Let's Help and Support The Police to Weed-out All of The Corrupt Policemen From The Ranks of The Royal Bahamas Police Force - Bishop Delton Fernander

Say NO to Corrupt Police Officers in The Bahamas!

By Dennis Dames
Nassau, The Bahamas

I wonder if the president of The Bahamas Christian Council (BCC) in his laid-back defense of The Royal Bahamas Police Force in the investigation of one of their senior top Officers - relating to serious alledge crimes - was speaking casually as a Bahamian, a member of the Masonic Lodge family in The Bahamas, or a pastor. He is wearing so many hats these days - and he has now found himself in the line of fire of the Bahamian public that wants the Johnson investigation to be favourably beyond distrust and national contempt.

Bishop Fernander must be a resident of a another planet. He has obviously not been keeping-up with all the scandals of devilish criminal acts coming out of the ranks of the RBPF in recent times. Senior Officers have been recorded in the acts of committing serious crimes - like, assisting in the unloading of dangerous and illicit drugs from the plane of drug traffickers!

Bishop Delton Fernander, ask the Commissioner of Police - Clayton Fernander about the huge amount of Police Officers he had to fire or send home - because of their dirty and outrageous criminal actions! Ask the Commissioner of Police about the number of Officers of the Force who were recently cited by the Coroners Courts for manslaughter! Yes, the Bahamian Police have illegally killed many of our Bahamian brothers like dogs on the streets of The Bahamas in recent times.

Bishop Fernander, do you really think the Commissioner of Police can lead a fair and balanced investigation against his good old buddy, Chief Superintendent Johnson - who he said publicly was the man for the job? Do you actually think that it's only about Chief Superintendent Johnson, and not about the entire Force? It does not seem that you are thinking straight, or dealing with a full deck these days. What a shame!

What kind of salvation the masonic lodge provides you that our Living Lord does not? What is the connection between the Redemption of our Living Messiah and the masonic lodge - which you are a member and brethern of?

Bishop Fernander, why are you under the impression that corruption and criminality on the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) are not endemic there? The streets of The Bahamas know better than that Bishop.

The Police Force in the Bahamian nation is in a distressful crisis, so is the national security of The Bahamas - Bishop! Corruption and criminality is alive and well in the ranks of that organization - in my view.

Policemen in The Bahamas have been found with illegal weapons in recent times - Bishop. Who controls the illegal guns in our nation Bishop?

Policemen are in our jail for raping their underage family members - while still active members of the Force. Policemen are in our prison for all manner of horrible crimes before they were fired from the Force.

Policemen have skiped the country recently to avoid answering for their wicked crimes - bishop. So, you did not convince me and most citizens that the Chief Johnson always acted alone in his alleged crimes while being the chief of the Criminal Detective Unit (CDU) of the Royal Bahamas Police Force.

There is no doubt that the very many of Bahamian Police men and women are honourable and righteous people, but the actively rogue among them are eroding the already frigile integrity of The Royal Bahamas Police Force. All of them must be weeded out in order to restore the public's trust and confidence in The Force.

The good Officers there will rejoice fittingly - if such a noble thing become a joyful reality. Thus Bishop, let's help them celebrate! Let's let it be known as one people - that bossman Johnson investigation must be and appear to be just in the eyes of the Bahamian people. The good future of The Bahamas and its Police Force depend on it.

Research shows domestic violence is a major driver of The Bahamas' crime problems

'Crime Driven By Domestic Violence'

NEW research shows domestic violence is a major driver of country’s crime problems, Social Service Minister Melanie Griffin revealed.

Addressing the premiere of the docudrama “Get Out” at the New Providence Community Centre over the weekend, Mrs Griffin said Bahamians cannot continue to “bury their heads in the sand” when it comes to reporting abuse within the home, as research undertaken by the Bahamas Crisis Centre shows children who are abused become desensitised to violence, and are more likely to carry weapons to school or social events.

“To put it bluntly, many of the young males paraded before the courts today charged with violent crimes and many of the young girls committed for uncontrollable behaviour were themselves likely victims of some type of abuse,” Mrs Griffin said.

“Over the years we have hurt ourselves by ignoring the problem, because studies show that unchecked domestic violence not only escalates, but manifests itself in many other different ways.

“The stark reality is that our crime problem will not be solved if we do not solve the problem of domestic violence.”

Violence within the family, particularly against women and children, has been an “open secret” in the Bahamas for many years, the minister said.

“All too often we have turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the scars and screams of those who are regularly beaten and by doing so we have, in fact, hurt ourselves.”

She explained that Bahamian law defines domestic violence as physical, sexual, emotional, psychological or financial abuse committed by a person against a spouse, partner, child or any other person who is a member of the household or dependent.

For its part, she said, the government has passed legislation in the form of the Domestic Violence (Protection Orders) Act, 2007 providing legal protection for victims and counselling intervention for perpetrators.

In 2008, changes to the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Act increased the sentence for the offence of rape to life imprisonment and criminalised voyeurism, sexual harassment and certain forms of pornography, she said.

“Last year the government established a National Task Force on Ending Gender-Based Violence and approved a State Accountability Study to end Violence against Women and Children funded by UNWomen. These two initiatives are designed to co-ordinate the work of all agencies in the fight against violence and to produce a national strategic plan to eliminate gender-based violence.

“The work of the National Child Protection Council and the Child Protection and Urban Renewal Units of the Department of Social Services, as well as our community and school-based programmes are also ongoing.

“We must all realise, however, that no government can do everything. We need the help of every man, woman, boy and girl to fight this onslaught. It is up to you to report the crime of domestic violence just as you would any other crime,” she said.

Mrs Griffin said the filming of the docudrama was a step in “the right direction” as it seeks to raise the level of awareness of the problem and discuss what can be done about it.

“The organisers are commended for bringing the project to fruition and we pray for its success. I thank you,” she said. “The importance of this film cannot be stressed enough as it brings focus to a most pervasive global and national problem, domestic violence.

“I applaud Mr Trevor Clarke, director, and Mrs Patrice Lockhart-Stubbs, executive producer, the production staff of Fujon Media Video and Photography and the actors involved in creating this docudrama for their outstanding work,” Mrs Griffin said.

January 21, 2014

Tribune 242

The Bahamas cannot continue to follow in Jamaica's criminal shadow...

Criminals — Jamaica and Bahamas’ problems

tribune242 editorial

Nassau, The Bahamas



JAMAICA, which has been working hard to get its crime under control, seems to have taken a long slide backwards in recent months.

Even more worrying is the corruption that Justice Minister Delroy Chuck -- in an address on Saturday to graduates of the Norman Manley Law School-- says has reached a formidable level in Jamaica's legal system.

He told graduates, entering a system threatened by corruption, that one of his ministry's priorities under the Justice Reform Programme was "to build trust and confidence in the justice system".

"There is corruption within the court and the justice system, where the police have been paid to say they cannot find a witness, or persons have been paid to have documents destroyed - amongst many other things," he told the graduates.

"Cases languish on the books for years with very little progress, clients become frustrated and cannot move on with their lives, sometimes they appease their grievances by taking justice into their own hands," Monday's Daily Gleaner quoted Justice Minister Chuck as saying.

Reported the Gleaner: "He noted that developments in the system leave lawyers with a bad reputation as being of no help while the justice system gets a bad reputation of being of no use.

"Our judges are known for their integrity and fair play but so much more is required of them," Justice Chuck told the graduates, who he urged not to contribute to the problems when they go into practice.

"They (the judges) must assist in removing any taint of corruption, vulgarity or malpractice that may exist and they must help us to strengthen public trust and confidence in the justice system."

He said hundreds of thousands of cases had been in the court system for eight months -- some even for years.

Last year, said the justice minister, there were almost 460,000 cases before the courts -- with more than half being a backlog.

He said that stemming the backlog was everybody's business as it posed a real threat to the nation's economy.

Many years ago, Sir Etienne Dupuch sounded like a broken record as he constantly urged, through this same column, that Bahamians get a handle on crime - which at that time was nothing to what it is today.

He warned that the Bahamas was following down the same dead-end path as Jamaica.

According to the US International Safety and Travel alert "violence and shootings occur regularly in certain areas of Kingston and Montego Bay".

As for the Bahamas: "The Bahamas has a high crime rate. New Providence Island in particular has experienced a spike in crime that has adversely affected the travelling public... The Bahamas has the highest incidence of rape in the Caribbean according to a 2007 United Nations report on crime, violence, and development trends."

In Jamaica recently, gangs not only kill, but behead their adversaries. They then hide the head, obviously to make identification more difficult.

The Daily Gleaner reported a Jamaican police officer moaning: "This haffi stop, it has to. But the justice system not working for us (police). You hold a man for murder, him go jail, and him get bail and is back on the road again. It can't work!"

