The Bahamas, over recent years, has experienced a back-breaking and unacceptable dimension of criminal activities by a few disgruntled elements in our society, which will potentially erode the hospitality and humble characteristics and naturalness of the Bahamas as a world-leading tourism destination.
The Bahamas, from cradle, has remained a pristine-like nation, a well-nurtured and civilised society having the rule of law as the essence of our existence, irrespective of one’s status and strata in life.
In modern times, these well-deserving attributes are gradually being subjugated to the mundane and vulgarised exotic inundated cultural fads, which the youths today are unfortunately attracted to as part of youthful exuberance and in conformity to youths’ peer pressure.
Unacceptable as our current crime activities are, some of us must come to grips and accept the unwitting accessories that we have become in what we are experiencing today. We as citizens of this great country must consonantly and constructively come together to understand the root causes of our societal ills, which will guide us towards solving this grievous crime infestation prevalent in our society today.
We cannot renege and absolve any facet of our lives as free from potential bad influences to our children. We must search soul-heartedly the lives we live; the materialistic cravings and indulgences we seek; the flagrant disregard towards providing our children with proper childhood development.
Through a thoughtful and humble soul-searching, we must come to the realisation that in spite of our self-presumed uprightness, some of us have failed, unwittingly, to ensure that our children’s future is given the right attention and direction it deserves. Children have a very low level of recidivism; once they are made to internalise the quality of lifestyle from birth they relatively remain on the right path.
Fortunately, we as a nation are not beyond redemption from these criminals. We need to have the temerity and become unrestrained and less ideologically bashing towards adopting the necessary measures, irrespective of the impact and how chilling it may appear, so long as our fundamental human rights are not hampered. We are in a state of emergency in respect to the levels of rapes, murders, incest, robberies, and threats to Iives that we face today.
Hence, we, as a people, must support the government in adopting more aggressive, though humane, approaches to handling crime and criminals in our society.
Firstly, the government must repudiate all forms of judicial affiliations, which limits the government’s ability to deal with the reality of our lives today. We are an independent nation, hence, the Privy Council should not dictate or continue to be our extended imperialistic judicial system, because the Privy Council is unaware of the state of our nation’s crime conditions, neither is the Privy Council aware of the great economic obstacle that crime is posing to the Bahamas.
Therefore, our relationship with the various human rights organisations and the Privy Council should be more constructive, serving whatever is our vital national interest. Capital punishment must continue immediately to serve as an example to demonstrate to intended murderers, rapists, arsonists, robbers and other intended criminals that the Bahamas is no longer a sanctuary for their kinds of people and activities.
Secondly, the government must immediately pass legislation statutorily barring the courts from granting bail to any offender alleged to have committed serious state crimes such as rape, incest, armed robbery, arson, and murder.
No legal technicality should be allowed for such persons to gain freedom until the court declares him/her innocent.
Thirdly, in view of the difficulty in restricting the flow of illegal weapons into the country, the government must review all forms of legislation towards giving the police and other law enforcement agencies the mandate to deal expeditiously with suspected persons by having search warrants issued, without delay, to search any home for the purpose of confiscating illegal firearms and prosecuting possessors of the same.
Reasonable random searches should be allowed, considering that we are in a state of emergency in respect of the level of crimes our once crime-free society is facing today.
The government and the various religious bodies must now take an aggressive approach at re-orienting our young girls and boys towards upholding and taking to decent ways of life, shunning materialistic tendencies.
The government must place great emphasis on proper legal punishment and hold leaders (church, schools, public homes, and government) responsible to the fullest extent of the law that betray the trust placed on them by virtue of their calling and the sacredness of services which the society is depending on them to perform without taking undue advantage of fellow citizens.
In addition, we as citizens must become aware of our rights in torts to pursue in an attempt to place liability on men, women and families who fail to provide and care for their children in view of the growing and rampant teen rape.
It is psychologically nauseating and exasperating to see girls between the ages of 7 to 12 years being raped by teenage boys and adults, sometimes by their stepfathers.
Our laws and the courts need improvement. We cannot allow these criminals bail, and if convicted sent to prison for a few years, only for them to come out and smile at the victims who would be facing lifetime crises as a result of the crime.
The judicial system must not allow deadbeat fathers to routinely flaunt their responsibility of providing for their children from both teen and adult mothers, in addition to their failure to provide a home and proper upbringing for these children. This is part of the genesis of the crime situation we are facing today.
What are the futures of these children when their mothers are just between 16 and 19, who themselves have not been able to inculcate the virtues of life?
Chastity, hardwork, fear of God, respect for our bodies as the temple of God, contentment, honesty and dedication to the needs and expectation of the society have been thrown away as a result of the failure on our part to provide early guidance and discipline.
While we appreciate the nobleness of liberty and freedom granted by our constitution, we still owe the society a duty not to infringe on others’ rights by our self-ingrained failure to restrain the exercise of our rights both as teenagers and adults.
The reality of our times calls for national vigilance. There should be no friendship, family, and all other parties involved in crime detection and reporting. We should uphold the lives of fellow citizens, irrespective of the nature of our relationship with any criminal.
Hence, we owe a sacred and solemn duty to inform the police when our fathers, brothers, sister, mothers, nephews, cousin, uncles, aunts, or anyone commits a crime.
The Bahamas, as a nation, is well endowed and represents a haven and sanctuary for our peace and prosperity and we should be proud to be citizens of the Bahamas; hence we must serve our nation with utmost good faith.
Dr. Kevin J. Alcena
Column, The Nassau Guardian
