Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Cynthia Pratt made an impassioned plea to young men and fathers last night, using her address to send a “special message about family, faith and morality.
Speaking as a mother and a wife, Mrs. Pratt said that something has gone very wrong with today’s families and the way that children are raised.
“[Criminal] acts speak to the moral fabric of our society and this development rests on the shoulders of our families, our schools and our churches,” she told hundreds of delegates. “In a very real way this includes all of us and we cannot continue to regard the commission of crimes in our communities as business as usual.”
Mrs. Pratt’s address was met with cheers from the packed ballroom at the Wyndham Nassau Resort. She was escorted into the convention hall by a Junkanoo group, surrounded by hundreds of cheering delegates who chanted, “It’s over, it’s over, it’s over” as she made her way to the podium.
Mrs. Pratt appealed to the country’s young men who are “committing crimes in increasing numbers” and warned them that “crime is not the way to go.”
In her appeal to fathers, she said that it could not be denied that too many men did not take their responsibility as fathers seriously.
“The result of this is that your families suffer – the boys in particular,” said Mrs. Pratt. “Boys need the positive examples of young men.”
Mrs. Pratt said that the vast majority of the young men who commit crime come from single-family homes, where the father has not played a “meaningful” role in their upbringing.
But she said that men are not alone in this problem and serious crime is not the only behavioural problem.
“Our families must be made aware of their responsibility to impart a sense of commitment to our children to be the best they can be in everything they undertake,” said Mrs. Pratt.
Mrs. Pratt admitted last night that crime is too high and that something must be done about it, but said that the underlying social problems that give rise to crime must be addressed if the crime rate is to go down.
The Minister of National Security did not reveal many statistics during her address, only to point out that crime for the year to date had decreased generally by 14 percent, with the exception of murder and armed robbery.
She also noted that the murder count for the year is at 46, compared to 45 murders in 2004, and added that the rate did not exceed the highest recorded number of murders in 2001. In the case of robbery, so far for the year, there have been three more incidents than the 63 incidents last year, bringing the count to 663.
“One murder is too many,” said Mrs. Pratt. “I am not happy with crime in this country.”
She said that while statistics are a useful instrument, “the only thing they tell us at this point is that crime is too high, and that’s something we must do something about.”
Mrs. Pratt said that she believes that the strategy of expanding the police force and giving them more guns is not the answer to crime.
“We must address the underlying social problems of our society that give rise to crime,” said Mrs. Pratt, pointing to programmes like Prime Minister Perry Christie’s Urban Renewal project.
“We will continue to provide the police with effective means of fighting crime…but it is clear both in the Bahamas and throughout the world, that the police alone do not have the answer to the successful reduction in crime.”
By: Erica Wells, The Bahama Journal
