by Adrian Gibson

The implementation of Urban Renewal (UR) by the former administration has not caused any miraculous turn-around, in terms of crime, in the urban/ghetto areas of Nassau.

However, I do admit that the UR program was a laudable attempt by the former administration to assist in the socialization of children in urban neighborhoods by providing them with constructive outlets to utilize their energy. Also, I believe the program may have also positively affected the psyche of some in these neighborhoods, who felt a tinge bit more comfortable knowing that the police was only a stones throw away.

But, did UR curb or have some dramatic effect on inner city crime? I really don’t think so.

Should UR be abandoned? Well, I believe that the idea of UR can be variated and changed in many ways, to suit the needs of individual neighborhoods and also to add a strong crime prevention/detection element to it.

UR, in my opinion, should not be a subject for political football. I am sure that residents of neighborhoods where criminal acts occur daily could care less about who had the idea first, which government is better at this or that, etc. Both the FNM and PLP must know that the people of these, usually poor, crime riddled neighborhoods are crying out for help……….help in the fight against lawlessness, social services assistance, help in their search for jobs, help!

I think that the police need to return to conducting operations that my father (a former policeman) told me they did in times past, i.e. fill buses with armed police officers who traverse these neighborhoods, searching and arresting any suspicious characters and executing the law in a direct, no-tolerance manner.

I think that since the days of former Commissioner BK Bonamy, the police may have gone soft. Bus loads of police officers, real police officers, patrolling these neighborhoods would definitely be imprinted in the minds of wannabe criminals and surely force them to think twice or thrice about their actions.

It is high time that politicians stop making crime a political football, get off of their high horses and truly take charge!