr McCartney, includes enforcing penalties for minor crimes like speeding, running stop lights and stop signs, parking in no-parking zones and the sale of counterfeit goods in business establishments.

Addressing the highly publicised arrests of nine straw vendors who are awaiting trial in New York for allegedly buying counterfeit designer bags they were planning to sell back home, Mr McCartney said this is an example of an area where the local authorities had fallen down on law enforcement.

"For example with the straw vendors recently, the fact of the matter is what they are doing is illegal," he said.

After the nine vendors were arrested, counterfeit bags bearing the logos of top designer brands remained on many shelves in the market. Some vendors claim the bags are top sellers, bringing in more revenue than locally made souvenirs.

This reasoning sends a "terrible message" to the nation's youth, Mr McCartney said.

He continued: "They also say that's what the tourists want. Well if the tourist wants illegal drugs are you going to give them that? If they want you to rob a bank, you going to do that?

"If people see that there are consequences for illegal actions, that's a deterrent. If people are parked in a no-parking zone they should be punished. You sweat the small stuff and things will start falling into place.

"You go to Miami, you click your seat belt. Persons will put on their seat belt because they will be fined. A simple camera on the stop light will be a deterrent (because) you know a ticket is coming right away."

Mr McCartney, former chairman of the Chamber of Commerce's Crime Prevention Committee, said he is an advocate of corporal and capital punishment. "I believe in (flogging) 100 per cent. That makes an example and people will take note - drastic times require drastic measures.

"I also believe in capital punishment. That is still the law today, we have some road blocks but we are the government and we need to do things to remove these road blocks and start hanging these people who have been sentenced to death (because) the criminal is winning," he said.

Hanging and flogging remain on the country's law books, but have not been carried out for some time due to legal appeals.

All six condemned inmates at Her Majesty's Prison have active court proceedings: Maxo Tido is appealing his conviction and sentencing before the Judicial Council of the Privy Council in the United Kingdom, while Godfrey Sawyer, Wilfred McPhee, Edwin Bauld Jr, Frank Pinder and Renaldo Bonaby have all lodged proceedings at the Court of Appeal in Nassau.

October 05, 2010

tribune242

Bahamas Blog International