Sound familiar? No, it can't work and it won't work.

This is the very matter that will be discussed in the House of Assembly in this session as government prepares to crack down on criminals by amending the Criminal Procedure Code.

The Bahamas cannot continue to follow in Jamaica's criminal shadow.

October 11, 2011

tribune242 editorial

Bahamas Blog International

Bahamas: Despite escalating crime, career criminals are being released on bail by the courts - many of them contributing to the rising crime figures by retaliatory murders

Public supports Turnquest's comments on judiciary

tribune242 editorial

Nassau, The Bahamas


EVERYONE in authority has been creeping around on cats paws evading a subject that is agitating Bahamians. Despite escalating crime, career criminals are being released on bail by the courts - many of them contributing to the rising crime figures by retaliatory murders.

Finally, National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest had the guts to call a spade a spade. Speaking at a West Nassau Rotary meeting on Thursday, Mr Turnquest said, while not wanting to encroach on the independence of the judicial system, it was his opinion that some judges were far too "liberal" when it came to granting bail to career criminals and those accused of serious offences. He believed that this practice contributed "greatly" to the country's escalating crime problem. He is correct in this belief and he has the support of both the police and the public.

How can any government control a crime situation when as quickly as an accused person with a violent criminal record is taken before the courts he is given bail and returned to the streets looking for trouble -- and, in some cases, the elimination of witnesses who might testify against him.

Pushed under questioning about bail by a Tribune reporter, Mr Turnquest was provoked into uttering a statement that he later regretted. "Liberally they have administered that -- it concerns me greatly -- if we had a system as they do in New York, where judges are elected, many of them would have been chased out of town."

Although he retracted these words, Bahamians would not have done so -- they would have agreed with him.

We also agree with Chief Justice Sir Michael Barnett that these particular words were "unfortunate."

"I'm always concerned," said Sir Michael, "when people attack the judiciary because persons have to be careful in what they say, so as not to undermine the public confidence in those of us who serve in judicial office."

We also agree with this statement, but only in so far as the judiciary understands that it too has to be responsible in its judgments to protect a community in crisis. We agree with the community that many judicial officers have failed them. The courts are not responsible for the country's crime -- there are many causes going back many years --however, no one can deny that there are times when the courts have been part of the problem. It is true that the judiciary should not be criticised, but on the other hand they should be careful not to give legitimate cause for criticism. The legal fraternity should certainly understand that responsibility is not one-sided.

However, what is most unfortunate in all of this is that a serious matter has become political. This certainly does not help.

In criticising Mr Turnquest in Friday's Tribune the PLP statement said: "By its own yardstick, the FNM has compromised the independence of the judiciary by failing in the past two years to review judicial salaries as is required by the Judges Remuneration and Pensions Act."

Is the PLP perchance insinuating that until judges' salaries are raised they are not going to perform satisfactorily? If so, this statement is the highest insult that can be made to the Bench.

What is interesting is that when the PLP was the government, its attorney general and minister of legal affairs was making the same complaint as Mr Turnquest.

This is what Minister of Legal Affairs Allyson Maynard Gibson in her fight for "swift justice" had to say on May 19, 2006:

"Today I reiterate that the Swift Justice initiative, the assurance that offenders and would be offenders will be swiftly caught, swiftly tried and swiftly punished, will greatly contribute to breaking the back of crime and the fear of crime.

"Law-abiding people in The Bahamas have every right to expect that they will be safe in their homes and as they go from place to place on our streets."

And then she said: "The Commissioner of Police has already indicated his concern about the disturbing trend of serious offences being committed while people are out on bail.

"In conversations with Magistrates, those before whom most Bail applications are made, they said they are often shocked to see how many people whose request for bail was denied by them (Magistrates) are back before them requesting bail for another offence committed while out on bail. These people had gone to the Supreme Court and been granted bail."

Here we have lower courts pointing the finger of blame at a higher court. We don't recall hearing at that time that Mrs Gibson was undermining the court system by her revelations. Why now that the tables of government have been turned?

Mrs Gibson then gave examples of persons on bail who had gone on to commit other crimes while awaiting their day in court. She also shared statistics on crimes using firearms.

As a result she proposed an amendment to the Criminal Law Miscellaneous (Amendment) Bill, 2006, to take care of the magistrates' complaints against Supreme Court judges. She proposed that there be a "new section 8A to provide for a right of appeal to the Court of Appeal by the prosecution or a person (accused or convicted), as the case may be where bail has been granted or refused to that person by the Supreme Court or where an application by the prosecution to revoke bail has been denied.

"This right of appeal by the prosecution," she said, "is particularly important as statistics have shown that persons, while on bail take not only the opportunity to abscond but more importantly to commit further crimes. The police have indicated that persons out on bail sometimes interfere with witnesses either by themselves or through their acquaintances."

This was the opinion of the PLP when it was the government. This is also the position of the Ingraham government. The difference is that Mr Turnquest had the temerity to express the problem in blunt terms on Thursday.

Prime Minister Ingraham will now address the issue in a state broadcast on Monday, October 3.

September 26, 2011

tribune242 editorial

Bahamas Blog International

Community policing in The Bahamas and wider Caribbean Region

The importance of community policing

thenassauguardian editorial

Nassau, The Bahamas



An important aspect in any crime fighting strategy is the involvement of the community.

That’s why we were pleased to learn that The Bahamas is this week, hosting a regional community policing conference aimed at strengthening existing programs.

Crime and the fear of crime is a growing concern in our country. Our murder count is at 87, just seven off last year’s record murder count of 94.

By the end of this year it will most certainly be our fourth murder record year in five years.

Residents of communities often know who the troublemakers are, and they often know who is committing the crimes in their communities.

That’s where community policing comes in.

It fosters positive and constructive relationships with communities that can help police solve crimes.

It also helps forge ties where they are most critical — with the youth, which plays an important role in bringing a halt to the vicious cycle of crime and criminality.

And for the Caribbean, according to conference moderator and community security specialist, Bertrand Laurent, it is becoming more and more important for police to improve relationships with young residents.

“There is a rapidly increasing youth population throughout the countries in the Caribbean, and along with that increase has come an increase in different kinds of issues having to do with youth,” he said.

Community policing has been cited as one reason for a decline in crime rates in some cities across the United States.

Research has shown that police departments that have adopted the community policing model have been able to engage communities in comprehensive, collaborative, community-based problem solving aimed at crime, fear of crime and disorder. The pairing of police and community brings together the power of the formal criminal justice system with the informal social control that communities can exert.

Positive results have also been seen when police forge new partnerships with other professional and civic institutions — non-profit groups, the business community, schools and religious organizations, etc.

These can allow for the development of long-term, broad-based interventions that address conditions that allow chronic problems to persist. But community policing is more than having officers do routine community walkabouts in hotspot areas, or having an officer walk a beat as a visible deterrent to crime.

Sustainable solutions must be developed.

These solutions should be dedicated to having a better understanding of community issues, problem solving to meet the real needs of the community, promoting increased levels of involvement by supporting local residents’ issues and having increased visibility in those communities plagued by crime.

Officials expect to leave the conference, which ends today, with examples of best practices in the region and with better insight on what works and doesn’t work for different island populations. Often times conferences end with a communique that collects dust on a shelf in some office.

Let’s waste no time in putting these best practices to work, and develop our own solutions tailored to meet our specific needs and environment.

Aug 11, 2011

thenassauguardian editorial

Bahamas Blog International

Bishop Simeon Hall: The Privy Council’s recent ruling on the death penalty in the case of Maxo Tido has unwittingly said to criminals: ‘you can get away with your next crime’... it is clear that if families of murder victims are to ever have justice, The Bahamas must abandon the Privy Council...

'Abandon the Privy Council'


CANDIA DAMES
NG News Editor
thenassauguardian
candia@nasguard.com

Nassau, Bahamas


The Privy Council’s recent ruling on the death penalty in the case of Maxo Tido has unwittingly said to criminals ‘you can get away with your next crime’, according to Bishop Simeon Hall, who chaired the government-appointed National Advisory Council on Crime.

Hall said it is clear that if families of murder victims are to ever have justice, The Bahamas must abandon the Privy Council, at least for murder appeals.

One of the recommendations the Crime Council made to the Ingraham administration is to resume capital punishment.

But various Privy Council decisions over the years have set such a strict standard for the imposition of the death penalty, the government has been unable to carry out the law in this regard.

Tido was convicted of the 2002 murder of Donnell Conover. The 16-year-old was found with her skull crushed, and her body burnt.

The Privy Council said while Conover’s murder was “dreadful” and “appalling” it did not fall into the category for the worst of the worst murders and therefore the death penalty ought not apply.

