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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
After a record setting year of murders - 133 as at November 13, 2015 - the desire to appear to be concerned and simply doing something about it, must be overwhelming so Prime Minister Perry Christie on Friday threatened the freedom of movement of people in The Bahamas in order to combat this scourge.
In his usual perplexing and verbose presentation style, long on verbiage and short on tangible details, (here…) we understand:
Given the demands on his time he will now have to dedicate more scrutiny to this effort. (Really? One would think this issue would dominate his agenda followed closely by ideas on policies that help business people grow the economy and policies that do not hurt economic growth.)
Keith Bell, the Minister of State for National Security, has presented a “plan” but has to meet with the Police to discuss the feasibility of implementing it. (Really? Wouldn’t any plans for law enforcement strategies be formulated along with the Police?)
The “government is relying on strategies that will be utilised and hopes that they are understood and accepted.” “And by that I mean sometimes what you do will have to impact our own freedom to move about.” (Really? So let me see if I understand the PM’s wordiness. The Government is going to make innocent people safe by taking away our freedom to move about?
Surely all the brain power in the Government, it’s agencies and the community can come up with better ideas than taking away the civil liberties of everyone? Our community bears the brunt of this problem. Our political leaders are totally isolated, chauffeured around in the company of armed Police and of course they will not be restricted in their legal activities.
I’m no criminologist but there is evidence that crime is declining in other democracies yet we descend further into the abyss of fear for our lives. And now we’ll have to fear our own government’s action against law abiding citizens.
First of all, most people realise by now that there is no overnight solution, but as a layman, here’s my few pennies:
Allow law enforcement to do their work by having all Members of Parliament pledge to stay out of criminal matters when a constituent is charged. If Police need to be better trained, give them the resources.
Target areas where crime is worse and the criminal element are known to congregate.
Focus on at risk kids. Those with failing grades at school need to be at the top of the list.
Encourage friends and parents to turn people in, through highly confidential means, if they suspect they’re involved in criminal activity that harms other people.
Bring in foreign Police for periods of up to 90 days to prevent the chance of family "helping" family.
Return to Daylight Savings Time to help reduce crime.
It would be nice to see if local organisations might consider programmes like Pathways to Education and even Media Smarts to begin to reverse the cycle.
At the risk of being verbose, restricting the movement of people is an emotive response simply to make people believe something is being done by the government. It's not an answer to the problems confronting our nation.
Yours in Liberty,
Rick Lowe
weblogbahamas.com
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