The recent killing of two men in broad daylight in a community filled with kids has left many Bahamians wondering what could be next on the list of brazen acts.
The mid-morning shooting, which left two men lying in the streets in Bain Town, New Providence Friday past, is proof that criminals have become bolder in their approach. Years before, this kind of incident would have happened under the cloak of darkness.
But the time of day and the way these murders took place is evidence that our society is bordering on lawlessness. That’s a position in which communities, countries and empires in the past, began their fall from exsistence.
Is this the point which The Bahamas has reached?
Like a broken record or a tape that rewinds itself eveytime something tragic happens, once again we are hearing the call for more social programs to help young people.
There are the usual cries of the need for more jobs; the desperate cries for hanging to be carried out and for the government to do more to curb the crime problem.
Yet, it seems as if all of the cries go unheard. Even the attempts that were made to address this huge problem, aparently have had very little effect on the country’s social ills.
No doubt, the Minister of National Security has his hands full in dealing with this possible crippling situation. Not only does the minister have a task of trying to keep up with local crime (crimes committed by Bahamians against Bahamians), but he has to seek also to protect the country’s “golden egg” – tourism.
It’s not an easy task ahead of him.
You know it’s a serious situation when the prime minister steps in and publicly expresses his views on the crime situation in our country. Recently, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham told the media that the government would address the issue of crime and introduce various strategies to deal with the complex issue.
Perhaps the most important point the prime minister made during his press conference was that all Bahamians “must” be engaged in the fight against criminality.
That’s ground zero for the nationwide crime fight.
“We must have no tolerance for violent crime, and we must also not tolerate petty criminality and other anti-social behaviour, which may seem to would-be criminals that we are a society tolerant of such behaviour,” the prime minister stated.
It is understood that parents aware of their children’s involvement in criminal and anti-social behaviours, cloak their kids, especially when they (parents/guadians) benefit directly from such behaviour. It’s not until the child is caught or succumbs to fatal injury, do they tend to speak out. But normally, even then, it’s still only in defence of the child.
Today’s criminals are becoming bolder, committing crimes we once thought only exsisted on foreign soil. Violent crime, sophisticated, well-planned acts have reached our doorstep and we must have the will, the courage and the know-how to deal with it.
If we don’t, not only will our national crime rate continue to soar, but it will have a negative affect on our number one industry, which in turn will affect our economy, resulting in even more job losses.
It’s a vicious cycle.
Editorial from The Freeport News