“The ruling by the Privy Council raises serious questions as to what is happening,” Hall said.

“I understand to some degree the Privy Council has the last word, but certainly my big problem I’m wrestling with is what is the justice system saying to families of victims of murder, and then to persons who do the murder?

“It seems that the whole system now is lending its way to criminality. For the law lords to conclude that this was a bad murder but it’s not counted as the worst of the worst, I think it’s time for us to cry shame on the justice system.”

Conover’s mother, Laverne, who recently met with Bishop Hall on the matter, said the ruling re-opened an old wound.

“The murderers have all the rights,” said Mrs. Conover, who added that she learnt of the ruling last week via the evening television newscast.

She told The Nassau Guardian that her daughter was so mutilated she was only able to identify her by her nose.

“What I would like to know is what is the worst of the worst because murder is murder. If this is not the worst of the worst, could somebody explain to me what is the worst of the worst?”

Conover said the murder tore her whole family apart — she and her husband subsequently divorced, one of her sons is on the run from the law, and the other children have had their own emotional challenges.

She said life has not been the same since.

“When I reached the police station and they told me, I was just not myself anymore, especially when I had to go to the morgue and saw what I saw,” Conover said.

“What I saw at the morgue, I don’t know what that was because really it was not my daughter.

“I don’t know what that was because a dog’s head wouldn’t have looked the way her head looked. She had no face, one big bone sticking up, they burnt her over her body.

”How do they expect me as a mother to deal with this and to know Maxo is in prison living?”

While the Privy Council quashed Tido’s death sentence, it upheld his murder conviction and ordered that he be re-sentenced.

In 2009, the government was preparing to read a death warrant to him.

Hall pointed out that a study by Police Sergeant Chaswell Hanna noted that in a five-year period when 349 murders were recorded in The Bahamas, there were only 10 murder convictions and two death sentences issued.

“Last year was a record number of murders and I understand that we had no more than two or three convictions,” Hall said. “This disparity between criminal behavior and the justice system, is it the police, is it the lawyers, is it the justice system?”

He said the law lords of the Privy Council are clearly out of touch with what is happening in The Bahamas.

“How is this family to swallow this latest ruling?” he asked.

“...It is very difficult to remain philosophical on murder now. The criminals seem to be getting the better end of the stick and families of murder victims seem to be left — as this family — totally disintegrated.”

Hall noted that the level of violent crime has worsened in the last couple years.

“It is true that part of the problem is in fact the social culture we face as a community, but at the same time I think Parliament and the lawmakers must take draconian measures to face this nightmare we are presently confronted with,” he said.

“It is true that the current minister of national security has adopted half of the things we suggested, but it seems to be getting worse. And you feel embarrassed that you served on this thing and [crime] seems to be getting worse.”

Jun 20, 2011

thenassauguardian

Bahamas Political Blog

Is crime an economic concern in The Bahamas?

By Youri Kemp



The focus has been on crime in The Bahamas for the last few years. It's playing such an important part in the social dialogue that reports have it that it has become the number one concern in some quarters, with the economy being a very close second. With such a high premium placed on both the economy and on crime, one has to ask the question: are these issues correlated to some extent?

I got an email over the past week stating that, in Toronto, where they have five million people, the murder count was 60, and people were furious over it. In 2010, Toronto had 60 murders in total. In The Bahamas, the murder count for the year 2011 is already 58 and will more than likely be higher by this submission is received by the media outlets that have so graciously shared my correspondence with the public.

With regard to analyzing crime statistics, persons sometimes tend to internalize and personalize crime and isolate the person that committed the crime. Partly because it affects us all in some way – my cousin was shot in back of the head, in broad daylight, with witnesses, but the chief witness was killed a year later before he had a chance to testify.

Without question the issue of crime is deep as it is wide. To that extent, you shouldn’t be blustered with the notion that any one person is able to solve crime with one stroke or within a calendar year. I certainly cannot share with you a path to breaking information on a one year 100% crime reduction strategy, and I can assure you that no one else can either. I will tell you, however, that reacting to the crime news and overstating crime statistics instead of analyzing the nature of the criminal behaviour and parameters of this behaviour are not fruitful endeavours.

Going back to the statistics, to some extent and to add further value to the Bahamian murder rate statistic, UN reports indicate that the average murder rate for every 100,000 persons in The Bahamas stands at 22. This is the same rate as Brazil, Haiti and Guyana, but far less than Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica with 43 and 60 per 100,000 respectively. St Kitts and Nevis on the other hand has a murder rate of 35 persons for every 100,000 and their population is under 75,000.

Let's take a closer look at The Bahamas vs. St Kitts and Nevis, with the latter suffering under the weight of a severe murder spree. People have indicated that the size of the population matters with regard to crime, but this matter can be a wash when we examine the population size of both countries as The Bahamas is four times the population size of St Kitts and Nevis.

We may say with some degree of rationale, however, that population density instead of overall population size may be the cause of the differences in crime levels in each country, when we bring into the mix Trinidad with a population density of 254, Jamaica at 252 against that of St Kitts and Nevis at 164 and The Bahamas at 23.27 -- all UN reported statistics. Population density as it relates to urbanization and how that relates to the crime phenomenon has been well documented. To date over 85 percent of the crime in The Bahamas happens in the inner cities of the capital city of New Providence.

Analysts typically link crime between economic performance and criminal activity. Speaking to an authority on the matter in The Bahamas, he assured me that crime is not a result of economic reasons. But the question to be asked is: what economic concerns are we evaluating with criminal statistics?

If we look at GDP per capita in all four of our countries, we see that Jamaica has a lower GDP per capita than all cases and a higher murder rate. But when we look at Trinidad and Tobago we see that they have the second highest murder rate but the second highest GDP per capita and The Bahamas ranked with the highest GDP per capita and the lowest crime rate, relatively speaking.

While analyzing the murder rate alone is not enough to base any determination on with regard to overall crime, so too we cannot base any determinations on the crime by virtue of the murder rate as it relates to GDP per capita either, because there is more to economic performance, and the economy for that matter, than just the GDP per capita alone.

When we speak of the economy, we speak of things not only in the performance indicators, but we also speak to the level of unemployment; urbanization; the size of the informal sector; the size and scope of corruption; the illegal vices trade (gambling, narcotics, illegal immigration trade and the trade in sex workers); the level of economic openness and transparency; business ease; and the level of state and social protection in terms of property rights and transfers relative to population size and scope as well as a host of other issues and concerns.

I take the position, absolutely, that over 70 percent of the total crime in The Bahamas can be traced back to prevailing economic concerns and linked to wider structural deficits in the economic regulatory mechanisms in The Bahamas. Crimes against property in total, realty theft, house breaking and grand theft auto, are crimes that have economic implications, if only from a net positive benefit for the criminal.

To a broader extent when we speak of benefits transfers to underserved citizens -- knowing full well that employees of the Department of Social Services were attacked by irate customers only a few short months back -- we have to look at the amount of those transfer benefits relative to the economic situation we have today in The Bahamas.

We also must examine to the state’s capacity to provide proper services and deliver adequate benefits under prevailing financial constraints in addition to issues of social protection intervention before the turning point of human attitudinal change, particularly pre-school and secondary school assessments of persons that exhibit anti-social behavioural traits, with issues such as violence against women and overall attitudes against women to be taken into serious consideration as well as with the general lack of respect for authority and property.

While we must submit that crime is not a single entity with one single fix, we must begin to think about the links with crime to the wider economy and by virtue the society. Then, we must disaggregate certain crimes, under certain instances, with certain parameters and then determine if they all can be identifiable under those instances and parameters.

The Bahamas has the ability to build the capacity in its institutions and societies to deal with this matter decisively, and I believe that we can deal with this matter absolutely.

June 16, 2011

caribbeannewsnow

Crime and corruption have been – from time immemorial - one of the royal roads toward fame and fortune in The Bahamas

A Culture of Criminality
The Bahama Journal Editorial



No number of artfully contrived ‘meet’ the press-briefings, stage-managed walk-and-talk exercises on the part of the police high-command – or for that matter, ardent prayer meetings on this or that street corner can do much in terms of ridding this nation of its scourge of crime.

In addition, there is no doubting the clear import of all of the information now pouring in concerning the extent to which the police are ‘losing’ in the fight against the so-called ‘criminal’ elements that are seemingly embedded through and through Bahamian society.

Indeed, crime and the mentality that spawns it is so deeply woven into the fabric of things Bahamian that, some pundits and some other acute observers say that, what we have to contend with is a culture that fosters and rewards criminality.

What we know for sure is that, this land of ours is one of those interesting places where while the wages of sin might be death, the rewards from crime, schemes and scams are some times quite bountiful.

