By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
A WEEKEND incident involving a 15-year-old girl who was shot to death outside a bar reflects wider social problems that need to be discussed, Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade said yesterday.
Alexis Aliea Smith became the country’s 25th murder victim of the year when she was shot in her head in front of a bar in Kings Subdivision on Grand Bahama.
Asked if club owners need to be reminded of their responsibility concerning age restrictions, Mr Greenslade said: “It’s not just a matter of club owners. I don’t want to be put in a position where I have to tell lies to a public. Children underage are drinking in our homes. They are drinking in our vehicles as we drive the streets. They are drinking in our clubs. They can go to places where they shouldn’t go. They do it at all sorts of ungodly hours. This is not a secret, it’s well known to all of us. And so, one incident now, this latest incident brings it into focus. There is a much bigger conversation about disorder, about disrespect that needs to be had.”
Mr Greenslade said that children will not learn respect if we as a people continue to show disrespect for others in our own country.
“Every turn we open our mouths, so many of us are so eager to spew venom and we speak disrespect and if I seem bothered by it, yes I am. It seems so many of us are hell-bent on destroying the Bahamas,” he said.
Comments
GrassRoot 10 years, 1 month ago
I agree with him for once. These kids will become adults quite soon, you neighbors, co-workers, your local drug dealer, thief, teacher, government official. Good luck.
proudloudandfnm 10 years, 1 month ago
Yes this girl's unfortunate death is an example of failed parenting. The majority of blame rests squarely on her family's shoulders. No one else...
B_I_D___ 10 years, 1 month ago
Agreed...fault and failure #1 lays squarely with the parents...the remaining outside influences are merely facilitators...they have a part in it as well, but it all comes back to the parents.
BahamianAway 10 years, 1 month ago
Completely agree...these children do whatever they want with no regards to the outcome and the parents are unaware or play unaware.
We need to get back the days where everyone was everyone's keeper. If I as an adult saw a child acting out I would speak out about it and let that child and their parents know. But these days you take such a risk intervening, first you'd be lucky not to get shot or stab by the child you are reprimanding. Then the parents want to know why you reprimanding their child- thus helping to instill in them that it's okay to show disrespect to an adult.
To many bad parents is what the problem...need to get back to PARENTING and stop trying to befriend these children.
B_I_D___ 10 years, 1 month ago
The sad thing is, in a lot of these cases, the parents are actually still children themselves...not that this was the case here (well, we don't actually know anything about the mother, so maybe)...but the teenagers having babies, then trying to raise that child, when they are not fully ready or capable of doing so...just perpetuates the moral decay.
BahamianAway 10 years, 1 month ago
That's the truth...children having children. They are not emotionally or financially ready to have a child and they are bringing them into the world. So Mommie and Daddy are off trying to live as though they don't have children at home. Out clubbing, partying, and doing things that most young folks do at all hours of the night. meanwhile their children raising themselves.
SMH!!!! I remember when it was a stigma to be an unwed teenage mother. Nowadays girls running round proud to be a baby mama. It's actually sad...
sheeprunner12 10 years, 1 month ago
Yep............. blame the drug/crack era for most of the debauchery we are experiencing now.......... then fast forward to the rap-dancehall era.......... then the online era.......IDK
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