The Bahamas police are doing their job, but the Bahamian courts are soft on law breakers

Tough laws promised to keep criminals in prison

tribune242 editorial

Nassau, The Bahamas



AN EXASPERATED Police Commissioner yesterday called for stiffer penalties for law breakers.

He said that criminals were not taking the law seriously because punishments were too light. In other words criminals were just playing a catch-me-if-you can game with the police, while wreaking vengeance on society.

The Commissioner was asked by the press whether the police were doing enough to stop the bloodshed -- which with 100 murders made Bahamian history over the weekend. As we wrote this column last night a report flashed across our screen that two more persons- a man and a woman- had just been shot in Nassau Village. They were taken to hospital - the man in serious condition, the woman stable.

One could almost see the Commissioner biting his tongue at yesterday's conference as he tried to gingerly skirt the reporter's question.

He said police officers were arresting the suspects, but after a person was charged it was out of their hands and up to the courts. He said he did not want to speak on the issue in too much detail.

He might not want to elaborate on what is a sore point in police ranks, but we shall do it for him.

The answer simply put is: The police are doing their job, but the courts are not.

Let's look at a five-day period to give our readers some idea of what is happening.

Between July 12 and 17th this year 39 prisoners were released from HM Prison by the courts.

Of this number 22 of them were in prison on remand. The courts gave them bail and released them.

Of these, six were charged with murder and at least three of them went before the magistrate's court with a well established criminal record.

Also among the 22 released onto the streets within a five-day period were persons charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to murder, armed robbery, rape, housebreaking, possession of firearms and drugs, causing grievous harm, fraud and forgery. Many of them have prison records, most of them for violence. Four of them were fitted with electronic monitoring devices.

Examining their records it is obvious that they have been sent back into society without any hope of finding a job or earning an honest crust of bread to keep them alive until their court date. And so what do they do?

We leave it to our readers to answer that question. It is easy to connect the dots and understand what is happening in the country. Commissioner Greenslade has already connected the dots, but does not want to talk about the picture they present -- at least not in public.

In an England gone soft on law breakers, a sudden outbreak, mainly by youth, of rioting and destruction last month, quickly brought legislators to their senses. Vowing to stop the "slow-motion moral collapse" of his country, Prime Minister David Cameron demanded stiff penalties for law breakers. The courts immediately responded, so much so that the weak-hearted are sniffling that the law is going too far. But Cameron is taking no nonsense. He has vowed to introduce laws to "crack down on lawlessness and promote a responsible society."

He directed his cabinet to look for ways to combat a "broken society" in which "fathers had abdicated responsibility for their children, schools had given up on discipline and crimes had gone unpunished."

The courts' harsh sentences were intended to reflect the authorities' anger at the looting, burning and murder that raged through London and spread to other cities.

For example, a mother who was given a pair of shorts stolen by a rioter was jailed for five months, a student went to prison for six months for stealing a box of bottled water worth about $4, while a man was jailed for four years for posting a message on Facebook to encourage people to start a riot. Courts also remanded defendants in custody until their court hearing.

Mr Cameron was pleased that the courts had sent a tough message by stiff sentences. Across the country courts were working extra hours to deal with the offenders, which moved into the thousands.

Police Commissioner Greenslade wants sanctions tough enough to make persons afraid to carry a gun in this country because they would know that they would be removed from their family and friends for a very long time.

Since the courts don't seem inclined to step up to the plate, when the House of Assembly returns from its summer break on October 5 government plans to introduce a number of new Bills to prevent violent, repeat offenders from getting bail.

"We hope that we will provide some teeth, some additional resource, to keep these criminals behind bars," said National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest.

Some Bahamians are so agitated by the seeming indifference of the courts, that they are now suggesting that maybe there are those in the system who are trying to embarrass the government.

The situation is bad, but we hope that it is not that bad.

September 20, 2011

tribune242 editorial

Bahamas Blog International

44 percent of the murders committed so far this year in The Bahamas are linked to drugs and criminal enterprise says National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest

44% of 2011 murders linked to drugs

KRYSTEL ROLLE
Guardian Staff Reporter
thenassauguardian
krystel@nasguard.com

Nassau, Bahamas



An analysis of the 57 murders committed so far this year shows that 44 percent of them are linked to drugs and criminal enterprise, according to National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest.

Turnquest said yesterday there is no question that there is a strong link between the drug trade and serious crimes in general.

He said police could not determine the motives for an additional 16 murders.

However, police suspect that they may also be drug related but do not have sufficient information to officially make that declaration.

If those 16 murders are included, that would mean that nealy 72 percent of the total murders so far are linked to drugs.

Turnquest did not provide the established motives for the remaining 16 murders.

“What we are seeing today is the result of the drug trade that sadly gripped our country a generation ago,” said the minister, while contributing to the 2011/2012 budget debate in the House of Assembly.

“The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in a 2007 report, draws a line between the illegal drug trade and other crime, including crimes such as illegal gun smuggling, illegal immigration and crimes of a very violent nature such as murder.

“The trafficking of drugs and firearms into and through our country continues and it remains a matter of concern. This is borne out by the statistics on the amount of marijuana, cocaine and illegal firearms seizures that have taken place in our country over the past five years.”

During that time period, more than 370,000 pounds of illegal narcotics were seized, according to information Turnquest tabled yesterday.

The report also shows that over the past five years authorities seized 1,211 firearms. And so far this year, 184 firearms were seized.

“With this in mind, the information gathering, research and coordination work of the National Anti-Drug Secretariat (NADS) is putting us in a better position to make the connections between drugs and crime, so that we can do more about them. It also reduces the scope for duplication of efforts of various national bodies,” Turnquest said.

The minister revealed that NADS brings together concerned government ministries/departments, non-governmental organizations and civil society, so that their combined expertise and experience can be pooled in crafting responses to the drug problem.

“To further strengthen this approach, my ministry seeks to merge the NADS and the National Drug Council, now under the portfolio of the Ministry of Health, so that the drug challenges can be more effectively and efficiently addressed,” he said.

Jun 09, 2011

thenassauguardian