In this regard, we take note of the fact that crime and corruption have been –from time immemorial- one of the royal roads toward fame and fortune in The Bahamas.

Reference here might be made to those times past when piracy was the order of the day in The Bahamas or when rum-running provided a sure basis for primitive capital accumulation.

That life style continues.

For better or worse, today’s Bahamas remains that kind deeply corrupted place where corruption is rife.

And so it goes for either the good policeman who can see nothing really wrong with accepting ‘gifts’ from this or that shady character; or for that matter, with the cop who knows that he has a well-deserved reputation for brutality and violence against people in the supposedly protective custody of the state.

This list can also be extended to include the pilferer of stuff belonging to his employer; the person who receives goods he knows to be stolen; and all others who routinely get away with the crimes they commit.

As they say, to make a long story short – the fact of the matter is that our beloved land is home to tens of thousands of people who are willing and able – at the drop of either pin or hat- to rip each other off, rape, maim or kill if the circumstances so warrant.

This is a mess.

And so, try as they might, the Ministry of National Security and the Royal Bahamas Police Force cannot ‘solve’ this nation’s crime problem; and for sure – those Bahamians who believe that they can pray crime away had better wake up, face facts and understand that, faith without works is dead.

Evidently, crime hurts; and clearly, we all pay a high price when some in our midst can and do get away with the crimes they commit; with some of them against property and some others against the person.

Indeed, no day passes without some revelation or the other concerning the extent to which social life in The Bahamas is shot through with allegations concerning who is on the take.

One measure of the extent to which corruption has taken root is to be found in the oft-mouthed rationalization that since practically every one is corrupt, no one should be condemned too harshly for some small indiscretion or the other.

In one prime instance of corruption alleged, former Commodore Clifford Scavella noted that it was his estimation that up to a quarter of the Defence Force complement was rotten.

And in the believe it or not category was the assertion that apart from this rot, all was well in the ranks of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force!

In that same vein are to be found assertions concerning the extent to which The Royal Bahamas Police Force has to contend with its own so-called ‘bad apples’.

And after that, there is that myriad of allegations concerning the extent to which other government agencies are caught up in the coils of corruption. It is common knowledge in some circles that certain Immigration officers routinely accept gifts from this or that person.

It is also assumed that there are Customs Officers who are on the take. All of this is confirmed when from time to time one or two of these crooks are charged and convicted; and then, there are all those other instances where and when crime runs amok in our homes, on our streets - and in some of this nation’s suites.

And so, when it is all said and done – the Bahamian people should look deeply at what it is that they have become as they have decided to go in such hot pursuit of the Almighty Dollar.

January 26, 2011

The Bahama Journal Editorial

Bahamas Blog International

Crime is rooted like a canker in today’s so-called modern Bahamas

Crime & Social Hypocrisy
The Bahama Journal Editorial


Something insidious has been going on for some time now; with that ‘insidious’ thing being that evolution of a state of mind where so very many Bahamians are wont to complain about crime; all the while turning a blind eye to the kinds of crimes most of them routinely commit and which they routinely get away with.

Here we reference the extent to which stealing by reason of employment; other artful appropriation of things belonging to others and other such slick maneuvers that end with the same result.

And so, today the fact remains that, we now live in a land where while paradox and irony routinely cavort; social hypocrisy abounds.

Here we need only cite some of those ribald instances where thieves would sit around stolen tables and where they would feast on stolen food – and as they sometimes do, these fine people would chat amiably –and sometimes with the greatest of alarm – about the extent to which crime was on the rise in today’s Bahamas.

This kind of scene is both appalling and revelatory – appalling because these types are clearly oblivious to the extent to which their slick crimes against property is itself one of the more common expressions underlying the fact that crime is rooted like a canker in today’s so-called modern Bahamas.

And for sure, not only is crime deeply rooted; there is also a sense we are getting that crimes such as those that involve pilferage and other instances of what we would call exemplars of the ‘soft’ rip-off.

Here we find those instances where employees routinely steal time owed their employers; where these same employees appropriate office property, use them for their own purposes and who do so without permission.

These are all examples of theft done the slick way.

Evidently, these thieves could care less when they learn that, their honest neighbors, family and friends are the ones who will ultimately pay the price for crimes they do not commit.

Here we might cite some of what former Bahamas Chamber of Commerce President Dionisio D'Aguilar has already said about these kinds of criminals and the damage they get away with. Here he notes that, internal theft causes Bahamian businesses mind-boggling losses every year.

Mr. D'Aguilar also said that shrinkage, which includes many items, including spoiled goods, could cost this country's food-stores a combined $15 million a year.

We also understand that, Abaco Markets' president Gavin Watchorn has a similar tale of woe concerning the extent to which his firm has been victimized by the criminals in their Company’s employ.

Watchorn has also been reported as having said that, the level of stealing inflicted on his food-stores - both by staff and customers- had increased by 100 per cent.

This is absolutely disgraceful.

Yet again, we note that, in the end it is the Bahamian consumer who pays for these losses as theft is factored into the price of the goods.

Over the weekend, criminals did what they usually do – they went about their businesses that involve ripping other people off; raping and abusing some others and for sure, either maiming or killing some others.

Sadly, this is par for the course in today’s crime-ridden and sin-sickened Bahamas.

It is precisely this kind of society that has produced the kind of people who struck the Carnival this past weekend.

Here we cite the caper that involved the slickly successful theft of some motor-cycles used at the Carnival site in Oakes Field.

As we have read, “…Under the cover of darkness early last Saturday morning, thieves cut open a three-foot hole in the carnival’s perimeter fence, broke the lock of a trailer and made off with three motorcycles used to perform inside the “Globe of Death”.

“Becky Hitchcock, general manger of the carnival, said a show dog kept within the same trailer as the motorcycles alerted staff to the robbery. However, by the time the staff was alerted, the thieves were gone…”

And so, even as we note that the thieves were gone, note also that the crooks took with them two red and white 100cc Honda motorcycles and one red and white 70cc Honda motorcycle.

While we are today hopeful that the police will get to the bottom of this heist; we are not going to hold our breath as we wait.

But for sure, even as we might cite example after example of the kind of crimes and abuses Bahamians routinely inflict on each other, we do no such thing.

Instead, we call upon each and every Bahamian parent and all others who care for children to teach and show them how they should love and respect all other people; thus putting them on that path that would prevent them from becoming law-breakers, however artful.

January 24, 2011

The Bahama Journal Editorial

Bahamas Blog International

Crime Pays in The Bahamas...

When Home-Making Fails
The Bahama Journal Editorial



We sometimes have cause to marvel at the fact that there was once a time in the Bahamas when hard-working men earned enough money and when the social circumstances then prevalent called on women to be home-makers for a brood of children.

Coming with that regime were also circumstances where communities of people took care of their old; formed their mutual aid societies and for sure, also made penny upon penny provision for the burial of their dead.

We also know that, the world whereof some now wax nostalgic was not fated to last; it was washed away in that flood that brought with it year-round, mass tourism; the so-called ‘liberation’ of women – and a culture of materialism, itself grounded in a system where people were taught and evidently did think that they could buy now and pay later.

And since we live in a world where one thing invariably leads to another, we now live in a world where that day of reckoning has come.

And now that it is here, we have a situation on our hands where materialism and consumerism are rampant; where crimes against persons and property are high and rising – and in a time and space where children are viewed as god-awful hindrances to parents, their neighbors, other family – and so-called friends.

In turn, we now have a situation where some of these urchins grow up with the certain knowledge that life is hard; that they can make it to the top if they sell themselves; if they learn how to lie, cheat, steal and otherwise perfectly emulate behavior they see at home, on the street – and sadly, in some of their parents’ church-homes.

Compounding the matter are all those jungle-like forces coming in from abroad [and here particularly with popular culture as produced and packaged in the United States of America] some of which popularize the savage notion that, you could or should get rich quick or die trying.

And so, today we have a situation where state authorities in today’s Bahamas are seemingly at a loss as to how they could or should [legally speaking] deal with the consequences attendant upon this loss of that old spirit that once pervaded society in The Bahamas.

That spirit once found residence in some of the most humble abodes scattered throughout these islands, rocks and cays.

Alas! Those days are apparently gone with the wind.

As most Bahamians would and could now attest, few among them [namely today’s busy, hard-working men and women] have practically no time left for those activities were once subsumed under the rubric of home-making.

This sad state of affairs brings with it a host of deleterious consequences for not only these men and women, but also for their children.

As it currently seems to us – one of the cruelest consequences brought forward with the break-down of home-making has to do with child neglect and on occasion, down-right abuse.

In time, these children grow up. And for sure, as they come to maturity, they emulate behaviors learned at home, on the street, in their schools, churches and elsewhere – thus reproducing the warped worlds from which they have been thrown; thus today’s mixed up, sad Bahamas.

