As crime moves closer to home, some MPs are calling for zero tolerance for criminals.
St Thomas More MP Frank Smith, who was stabbed as he entered his Yamacraw home in May, has encouraged crime victims to have the strength to “put criminals in fear” by becoming “highly intolerant and aggressive” with people who seek to harm the “many hard-working people in our society.”
He echoed what Bahamians have been saying for years ﾗ “crime will destroy this beautiful country of ours if we do not place it in check.”
MP Sidney Stubbs, returning to the House after more than a year’s absence to discharge his bankruptcy, highlighted the crime problems in his Holy Cross constituency.
During the Budget debate last week he complained of the number of break-ins, especially in Gleniston Gardens and Sea Breeze, and asked for a “stepped up police presence” in the form of patrols in Holy Cross.
He also complained about the frequency with which a call to a police station reporting a crime would elicit the response: “Sorry we can’t come we have no car”.
“This is the 21st century and Nassau is only 21 by 7 miles long ﾗ there is no police station in the Bahamas that should tell any citizen that they can’t find a car to send to investigate a crime. That’s totally unacceptable,” said Mr Stubbs.
He asked the Minister of National Security to have the Police Commissioner instruct all of his police stations that when they can’t go to a crime scene immediately, they should pass the report on to another station. Somewhere an officer had to be found to answer the call.
He acknowledged that the police are overworked, but crime, a blight on society, needed severe treatment.
He had some harsh words for politicians who hamper the police by interfering with their investigations.
“I sat with a group of law enforcement officers in the Holy Cross area the other day,” said Mr Stubbs, “and they were telling me that one of the most restraining things that they endure in their job is when they do impeccably good research, investigate, find the criminal, take him to the police station, then some politician calls the head of the police station and says: ‘Look here, man, let that guy go ﾗ don’t touch that fella!’ And the guy is released.”
Mr Stubbs had some advice for the officers: “I am saying to police stations all across the country ﾗ if the officers are doing good work in the public’s interest and if the phone rings and you’re told that a politician is on the line, don’t take the call.”
“It’s bad and it’s happening,” said Mr Stubbs. “I don’t want anyone to say it’s not happening ﾗ it happens.”
We also know it happens. During the Pindling years it was such a chronic illness that it was almost as serious as the crimes committed on the streets. But it didn’t stop at the police ﾗ political interference even affected some of the judiciary. It was always denied, but from the complaints we received at The Tribune we knew it was there and out of control.
Many will remember Magistrate Wilton Hercules ﾗ he was noted for being tough on criminals. We heard, but could not confirm that he was being harassed by certain PLP politicians of that era as they tried to snatch their voters from his court. We were not surprised when Mr Hercules packed his bags and left the Bahamas.
Early one morning a couple of years later he and Tribune publisher the late Sir Etienne Dupuch had a chance meeting on Five Mile Beach in the Caymans. They started to go for morning walks. And, of course, morning walks meant long, confidential talks. Mr Hercules was relieved to be out of the Bahamas.
And, as Mr Stubbs told the House, don’t say the political interference that the former magistrate and publisher discussed didn’t happen ﾗ it happened.
The same interference is occurring on the roads as officers of the Road Traffic Department try to bring sanity back to the streets.
Discussing the matter recently with a bus driver who wants only responsible drivers behind the wheel of a vehicle, we were told that there is interference when Road Traffic suspends for a week or so certain public service drivers, who daily break the law. “These pastors come with their ‘you can’t do this’ and you ‘can’t do that’ because the fella’s got a family. But until drastic action is taken and some of these bad apples have their licences suspended for six months to a year, they’ll continue to break the law,” we were told.
Mr Stubbs warned politicians to stop their interference. He said he’s a strong advocate of “if you commit the crime, you do the time.”
If anyone from his Holy Cross constituency is brought to justice, Mr Stubbs wants them “to go through the system like anybody else ﾗ nobody is special.”
This should be the policy for every constituency in the Bahamas. So politician, pastor ﾗ and criminal ﾗ take note.
Editorial, The Tribune
