Bahamian Communities have called for police to stop the bloodshed

'Stop the bloodshed'
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

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