And for sure, as we have previously commented crime pays in the Bahamas.

Indeed, such is the extent to which mistrust is rampant in today’s Bahamas that College of The Bahamas students routinely complain how they must jealously guard their books, computers and the like – this because some of their school-mates are cold enough and calculating enough to rip them off.

The same kind of thievery takes place at the secondary level.

And for sure, it also takes place at the level of the work-place.

Simply put, lots and lots of our people are not trust-worthy.

Add to this incompetence on the part of the police – and what you then get is a situation where crime pays; and where in the past year, the police only solved half of the four robbery cases reported for islands outside New Providence and Grand Bahama.

But when we get to New Providence, we find a perfectly disturbing picture where the police detection rates in the categories of attempted robbery, robbery, armed robbery and unlawful sexual intercourse were six, eight, 10 and 29 percent respectively.

Evidently, crime pays in New Providence, home to the vast majority of the Bahamian people – and a gateway to the world.

Criminals and their feral cohorts continue to rape, rob and pillage – seemingly at will.

A part of the explanation for this sorry state of affairs can be attributed to the fact that crime does pay in a Bahamas where the detection rate for crimes committed is so alarmingly low – and when and where home-making now fails.

January 21, 2011

The Bahama Journal Editorial

Bahamas Blog International

Bahamas: Tracing the root of crime and murder in the Bahamian society

Tracing the root of a problem
thenassauguardian editorial


As the year 2010 comes to a close and as one reflects on all that the year had to offer, it’s hard to ignore the major problem that has affected the Bahamian society not just during 2010, but for the past few years.
That is the issue of crime and murder.

Like Rudolph’s red nose, the issues beam brightly, making them hard to ignore.

With over 90 murders recorded thus far for the year, already the country has set a new record in the amount of homicides within one year. And to think that there are still one more day to go before the end of the year. But even if the count does not reach 100, there is still nothing to celebrate, for already we have passed the mark.

As Bahamians look forward to 2011, they cannot help but wonder what the new year holds as far as crime is concerned. Will this new record of homicides committed in 2010 be broken again in 2011?

These once quiet island communities that were the envy and jewel of the Caribbean have now become a prison of fear for most Bahamians, as they listen to the murder count rise with each passing week.

The high rate of crime is evidence that all of the programs that have been put in place, and those that are being activated, are not having the kind of impact those who created them hoped they would have.

While some of the youth programs are having some positive impact, the effects are minimal and slow in taking place. Perhaps it seems that way because the news about crime becomes the main focus.

But the numbers speak for themselves.

The government is stumped about what exactly to do about crime in the country. They’ve watched most of the programs they’ve implemented fail and now they are between a rock and a hard place on what to do next.

The new murder record serves as a reminder of what 2010 was like and a grim prospect of what 2011 holds.

If the high murder rate and the increase in crime in the country is allowed to continue at the rate it has, eventually it will become more than just a big deal.

Like a former chief justice pointed out in a recent interview, crime will eventually affect everything within the country, including tourism and politics. If the government cannot get a handle on crime there will be no more Bahamas as we know it.

As the government, the police and all of the authorities necessary put their heads together to find solutions to crime, perhaps the best thing to do is find the cause.

Putting up Christmas lights brings an idea to mind. When a string of lights refuses to blink on, the only way to make them work is to find the one bulb that may be blown. In order to do that it may mean having to trace all of the wires to find the problem.

That is what needs to be done to get a handle on crime, trace the underlying reasons and causes for crime and begin there. With so many studies that have been done, perhaps now is the time to begin tracing the most immediate causes and begin the campaign to fight crime there.

The bottom line is unless something substantial is done to deal with the crime problem in this country, 2011, 2012 and the years that follow will only promise an even deeper spiral downward.

12/30/2010

thenassauguardian editorial

Bahamas Blog International

Khaalis Rolle - Bahamas Chamber of Commerce president says: It’s extremely frightening to do business in The Bahamas now

Bahamas ‘far beyond Wild Wild West’
By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor:


The Bahamas will be “in major trouble within five years” if it fails to take immediate action to control its ever-expanding crime problem, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce’s president warning that last week’s Supreme Court break-in and armed robbery at FirstCaribbean’s Sandyport branch showed this nation was “far beyond being the Wild Wild West”.

Telling Tribune Business that the level of crime in the Bahamas, especially violent offences and armed robberies, was now the highest in his lifetime, Khaalis Rolle said many Bahamian businesses were now afraid to conduct commerce at night, as criminals seemed to have no fear of the law.

Arguing that guns were seemingly as commonplace as cars in the Bahamas, Mr Rolle said the FirstCaribbean armed robbery and high speed chase/shoot-out between the crooks and the police showed just what a lawless, dangerous society this nation had become.

“It’s extremely frightening to do business in this country now,” Mr Rolle said. “When you get to the point where the criminals have equal or better ammunition than the police, and have absolutely no fear of the law, what’s the alternative? What do we do?”

Recalling a reggae song that described Jamaica as a ‘Cowboy town’, the Chamber president added: “The Bahamas is far beyond a Cowboy town, the Wild Wild West. Every single day there is a report of some armed robbery or attempted armed robbery. The criminals just don’t have any fear of the law.

“I think about 10 years ago I spoke at a Toastmasters meeting, and I had a conversation with a politician. I said the Bahamas was becoming an increasingly dangerous society and something had to be done. His response was as if there was no concern, and we’re at the point now where businesspeople are extremely afraid to do business after dark.”

Pointing to the Supreme Court break-in at Justice Jon Isaacs’ office, Mr Rolle said this showed that “no place is off limits”.

“The criminals are so daring that they do what they want to do during the day, and the one entity where you’d have thought they would be off limits is no longer. The fellow broke into the courts. This is extremely serious,” the Chamber president added, pointing out that the implications went beyond just the immediate negative impact on business and the Bahamian economy.

Warning that it would “not be long” before travel advisories and media reports declared the Bahamas an unsafe destination, Mr Rolle added: “Everyone seemingly has a gun. Guns seem to be as ubiquitous as vehicles. Guns are everywhere; cars are everywhere. Gun crime is fare more pervasive than it has ever been in my life.

“The mindset has degenerated to the point where people do not believe there is a penalty attached to their actions, and if there is some penalty attached, people don’t care.”

Acknowledging that it was “easy to point the finger” of blame at the Government or Royal Bahamas Police Force for this nation’s crime problems, Mr Rolle told Tribune Business: “There’s a huge implication for society as a whole.

“I believe this problem goes far deeper, and if we do not resolve it now, or at least start taking preparatory steps to, we’re going to be in significant trouble in five years. In five years’ time, the Bahamas will not be the same Bahamas we see now.

“We’ve got some issues that are going to impact this country, and even though I speak on behalf of the business community, the implications far beyond. It goes back to deficiencies in the education system, deficiencies in the social system, and we have to address these deficiencies and do it proactively.”

August 03, 2010

tribune242

Bahamas Blog International

The roots of The Bahamas' crime epidemic

The roots of our crime epidemic
By PACO NUNEZ
Tribune News Editor:



BAHAMIANS are afraid. A recently circulated questionnaire revealed a public "deeply troubled" by the explosion of crime and violence in society.

Crime has been unacceptably high for decades, but over the past few years it has reached unprecedented levels. Many now say they feel like prisoners in their own homes, afraid of being attacked each time they step outside.

As people become increasingly concerned about their safety, calls have mounted for more serious measures to be taken.

Pro-hanging marches have become a common occurrence, and the vast majority of those polled said they believe some form of intervention by foreign law enforcement agencies is now necessary. There have even been murmurs of support for vigilante justice in the face of what is seen as an ineffective judicial system.

Our political class and some senior police officers would have us believe it's not as bad as all that. Admitting that crime is at an all-time high, they say the public perception of danger is nevertheless exaggerated; fear of crime is worse than crime itself. Even if this were true, it is difficult to understand why heightened alarm is in itself a bad thing (except, of course for the reputations of those charged with keeping the public safe). It stands to reason that the more fearful I am - or at least, the more alert and aware - the more likely I am to remain alive and unharmed.

In any case, the newly-released Report on Crime: Root Causes of Crime - an intensive study three years in the making - would seem to contradict this politically convenient narrative. It suggests crime and violence are not only perpetuated at the fringes of society as we have been repeatedly told, but fester at the very core of who we are as a people.

