There have been more than 100 murders again this year and we have several weeks to go. By the current rate we should end 2012 somewhere near 115 murders.
This is a high total for a country with a population of around 350,000.
There has been a lot of discussion the last few years regarding how we got here. Some say these are the consequences of the drug era in the 1970s and 1980s.
Some say lazy police are to blame. Others blame the court system.
Whatever the reason, we seem to have hit a new norm for violence, crime and killing.
Though we won’t likely reach the 127 murders recorded in 2011, at least 100 shot, stabbed or beaten to death seems to be the new norm.
These killings don’t take into account the 5,000 or so combined armed robberies, housebreakings and burglaries that happen in The Bahamas each year – most of which occur is sunny little Nassau.
I hope Bahamians watch the international news and see where this situation ends up. Jamaica, Mexico and Columbia are examples of societies in this hemisphere where high levels of crime have risen to the point where the peace has been broken.
In those countries the militaries have to battle organized crime in situations that more resemble war than civilian crime problems.
We are on the precipice, I think.
If we as a society do not find the right recipe to cut the rate of killing and to lessen the urge to steal here in our kind little archipelago, we will go the way of our neighbors who live in states of conflict and unease.
The Progressive Liberal Party and Free National Movement have no answers.
All they know how to do is give contracts to their friends. They do not care about The Bahamas.
They do not care about the Bahamian people.
It is sad to hear on the news on a nightly basis the cries of families whose loved ones were murdered.
It is hard to see the frustration in the eyes of business people tired of being robbed.
We as a people must start to find ways to cause change. And we must do so acknowledging that our do-nothing political parties care not to help us.
By: Darwin R. Luther
