Freeport lawyer and human rights activist Fred Smith expressed his shock over the beating of an American journalist this week at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre in Nassau.<\/P><\/p>\n
Mr Smith, president of the Grand Bahama Human Rights Association, said the incident is but one example of many instances of mistreatment and abuse by Bahamian authorities in general.<\/P><\/p>\n
He stressed that something must be done to stem the “culture of accepted violence that seems to be developing in the Bahamas.”<\/P><\/p>\n
A Defence Force officer at the Detention Centre allegedly struck American television reporter Mario Vallejo of South Florida in the face while he was in New Providence covering a story about seven Cubans rescued from Elbow Cay.<\/P><\/p>\n
It is alleged that a cameraman was also punched in the back during the ordeal.<\/P><\/p>\n
Mr Smith said that this is not the first time that journalists have been mistreated in the Bahamas.<\/em><\/b><\/font><\/P><\/p>\n “Over the last 30 years, from my personal recollection, in particular journalists from The Tribune have often been abused, denied access, and I recall a number of instances where they have been mistreated,” he said.<\/P><\/p>\n “And this is another example of journalists being mistreated. There is no excuse – if indeed the officer was acting illegally.”<\/P><\/p>\n Mr Smith urged government to look into matter very quickly. He also added that an apology should be issued – whether or not the officer was wrong.<\/P><\/p>\n “If the officer was not wrong it doesn’t harm that we have given an apology because it means we are being responsible and we don’t want this thing to blow up.”<\/P><\/p>\n Mr Vallejo, who was taken to hospital and treated for injuries, received seven stitches.<\/P><\/p>\n While speaking to the Rotary Club of Freeport, Mr Smith said the Bahamas is a part of the global village and must behave responsibly.<\/P><\/p>\n “We have to realise that we cannot live in splendid isolation here. This is a journalist that has access to American television that this has happened to, and we keep shooting ourselves in the foot,” he said.<\/P><\/p>\n Mr Smith also criticised Prime Minister Perry Chrlstie for remarks he made during the funeral of a prison officer regarding the death penalty.<\/P><\/p>\n “It doesn’t help when the Prime Minister goes to the funeral of that poor prison officer and seemingly takes political advantage of that, and calls for the death penalty; and calls for hanging.<\/P><\/p>\n It was Mr Smith’s opinion that “that kind of promotion of violent activity will percolate down to the lower ranks. He is the chief executive and he should be calm.”<\/P><\/p>\n Mr Smith felt that such a position could possibly “incite violence.”<\/P><\/p>\n By DENISE MAYCOCK, Tribune Freeport Reporter<\/SMALL><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President of the Grand Bahama Human Rights Association, said the incident is but one example of many instances of mistreatment and abuse by Bahamian authorities in general.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}