Led by eminent psychologist Dr David Allen, the research team repeated the approach used by the medical journal Lancet in its 1986 report on the cocaine epidemic in the Bahamas. In addition to conducting a series of confidential interviews, the research team organised focus groups consisting of:

* Families of murder victims,

* Those involved in programmes for students guilty of violent or disorderly behaviour,

* Chronic drug addicts,

* Troubled teenagers and parents,

* Public and private psychotherapy groups,

* Church groups,

* Individuals from violent neighbourhoods

The results indicated five primary causes of crime and violence in the Bahamas:

Chronic Violent

Drug Syndrome

The report noted that the Bahamas was the first country outside South America to experience a national crack cocaine addiction problem.

It said: "The chronic violent drug syndrome (CVDS) is the continuing devastating blow delivered to our country by the 1980s cocaine epidemic", noting that similar syndromes exist in Mexico, Colombia, Jamaica, and some US cities including Miami and Washington DC.

CVDS encourages serious crime in a number of ways, primarily through the violence and executions attendant upon the creation and maintenance of drug trafficking empires, "creating fear and panic among the public and empowering the drug barons in turf wars," the study said.

The syndrome also leads to increasing numbers of drug addicts, two thirds of whom are involved in multiple crimes, according to the research. "In and out of prison, these persons are cognitively impaired and find it hard to hold down a job," the study said.

It added that although the rate of new crack addictions does not seem to be increasing at the moment, there is a widespread and growing marijuana epidemic among children age 10 through adolescence. "This destroys educational potential since the brain is not fully developed until the mid-20s."

The study notes that the proliferation of firearms, both legal and illegal, is also a symptom of CVDS. "Guns and drugs go together. Young men tell me that getting a gun is easier than going to the mall," Dr Allen said.

This leads to murder becoming common and life being considered cheap. The drug business is by nature a "kill or be killed" existence and cultivating a dangerous reputation is both a survival tactic in a highly armed society and the primary means of getting ahead in the world.

One reaction to this is the formulation of gangs, which men and women - whether involved in the drug business or not - join for "affirmation, safety, protection, connection and empowerment".

Of course, in such an atmosphere the general work ethic and thereby the concept of personal property eventually cease to have any meaning. "With a gun, what is yours is mine. With a gun even if you lose the dice game, you still win," Dr Allen said.

As a consequence, regular citizens begin to live in fear and therefore decide to seek gun licenses.

The crack cocaine epidemic has also laid siege to the nuclear family in the Bahamas as it engulfs parents, leaving children to fend largely for themselves - particularly in terms of the formation of the ethical dimension of their character. Children remain "un-bonded and lack habilitation and social skills. There is no motivation for education in the home," the study said.

All this leads to sprees of violent crime which are not confined to any sector of society, as "the gun is the law in the drug world".

Anger

Unsurprising considering the consequences of CVDS, the researchers interviewed numerous Bahamians whose immediate response to becoming angry was to talk about killing, poisoning or suicide. This applied to one third of those interviewed, some of whom came from "respectable families".

"We have an anger problem in our midst," the report concluded, adding the frightening assertion that this often renders individuals literally unable to stop themselves from committing violent acts.

Dr Allen explained that poor childhood conditioning can lead to a society in which when individuals feel wounded, "instead of doing our grief work, we give over to destructive anger and shame, leading to resentment, bitterness, hardness of heart and finally grievance. At the grievance point we enter the 'blind spot'.

"My work shows we become possessed by evil or negative energy. Young men who have committed murder or extreme violence describe being taken over by a negative force. . . One man told me, 'All of a sudden I could not stop stabbing him. Looking back, I felt something was controlling me'."

While any explanation of individual behaviour which eliminates personal responsibility from the equation should be approached with extreme caution, the research team behind the study make a strong case for the argument that many young offenders have at least a diminished responsibility, as their behaviour is to some extend governed by factors beyond their control.

The study explained that anger causes diffuse physiological arousal (DPA) - the heart rate increases, blood pressure rises and the pulse quickens. "Because of the intimate connection of the heart to the brain, when the pulse rises 10 per cent above normal, the IQ drops 20 to 30 points," it said.

In addition, a person who lacks appropriate strategies for dealing with anger often suffers from alexithymia, or an inability to express feelings or strong emotions.

"If a person cannot express 'I am angry' or 'I am hurt' they will act it out. For example, a young man who beat a woman said he wanted her to feel what he was feeling. When asked what he was feeling, he said, 'I don't know'," the study noted.

Economic downturn

Men, the study contends, derive a great deal of their self-esteem from their employment.

"Men without work become angry at their wife or girlfriend and the children suffer. Some persons respond by a wish to die (suicide). Although there is no direct causal connection between poverty and crime, there is a clear connection between the loss of money or status and increased rage or suicidal ideation," it said, noting the case of a local woman who said that after recently losing his job, her boyfriend kept a hangman's noose in the bedroom, telling her he could no longer afford to give her what she wanted, "so when the time was right, he would hang himself".

The study added: "Young girls make themselves available to older men in a form of prostitution which is becoming increasingly common. This is seen as an acceptable way to pay for education or family bills, eg, cable, electricity and water".

Affects of child abuse

In an Insight article published last year, Dr Allen said his work over the years has revealed that child abuse is alarmingly widespread in this country.

The study notes that nearly all troubled children are victims of some type of abuse, especially physical and sexual abuse.

Trauma

The study noted that on average, each victim of violence has a "sociophile" of 100 people, including family members, friends, neighbours, et cetera, who are in turn traumatised by the victim's trauma. If one pauses to consider the thousands of violent crimes perpetuated in this country on an annual basis, the number of affected persons is revealed to be truly staggering.

The symptoms of trauma include several which can lead to yet more violent crime, such as:

* Anger and a need for revenge. Dr Allen tells of a woman who rushed into a local shelter wielding a machete and saying someone had just killed her brother. "Because her brother was the supporter of the family and acted like the father she felt obligated to kill his murderer," he explained. Had it not been for the intervention of a member of the research team, the woman might have become a murderer herself.

* Fear of being alone. This often drives young people into the waiting arms of gangs. One young boy interviewed as part of the study said a friend of his was killed because he was alone. "He should have been with his boys," the young man said.

* Magical thinking. Dr Allen said a young boy told him: "If you get stabbed, just hold your chest and you will not die. My friend did it and he lived."

* Short life expectancy. A group of 12 to 15 year-olds told the research team they did not expect to live to be 25 or 30, because they know someone who was killed.

* Glorification of violence. A 15-year-old who stabbed another boy said violence is cool. "If you kill you get stripes and you will only spend six months in jail," he said.

* Suicidal tendencies. When a young person committed suicide, friends said the person was better off, and they wish they could do the same.

* Poor cognitive skills, disinterest in school, inability to concentrates and poor impulse controls. This leads to fights and stabbings, the study found.

Response

According to Dr Allen and his team, what the Bahamas must do is replace this culture of violence and destruction with one of "life and hope". In light of the formidable obstacles to such a transition outlined in the study, this is by no means an easy task.

Dr Allen suggests that we need to develop leaders in all segments of this community; individuals who "absorb chaos, exude calm and instill hope".

He added: "Studies show that child abuse can be greatly reduced by neighbourhood walkarounds. If every church adopted the community around their church, and did weekly walkabouts they would observe child abuse, neglect and other crimes in the making. This is a powerful crime prevention process. Using this methodology, since there is a church on every corner, we could revolutionise the Bahamas in three years."

Dr Allen also recommended that we teach people the skills necessary to deal with anger and trauma peacefully and constructively, beginning with simple steps like dealing with provocation by slow breathing and visualisation techniques.

The question is, how can a society driven by traumatic circumstances to cynicism and hard-heartedness ever open up to such methods?

This is a problem we will probably continue to struggle with, if not forever, at least for the foreseeable future. One thing, however, is certain - we will never solve it by pretending that crime and violence are the purview of a small, fringe element of society.

Violent crime may not exist in all places at all times, but the seeds of aggression and criminality have been sown into the very fabric of the Bahamian character over the past few decades and no one is immune to the consequences. The sooner we admit this and get on with finding the best way to tackle it, the better.

What do you think?

pnunez@tribunemedia.net

July 19, 2010

tribune242

Bahamas Blog International

Cayman Islands fight growing crime

Caymans fights growing crime
tribune242 editorial
Nassau, Bahamas



WHILE Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade and his newly energised team of officers make their presence felt throughout New Providence, the Cayman Islands has imported British police to help them get their rising gang-related crime under control as quickly as possible.

Dependent, like the Bahamas, on its world image as a safe tourist and financial destination, Caymanian business leaders fear that rising crime could damage that image. According to a Reuters news report from Georgetown on Thursday, 14 British officers arrived on the island late Wednesday at the request of Cayman Police Commissioner David Baines.

"The murder rate in the small British territory, with a population of 55,000, remains low compared with Caribbean states like Jamaica," said the Reuters report. "But the 390-strong local police force has been stretched since the start of the year by five murders, a kidnapping, armed robberies and shootings. Victims included a 4-year-old boy killed in crossfire.

