by Jerome Pinder
The Tribune's Headline on Saturday April 17th read "Alleged home invader turned in by mother." This individual is alleged to have been involved in a number of home invasions in the eastern area of the island. His mother is to be commended for her brave actions in turning him in and if this behavior were to spread, the Police Force would have a much easier task before them.
This mother's brave action came right before our new Commissioner of Police publicly launched the new Policing Plan for 2010. As reported in the Tribune on Tuesday April 20th, the Commissioner ended his presentation with these words: "I pray to God that all meaningful citizens of this country will understand the challenges we now confront and join us in trying to make a difference."
The Police can only do so much and they cannot be in all places, all the time. We need more bold and brave action like the mother above in turning over criminals to the Police. And then we need more bold action from the Government in tightening the laws and expanding the courts to alleviate repeat offenders from getting bail and creating a further strain on the Police Force. The Police Force can have the grandest of plans, but they cannot move forward while continually chasing the same criminals out on bail.
While the above is positive for us all, it has to be overshadowed by comments on crime once again from our Minister of National Security. The Tribune's publication on April 20th had the following article: "Turnquest: murder in Bahamas is hardly ever a random act." Yes, many of the murders may not be random acts, but his comments give little comfort to the many murders that have not been random acts, which are far too many for a small island and population. What comfort does he give to the family of Wendy Bullard murdered on her job in a robbery, to the daughter of Mr and Mrs Soles shot to death in her vehicle outside her mother's home tending to her infant child, and to the family of Mrs. Cates brutally murdered in Eleuthera, and the list goes on……………………….
What Mr. Minister does your government say about the innocent people who have been murdered, who were not random acts, or to those who have been raped in their homes, and to those with guns held to their heads and robbed in their places of business. Crime has spiraled out of control and it has taken the Government 2+ years to place on their agenda the modernization of the Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, and the Bail Act.
My God! How long will it now take………………………………..
They will do all, save that which will matter:
FIX THE COURTS !!
GET COMPETENT JUDGES !!
Do people not understand the importance of the pillars society I.E. rule of law, to peaceful Society?
Obviously not!
Right on Jerome.
I wonder why the government cannot see the benefit of an educated populace to help solve some of this?
Where is the pressure/incentive to be educated on civilized behaviour and the law?
Fix the courts, the education will come.
There is nothing like a self motivated person!
Its easy enough to pick up the paper every day and say, oh, another murder, but when it hits home you realize how devastating it is to a family & trust me your life is never the same again.What I just can’t understand is exactly that Jerome, what does it take to wake these damn politicians up ? I think they should be have to read the autopsy reports on all of the murder victims. Why can they not see that this IS a number one priority ? It is very clear to me that there needs to be a strong man(or woman) in charge of national security & for sure it is NOT Mr.Turnquest, in my opinion.There needs to be a full concentration on this thing by every single member of parliament as well as the general public.A new commissioner by itself was needed but, that is not going to solve the whole problem.I think parliament thinks that it will.The people of this great country are fed up with this problem & the Prime Minister & parliament do not seem to think this is a priority.Why is it that every time we finally get a minister that seems to take his job seriously, the PM seems to stop the progress ie Mr.McCartney.Why does the PM keep people like Turnquest in a job that he can’t seem to do.I think we need a curfew in place as well as the armed forces, just to clean this mess up.Don’t tell me there is no room in jail, build a bigger one, seems like they can find money for everything else they want to, why not a new jail fully equipped with a new hangman’s rope & a fresh set of cat o’ nine tails.
DP you are right on.. For the first 3 years in office the FNM govt insisted that they could not do anything about crime and they also insisted on blaming parents for our crime problem which we all agreed with. But they were elected to solve it because they said that the PLP wasn’t doing it and that they could do it..
We don’t know what to believe because now they are saying that they will solve/reduce crime..
The only way politicians will wake up, is when the public wakes up.
We allow their foolishness, we accept their behaviour, we vote for the oxymoron:
The campaign promise.
I keep looking for the root cause of our various woes, as it seems to me that all we bemoan are symptoms of some underlying cause, some major societal failing.
One problem is however, that we are still in denial, not yet ready to honestly self analyze our pradicament. I suppose we still have superficial causes to blame.
But what when we run out?
Reality is gonna suck, worse than it already does.
Seems to me like a whole bunch of do nothing wusses on both sides, just plain old wusses