Some members of this nation’s criminal class have become so brazen that they are prepared to carry out their depredations in ways that are sometimes so brutally efficient that their victims are often left speechless. Here the reference is to home invasions.
You could be at home with your family when lo and behold, crooks would come up to your door, barge in, tie every one up and then proceed to rip and roar like feral lions.
In one or two instances, the so-called home invaders sometimes resort to rape as the preferred means of humiliation and degradation for the hapless family.
This is absolutely unacceptable in a Bahamas that boasts about its so-called Christian values.
Indeed no day passes when there is not a report of some outrage or the other. In some instances Bahamians are apparently so distraught that some are becoming suicidal; while others work through their own destructive impulses by way of any number of awful attacks on each other.
As the bloody beat goes on, the nation’s youth play the part of chorus in this ongoing national tragedy. Making the whole mess even more horrible is the fact that all of this violence is taking place against a backdrop that would depict The Bahamas as some kind of tropical paradise.
We some times take to wondering as to how long the millions of tourists who come to The Bahamas ‘to get away from it all’ can be shielded from these Bahamian realities.
So, we are truly learning that home invasion is the preferred crime method for some of those Bahamian law breakers who have made an occupation of rape, robbery and pillage.
These home invasions are particularly and peculiarly insidious. Some times they take place when people are at home. On other occasions, people arrive home only to discover that they have been ripped off royally.
No matter what the police may say to the contrary, this town is in a god-awful mess. Over the past weekend, we were appalled as we listened to report after report concerning the extent to which some citizens and residents were being terrorized.
We were regaled with instance after instance of blood curdling report about times and circumstances when some women in one particular neighbourhood were raped. We are also being told about circumstances and when other women and young girls were waylaid and assaulted.
Appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, The Bahamas is a violent place. No day passes when there is not one report or the other that speaks to the high and rising incidence of crime and violence in this country.
In recent weeks, the public has been terrified by news coming in from places like Pinewood Gardens and Yellow Elder Gardens. In one instance a man was allegedly gunned down by police officers. In another, a long standing domestic dispute explodes in a climax of violence and mayhem. In this instance, a woman is blasted in the face.
In the meantime, the public remembers the time when other places were besieged. The public also remembers those other times when other communities were savaged by both police and criminals.
We also know that whenever reference is to the upsurge in crimes against persons and property, the point must also be made that these are sometimes quite devastating.
Some of the crimes against the person are quite savage, suggesting that some of this nation’s criminals are becoming more and more feral.
Rape and murder are at the top of the list in this bestiary of horror.
As if this was not enough for today’s frightened Bahamian, we are now obliged to fend off the home invaders. The question that arises is this, how long must this suffering endure before state authorities do what must be done to protect and defend honest, decent, law-abiding citizens. We must have more policemen on patrolin communities. The Commissioner of Police needs more men, so the government must honour his request.
For our part, we fear that in the absence of decisive state action, a day is surely coming when these citizens may feel as if they have no choice but to take the law into their own hands.
Editorial from The Bahama Journal