"Cayman authorities and local leaders in tourism, financial services and real estate are worried the spike in crime could damage the islands' reputation for safety and security, which has underpinned its emergence as a legal domain for many of the world's hedge funds.

'"If we can't crack the problem and bring down the murder rate and restore a much better level of law and order, in the long term, it is going to damage the Cayman Islands,'" the British-appointed governor, Duncan Taylor, said this month, according to the Reuters report.

Fearful of losing its attraction -- already crime is affecting the recruitment of foreign staff for financial positions -- Cayman is determined to get the problem under control as quickly as possible. "It has to be dealt with now and we have to deal with it aggressively," said a developer.

Cayman's police commissioner has cancelled all rest days for his force and put them on 12-hour shifts. Non-essential services were suspended to boost police visibility on the streets. Commissioner Baines said it wasn't a matter of bringing in a UK SWAT team, rather it was about "filling in the skill shortfall we have because our existing detectives are stretched."

Although Cayman knows its problems are not as severe as its neighbours, it is taking no chances. Compared to its five murders for the year, the Bahamas has had 26. National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest said last week that the international yardstick for murder is five per 100,000. "Assuming a population of 350,000 (as is the Bahamas) that should equate to around 17 or 18 murders a year in the Bahamas. At 26 murders to date, we are way over the threshold," he said. The Cayman's population is 55,000.

Commissioner Ellison Greenslade has also moved into emergency mode. Armed with a new police Act, he has outline his five "strategic" crime fighting priorities for 2010. One of them is to raise the standard of recruits -- the days of compromising a community's security to give a chance to unqualified, and probably undeserving persons, are over. He will also demand greater accountability from his men, and those police officers who are not doing police work, will be recalled to active service. He is determined to make our communities healthier and safer.

After studying the hours that most crimes are committed -- 4pm to 8 am - the hours that the police are on duty will no longer be exclusively from 9am to 5pm. There will be an active night shift.

Commissioner Greenslade is determined to have an around-the-clock police presence in the community. Many of us are already aware of that presence. We are also aware that the public is starting to assume its responsibilities of assisting their law enforcement officers in flushing out pockets of subterranean criminals, who, confident in the silence of their frightened neighbours, have gone about their evil ways undisturbed.

Friday's uncovering of what police believe is a long-running, well orchestrated car theft ring, should turn up much information. Already police have discovered parts of cars that have been used in armed robberies.

For many years here at The Tribune we have battled with the police about withholding information from the public. There were always two schools of thought in the Force -- those who believed in keeping information to a minimum so as not to alarm the public, and those (in the minority) who wanted to share as much information with the public as possible, believing that an informed people could better protect themselves.

At long last we now have leaders of a Force who realise that the only way to recruit the public to their crime fighting team, is to keep them informed. The National Crime Prevention Office at police headquarters is making its presence felt. It is keeping the public informed, not only of crimes committed, but crime trends and tips to help them protect themselves and their property. At long last the public is starting to feel that the police have their welfare at heart. And in turn more members of the public are responding with good, solid information.

With the police and public working in tandem, the criminal will gradually learn that with the spotlight on him, his safest bet is to turn himself in. He has already discovered that there is no longer any place to hide. The public has had enough crime, and they want the criminal in the one location built for him -- HM Prison, Fox Hill.

It is now up to the judiciary to get itself organised and join the team that is determined to rid our islands of criminals.

April 26, 2010

tribune242

Bahamas Blog International

Bahamas: 'Operation Ceasefire' worth investigating

Tribune242 Editorial:


IN THIS column yesterday we discussed another approach to crime, one that would tap into a community's social problems and force criminals -- especially those operating in gangs -- to take responsibility, not only individually, but also as a group, for the error of their ways.

A Scottish police woman, impressed by the results that "Operation Ceasefire" was having in subduing Boston's criminals, tried to convince the Strathclyde police department, which included Glasgow, a city plagued by 3,500 gang members, ranging in age from 11 to 23, to explore the possibilities of adapting the programme to the needs of Glasgow.

Her colleagues were sceptical, writes Gavin Knight, in "The Week", a weekly London publication. They believed that Boston gang crime was driven by the control of the drug markets, with guns the enforcers, and gang members mainly African-Americans. They believed that Glasgow's crime was different. Police woman, Karyn McCluskey, disagreed. She was convinced that the "macho street code and group dynamics were the same." McCluskey said when she sat in on Boston gang trials she found that "the majority of the fights and murders were about respect. They weren't about control of the drugs market. Fights over girlfriends. Fights over territory. You've come into my area -- exactly what we have in Glasgow."

She was determined to try out Harvard-educated David Kennedy's "Operation Ceasefire". Kennedy flew to Strathclyde to convince McCluskey's colleagues. The £5 million needed to fund the project was raised. People were brought together from justice, government, housing, careers, education, social work, health and the community. After 18 months of planning, the Strathclyde police were ready for the first call-in. It was held in the Glasgow sheriff's court on October 24, 2008 and was opened by the sheriff.

Wrote Gavin Knight:

"Through a cordon of four mounted police at the entrance, 120 gang members were escorted into the courtroom by police in riot gear. A police helicopter hovered overhead and constables cruised up and down the Clyde. 'The chief of police stands up first. He gives a hard-edged message,' McCluskey recalled. 'Pictures of the gangs are getting flashed around on the screens. We know who you are, who you associate with, who you fight with. If we wanted, we could have a police officer outside your front door. You could see the looks on their faces. They are shocked.'"

Members of the community then spoke. An elderly man told how frightened he was to walk down the street to collect his pension. An Accident and Emergency consultant explained the difficulty in dealing with knife victims. A mother told of how her 13-year-old son was set upon by a machete-wielding gang. He tried to protect his badly damaged face, resulting in the loss of his fingers. "We had gang members crying because regardless of how good or bad their parents are -- they love their mums," McCluskey said. "That was the most powerful thing in the US, and it was the most powerful thing here too," she noted.

Another speaker had committed murder at 18. He explained the dehumanising and harrowing aspects of prison life. He told of spending his twenties in prison, "someone telling him when he can go to the toilet, when he can eat." He had a "level of remorse that speaks to them," said McCluskey.

It is too early to officially evaluate the results of the Stathclyde programme, but according to anecdotal evidence it appears to be working. It is reported that the Ceasefire model has been the most successful attempt so far to reduce crime in that area, and is being suggested for other British cities.

"Operation Ceasefire" provides a helping hand for anyone who wants to leave gang life and enter the world of worthwhile achievement. Each gang member is given a phone number to call if he wants to leave a gang. The boys are assessed by a social worker, and their needs are noted, whether it be a programme to get them off drugs or get them an education. Health care, career advice and social services are also provided.

We suggest that our Commissioner of Police give Mr David Kennedy a call to explore whether "Operation Ceasefire", or some adaptation of it, might bear fruit in the Bahamas.

Our crime situation has now reached a point where almost anything is worth investigation.

April 07, 2010

tribune242

Bahamas Blog International

Bahamas: Crime solution needs a new approach

Tribune242 Editorial:



AFTER BEING off the island for the past two weeks we have returned to the same old story -- crime, crime and more crime. The killings, armed robberies and drug offences have been interrupted only by a freak tornado that brought tragedy to several Freeport families, and the signing of the Baha Mar $2.6 billion loan agreement with its Chinese partners for the redevelopment of Cable Beach, which, hopefully will translate into more jobs for unemployed Bahamians. On completion 6,500 direct jobs with 1,500 related industry jobs have been projected.

It isn't as though the police are not doing a good job in tracking down the criminal.

It isn't as though more members of the public are not stepping up to the plate with information to help the police in their investigations. It isn't as though committees are not being formed to try to find a solution to "our crime problem." All this is being done, but crime continues unabated.

A retired member of the police force believes that a successful programme will help if it can probe into the community's anti-social difficulties and find a solution that will embarrass the criminal into becoming a useful part of society.

Somehow the wayward have to be made to understand the damage they are doing to their country --the economy is now in a tailspin with crime threatening to shut off its very lifeblood, tourism.

It is true that there are hardened criminals who cannot be reached with such an argument.

We recall many years ago one of our Psychology professors likening this type of criminal to a product that arrives from the factory with an intrinsic flaw, the only remedy being to return it to the factory for remoulding.

In other words, these criminals are hopeless cases, who have to be institutionalised for society's protection. However, there are those for whom there is hope, and these are the ones for whom programmes have to be found to divert them from their evil ways.

The Bahamian police officer believes that many of today's programmes are ineffective. Firstly, it has to be decided what Bahamians are looking for and what they hope to achieve. They then have to discover whether their plan of attack is workable. If so, the plan has to be implemented with enthusiasm and determination -- not the half-measures given to most programmes today. In other words society has to be involved and understand that its members have to be serious about dealing with its social ills.

