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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
Nassau, Bahamas - I wanted to talk today about the incident that occurred at Government High School on Thursday and the indicator it represents of the wildly out of control level of crime in this country and how steeped in gang culture, violence and indiscipline many of our public schools have become.
First, let me express my heartfelt sympathy for the children injured in the melee at GHS on Thursday and the parents who had to watch their children be hospitalized and my regret that the innocent have to be witness to such heinous acts that have become commonplace in our public school system.
The Progressive Liberal party has become obsessed with optics, and has clearly chosen political mileage over the welfare of the country’s citizens.
On the day that social and traditional media were ablaze with images of lost youth attacking each other, pledging commitments to cowardly gangs who poison the minds of our children, and a sense of dread set in as errant reports made the rounds, the Progressive Liberal Party chose to have a huge party, bussing in supporters and using the national broadcaster as a propaganda tool to cover their failed leaders in glory as the nation cowered behind closed doors, unsure what was happening in our communities.
I was aghast that as a student lie in Princess Margaret Hospital nursing stab wounds, reportedly inflicted by other children, there was not one word about the incident from the Prime Minister of this nation.
Instead of using the national platform to reassure a terrified citizenry, the Right Honorable Prime Minister took to the stage and did what he does best when he has no clue what else to do: dance.
I was mortified that as exhausted police officers worked to reassure the fragile confidence in the security of our neighborhoods, the Minister of National Security basked in the adulation of his supporters without uttering a word about the situation in our schools and on our streets.
As I said, optics has become the PLP’s stock in trade. The appearance of something seeming in order, when we all know that the reality is far from it.
The Christie administration touts that crime is down, yet young men continue to die in our streets.
The PLP says crime is down, yet our schools are less safe now than when these men and women who pledged to break the back of crime came into office.
They say ‘look at the numbers, crime is down’ while gunmen run rampant through the capital and law abiding citizens pray to see another day.
The time of the PLP and its political optics is over.
The police do a yeoman’s job, but clearly not enough has been done from a holistic standpoint,
This isn’t an easy situation, but it’s not rocket science; the formula is simple: Neglected youth, broken families and neighborhoods steeped in gang culture fighting drug and turf wars equals higher crime, less safe neighborhoods, and more young black bodies riddled with bullets.
And as mothers cry and fathers bury their sons and the morgue overflows with corpses, the question remains, what do we do?
For the PLP, whose time in office is thankfully winding down, there is still a chance left to make some positive change before you go and leave the work of restoring order in our country to more capable hands.
The Christie administration must immediately install metal detectors at the main entrances to all junior and senior high schools in the country and ensure all students are properly screened before entering school campuses.
The Christie administration must immediately engage private security companies, contracted through an open bidding process, to supplement the police presence at and around all public schools.
The optics may not be pretty, the process may cause some discomfort, but I suppose lawmakers must ask themselves if their discomfort, if their shame at the way things look because of their inability to do the job the Bahamian people entrusted them to do, is worth the life of even a single child.
Ladies and gentlemen, Bahamians, it is time for a paradigm shift in how we address this culture of violence in our schools and in our streets.
No longer can we operate in silos as if the problem is not bigger than personal egos.
The next FNM administration will create definable linkages between the Ministry of National Security and the Ministry of Education and will work together to effectively crush this scourge of gang culture in our schools.
During its last term in office, the Free National Movement demonstrated that crime is not a political football to be used to gain brownie points to make ourselves look like we’re succeeding at a job in which we are clearly failing.
Hopefully, the PLP, after shamelessly erecting billboards gleefully displaying the number of people who lost their lives to violence, has learned that talk will not solve the problems that confront us. Only working together with all stakeholders and approaching this issue from a multi-disciplinary, multi-agency standpoint will result in any real change.
So, to the PLP we say, please, in your few remaining months in office, you must do more than preen and look as if you’re about something; get to work.
Every day you are not doing the work that these families need, every day you are not doing the work of keeping this country safe and assuring the rule of law, is a day we are failing and losing our citizens.
To the hardworking men and women of our law enforcement agencies, we say that we look forward to sitting with the leadership of our capable and dedicated armed services to unshackle you from the political nonsense that has hindered your ability to function as necessary.
We look forward to cooperating with you to quickly implement new ideas and tactics, and letting you know that you have a political directorate who has your best interests at heart.
To the leaders of these cowardly gangs, who have run rampant in our Bahamaland for far too long, I have a personal message to you: Your reign of terror will be at an end in short order. The time has come to seriously consider what you are about. You remain in your current lifestyle at your own peril. Your time is over. Participation in these gangs only leads to two places – death, or behind bars.
To the people of The Bahamas, I say this. We are done being afraid; we are done hiding. We will take back our schools, take back our children and take back our streets, and make The Bahamas a safe and secure place where you can raise your children and live your lives in peace.
© Copyright 2017 by thebahamasweekly.com
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