'Keep politics out of crime' says victim's brother as killer jailed

Greg Sherman speaks to the media yesterday after the sentencing of Janaldo Farrington.

As of Friday, May 9, 2014

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

A FORMER policeman suggested yesterday that the country’s crime woes could be solved if we “keep politics out of this”.

Greg Sherman spoke after a life sentence was handed down to 24-year-old Janaldo Farrington in the Supreme Court for the murder of his brother, Stephen Sherman, in February 2012.

The former officer, who had nothing but praise for the efforts of the Royal Bahamas Police Force, advised the organisation to “keep politics out of this” as he responded to a question from The Tribune.

“Politics, even in this particular matter, politics attempted to rise up in this, but I struck that down,” he said. “Politics attempted to find itself in this same situation and I can go on for days and tell you about the nonsense that our family encountered during this matter,” he added without elaborating.

“But I thank God for the police. I love the police and I have absolutely no problem with the police.”

In January, National Security Minister Dr Bernard Nottage expressed his full support of Commissioner Ellison Greenslade in the fight against escalating crime and the struggle to free the police force from corruption.

The vote of confidence followed on the heels of Prime Minister Perry Christie’s effort to distance himself from the police leadership as public outrage at the high level of crime continues to grow.

Mr Christie said in December that he will not have his legacy tied to the performance of the police.

Yesterday, Mr Sherman noted that during his tenure on the force “I’ve always taken the approach of zero tolerance, sweat the small stuff and I was a firm believer in that, but I don’t envy the police’s job now.”

“Sometimes I miss it when I see the way crime is now, but I still have a lot of life-long friends in the organisation and every time I see them, ‘sweat the small stuff’,” he said.

“Let’s take a zero tolerance to this nonsense that’s going on, this lawlessness in our society,” he urged.

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Bahamianpride 10 years, 6 months ago

Then u would have to get rid of com stat. Com stat has been misused from its original purpose of reducing crime. It is manipulated in such a way that numerical reductions on paper is a complete farce not representing the true crime situation. Politics and elections are tied in with this so deeply now that without the peoples outrage its almost impossible to separate the 2 because of its impact on elections. What better way than a statistic that is easily manipulated to say crime is going down look what a great job we doing. Good luck getting politics out of it now.. Many police departments use com stat to justify existence, the need for more manpower and manipulating overtime. Its has gotten to the point where Departments will set up sting operations like put a purse in a high crime area and arrest people for stealing it because the theft's are down. You would think that thefts being down is a good thing but not if u want to hire more manpower or justify extra $$$ in overtime. Its definitely not the same com stat Juliani and Braton used to reduce crime in New York. The level of abuse of public trust and funds go deep with com stat people just don't realize how bad it is. All we need is a 3 line column, reported crime, enforcement efforts and its disposition. This would show the actual crime year to year and leave the politics out of it. The public has to be educated about these things to deal with crime and hold elected official and police departments accountable to the community.