Sidney Sweeting, DDS
Throughout history and in some parts of the world today judgements for crimes have been imposed from an eye for an eye to cutting off the hand that committed the crime. Crime, punishment and morality are the threads that weave an uncertain fabric in our justice systems. In later years we have gone from conservatism to liberalism to questioning whether any of the methods were right.
Most Bahamians are now convinced that the time is right to insist that our Government make every effort to change our laws pertaining to justice so that we can be certain that the punishment will fit the crime
No longer do we want to hear that a six year old female has been brutally raped and the sexual pervert was sentenced to six years because 'that was all that the law would allow." No longer do we want to hear that a convicted murderer has been released on parole "because we have to consider that he has served 18 of his 50 years". No longer do we want to hear that a serial rapist has been released on parole before he has been castrated. Let the parole committee first ask themselves if they would like to have him as a neighbor.
This country needs to be done with pandering to the criminals and give them their due so that the rest of us who want to live in a civil society can get on with it.
Enough is enough.
There is no doubt in my mind, that the erosion of the judiciary and rule of law in the Bahamas, is at the core of what ails us as a society.
Hanging, whether a deterrent or not, is designed as a punishment for a crime, full stop.
Any sentence, is prescribed as a suitable punishment, with certain leeway built in, and at the judges discretion.
Once a society, any society discards rule of law, decrepitude will replace it. Anyone looking at the Bahamas with a discerning eye, will come to realize that we have done, for 40 years, exactly what we should have done, to arrive at where we now are.
To expect any other result would be folly.
The only question left, is how do we salvage what is left and worth salvaging?
We still do not have an honest recognition of the true core problem, from which all other symptoms are derived.
Until we acknowledge our failings, we will fix nothing.