This line of thought recalled an article sent to us in January by a Tribune reader who believed we might "find it interesting and perhaps relevant to the current crime situation in the Bahamas." The article referred to was published in "The Week," a British publication.

The programme is very relevant and was along the lines that the Bahamian officer was suggesting. It is certainly worthy of investigation.

A Strathclyde police woman heard of the programme when police were faced with 71 murders in that region of Scotland. Most of the murders were committed in Glasgow, "making it the most violent city in Europe," said the magazine's article. Most of the deaths were committed by one-on-one battles among rival gangs. It was discovered that Glasgow has 170 gangs with 3,500 members, ranging in age from 11 to 23.

The police woman had heard of Operation Ceasefire, spearheaded by David Kennedy, a Harvard academic, in Boston, who "seeing crack-ravaged Boston housing projects in the 1980s, dedicated himself to researching new ideas in community-based policing. Boston's gang-related youth murders rose by 23 per cent, "The Week" reported.

Gavin Knight of "The Week" wrote:

"Under Kennedy's guidance, police, youth workers and other members of the project meticulously researched the violence. Who was attacking whom? Which gang members were in prison? The research took a year to complete. Once it was over, Kennedy's next move was to turn the gangs' group dynamics against them. He summoned gang members to face-to-face forums - 'call ins' -- which they could be compelled to attend as a condition of parole. The first was in Boston in May 1996, with a second in September that year. In the call-ins, gang members were not treated like psychopaths but like rational adults. It was businesslike and civil. The object was explicit moral engagement.

"They were told that what they were doing was causing huge damage to their families and communities and that the violence most stop. The police said that any further violence would result in the whole group being punished. In emotional appeals, members of the community, victims' relatives and ex-offenders spoke about the consequences of gang violence. And youth workers said that if they wanted out of the gang life they would be given help with jobs, housing, training and addiction problems."

The programme worked for Boston, but doubting Scotsmen questioned whether it could cross the Atlantic with any success for them.

April 06, 2010

tribune242

bahamas Blog International

Bahamas: Criminal justice in crisis

IN A few weeks time the Prime Minister will give his state of the nation message, which will deal with many subjects of importance. Crime will obviously feature high on his agenda.

This will be the deciding year -- either the criminals will get control or the community, the police and the judiciary will unite to return law and order to the nation.

Today the criminal seems to have the upper hand. In other words he is literally getting away with murder.

The judge who returns a person to the streets on remand is not doing that person a favour. Some would have been safer behind bars for whatever length of time they would have had to await trial. In the interim several of them have been killed.

But let's look at it from the point of view of the accused. Recently we were told by one -- a tinge of sarcastic bitterness in his voice -- "Man I just working for my lawyer!"

Translated that comment meant that he fully realised that with a criminal record he had no hope of finding a job once he was returned to the streets on remand. The reality of life was that he had to eat, secure lodging and in many cases try to support a family. Unable to work, he had to continue a life of crime, and the crime had to be lucrative enough to provide lawyer's fees against the day he was caught and had to again plead "not guilty" before the bar of justice. His future depended upon that lawyer using his debating skills and the knowledge of the law to keep him out of prison. And so for him -- and the community -- the cycle of crime continues.

There is then the even more frightening phenomenon of the intimidation of witnesses. Even from behind their prison bars witnesses are being intimidated by certain accused persons. Witnesses have often recanted through fear.

A person who has nothing to lose, but everything to gain by using his wits will go to criminal lengths to secure his freedom. And some of these men, sitting in a jail cell, are going to those criminal lengths to intimidate a community.

We have heard of a case of an accused, in jail, using a cell phone to contact a leading witness in his case to say what would happen to him if he testified. Imagine in prison with a cell phone. Imagine what would happen to trials if witnesses are silenced through fear. No one would go to prison and justice would have to take its course on the streets.

For prisoners to have cells phones in prison -- and this has been reported on many occasions in the past -- there has to be a severe breach of security at the prison. The police should do a thorough investigation and get to the bottom of this. From what we understand, this particular prisoner is not the only one who is managing his affairs from a prison cell with the aid of a cell phone.

There was another instance, which we are told took place not too long ago during a hearing in the Nassau Street magistrate's court. The accused is said to have lifted his hand showing his palm to the witness in the box. The number 186 was written on the palm.

Later the witness asked the significance of 186. The reply was that in "street language" 186 meant that the accused planned to instruct his "boys" to shoot up the witness and all his family in a "drive by."

And then there are the lawyers. Much of the case backlog is caused by lawyers, either because they are not prepared, have too many cases going on at the same time and need postponements, or are just using delaying tactics in hopes that the case will fall off the court calendar for want of many things, not the least among them the absence of witnesses. The court system not only needs an overhaul, but on the part of lawyers a return to discipline, efficiency and respect for the court's time.

As for some of the judges -- that's another story. Sometimes we wonder if they live on the same planet and are aware of what they are doing to the community when they return, not once, but twice and in a few cases three times, murder accused to the community to await trial. There have been occasions when these accused have killed each other and saved the court time, but there also have been occasions when an innocent bystander has been caught in the cross fire.

Last year Dame Joan Sawyer, Appeals Court judge, ruled that in bail decisions if a judge has to warn the bail applicant not to interfere with witnesses, then that applicant should not be granted bail.

We understand that one of that august body retorted that if that were the case then he would not give such warnings in the future for fear of the Attorney General's office applying to revoke the bail.

These are the problems that the Prime Minister and parliamentarians have to face, because legislation is obviously needed to deal with some of them.

January 04, 2010

tribune242

Bahamas Caribbean Blog International

Bahamas: Opposition Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman Bradley Roberts insists Urban Renewal changes led to rise in crime

By ALISON LOWE:
Tribune Staff Reporter -
alowe@tribunemedia.net:


PLP Chairman Bradley Roberts yesterday branded claims that changes to the Urban Renewal programme did not lead to a rising tide of crime as a "wicked bold-faced lie".

He further charged that had Urban Renewal not been "watered down" under the FNM, the "blatant daytime robbery of some 18 tourists at Chippingham would likely not have occurred".

Mr Roberts claimed that for the Commissioner of Police to try to deny that adjustments to the programme did not result in an upsurge "in serious crime in 'over the hill' areas where the Urban Renewal Programme once flourished, is evidence that the Commissioner is clearly out of touch with the extent of crime and the harsh realities facing locals and visitors alike".

"As the Police Staff Association has now expressed, 'Commissioner Reginald Ferguson's retirement is a step in the right direction'," said Mr Roberts.

It was announced last week that Mr Ferguson is to retire from the force in January 2010.

Mr Roberts' comments come after the Commissioner reacted to statements that have been continually made by the Opposition PLP about the impact of alterations to Urban Renewal on crime.

Commissioner Ferguson told The Tribune that, contrary to claims made by the Opposition, he had seen "no empirical evidence" to show that changes to the initiative have caused an upsurge in crime in the country.

He added that allegations that "Urban Renewal is dead" as has often been asserted by the government's detractors are "a lie".

In yesterday's release, Mr Roberts quoted statistics which, he said, would provide the evidence Mr Ferguson suggested was lacking as proof that the FNM "made a fatal mistake in cancelling/reducing the Urban Renewal Programme".

In the statistics which Mr Roberts provides as evidence of rising crime, he quotes figures for murder, manslaughter, armed robbery, rape, unlawful sex intercourse, burglary, housebreaking, shop breaking and stolen vehicles for 2007, 2008 and for some, 2009.

In the first five categories - violent crimes against the person - the statistics from Mr Roberts show that in the first two years of the FNM administration, incidences dropped.

However, in the last four categories, all crimes against property, incidences rose.

Overall, given the greater rise in the number of property crimes, which are generally more frequent that serious violent crimes year on year, vis-a-vis the less significant drop in crimes against the person, the figures quoted by Mr Roberts show that the number of crimes increased during the FNM's latest term in government, from 6,850 to 7,225.

The FNM has also recently released selected figures from 1999 to 2006 which it says show "the truth about Urban Renewal", comparing crime levels up to the end of the previous FNM administration in 2001, and under the PLP, when Urban Renewal was initiated, until 2006.

"The annual rate of serious crimes, such as murder, armed robbery and housebreaking at all times under their era of Urban Renewal remained higher than it was during the pre-Urban Renewal year 2001; and the murder and housebreaking rates were on the increase in 2006, the last full year of Urban Renewal on their watch," the party notes.

Reports appearing in the US and UK media over the last year indicate that rises in crime levels in those countries, particularly crimes against property, have been linked to recessionary economic conditions.

tribune242

Bahamas Caribbean Blog International