A broad cross section of leadership in The Bahamas is today vociferously demanding that convicted rapists be beaten with the dreaded Cat O’ Nine tails. What is interesting about this loud cry for vengeance is that it does nothing more than give voice to any number of incoherent cries for violent and painful retaliation against people who do dreadful things. While this angry response is perfectly understandable, we counsel and caution that when justice is understood in terms of retribution and retaliation as opposed to redemption and restoration, the cycle of pain continues.
While everyone has a right to voice opinion concerning the right balance between crime and punishment, we believe that it is out of order for police officers to weigh in with their views concerning any particular punishment. Police officers are called upon to speak to matters in their portfolio, nothing more and nothing less. As law enforcers, policemen are obliged to carry out their assigned duties, and should therefore refrain from voicing views which are outside their assigned ambit of authority.
The situation is somewhat different in the case of pastors and politicians. Church and state officials are obliged, by virtue of their offices, to speak to matters of law, policy and conscience. In this instance, therefore, the call for the reintroduction of “the Cat” by the police is out of order. Our considered judgment is that all sides to this conversation should take a breather, reflect more deeply on the complex of issues involved in the matter of crime and its impact on The Bahamas. Public officials like politicians and pastors should be extremely careful lest in their zeal to sound and look tough, they create any number of perversely unintended social consequences.
When, for example, the call is made for the imposition of draconian measures for those who commit heinous crimes, socio-paths and psychopaths may read this as a call to all out war. Extreme measures may have the unintended result of ratcheting up crime rates rather than lowering them. Additionally, while blood curdling calls for extreme measures such as the Cat O’ Nine tails might provide some comfort to people intent on conflating justice with vengeance, there are other voices which should also be heard. These are the ones which argue that Bahamian society and community are not improved when it tries to match the brutality of the criminal with state sanctioned brutality.
This perspective holds to the conviction and conclusion that civilized society should be focused on methods and modalities which focus on restoration, redemption and rehabilitation. Little of this is possible if the offender is beaten and broken. As we understand this thesis, the argument is not that society should be ‘soft’ on criminals, but that a concerted and sustained effort should be made to recognize their humanity and the imperative that human beings be treated with dignity and respect. Put otherwise, while criminals might demonstrate that they are brutal and uncivilized, organized society should affirm life rather than deny it.
People hewing to this line would argue that the focus should be placed on a concept of justice focused on restoration rather than retribution. In answer to the question as to what should be done about the most violent predators, believers in restorative justice argue that serious offenders require serious sentences. As such, they should be removed from society and kept away until they are deemed fit for healthy re-integration into the community. While incarcerated, they should be given every opportunity to be rehabilitated.
For our part, believing and knowing as we do that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, our advice is that the Government and its social partners should work assiduously to create, establish and design environments conducive to the cultivation and development of the best in all Bahamians. This is because we do believe that better homes, better schools, better churches, better government and better community development associations do create more caring people. No effort should be spared in working to create in The Bahamas a genuinely more beloved community.
While we have no illusions about creating utopia in The Bahamas, and while we know that there will always be a certain level of dysfunction and deviance in our country, we are absolutely convinced that the road to genuine social progress in The Bahamas is not to be found on a path which has vengeance as its milestones.
Editorial, The Bahama Journal
