EDITOR, The Tribune
In October 2013 I wrote that Bahamas Christian Network CEO Silbert Mills had posted on his Facebook page that there were 1,000 murders committed in The Bahamas up to that point since the state execution of David Mitchell on January 6, 2000.
Since Mills’ Facebook pronouncement a little over five years ago, there have been approximately 600 murders. This means that 1,600 people have been murdered since the demise of Mitchell nearly 19 years ago. The Bahamas has the dubious distinction of making geography and travel’s 25 countries with the highest murder rates in the world this past February.
The Bahamas is listed at number 12 with a murder rate of 29.8 per 100,000. Honduras, Venezuela, Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Lesotho, Swaziland, Saint Kitts and Nevis, South Africa and Colombia are all ranked ahead of The Bahamas with higher murder rates.
Regional countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominican Republic, Saint Lucia, Mexico and Dominica are ranked behind The Bahamas. Tourism is our main bread-and-butter. The criminal elements have sullied the reputation and image of this country on the international stage. Amnesty International, the United Nations, Rights Bahamas and other freethinking, liberal organisations as well as the Privy Council have tied the hands of the government with respect to carrying out the death penalty since 2000.
Hence, the bloody carnage in Nassau. Whatever one’s position on the death penalty debate is, the 1,600 murders are incontrovertible evidence that the laissez faire method of the foregoing organisations has miserably failed this country. Their method does not serve as a deterrent. If nothing else, it is the complete opposite.
The Free National Movement and the Progressive Liberal Party must stop shirking their governmental responsibility in dealing with the violent, incorrigible criminal enterprise.
I know that The Bahamas, as a member of the international community, finds itself in a bind. In the eyes of most western and European democracies, the death penalty is viewed as barbaric. But the past 19 years have shown us that giving hardened murderers the kid glove treatment isn’t working.
As the recent double murder at Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre in Fox Hill has shown us, murderers are becoming more brazen. They no longer fear the state. At this rate, these criminals will eventually start an all-out war against law enforcement agencies with the aim of establishing anarchy. The Bahamas is currently on this course.
The government has the biblical mandate to carry out the death penalty.
In the Old Testament Book of Genesis, Cain murders his brother Abel and is reprimanded by God, Who informs the first ever murderer that the blood of Abel is crying out to Him from the ground. Abel’s blood cried out for vengeance. Cain’s descendants slid further into moral apostasy and were subsequently wiped out in the Noahic Flood. I believe that the blood of those 1,600 murder victims is crying out to God for vengeance. In an effort to appear politically correct before the international community, successive governments have failed them. In light of the fact that successive governments have failed to administer appropriate retribution over the past 19 years, I believe God will eventually step in and take matters into His own hands. What those measures will be is anyone’s guess. But someone will have to pay for ending the lives of 1,600 human beings.
KEVIN EVANS
Freeport
Grand Bahama
December 9, 2018
Comments
Porcupine 5 years, 4 months ago
Boy! What an outlandishly misguided letter to the editor . At first glance I thought I may agree with the letter writer. But, as I went on reading, I realized that his type of thinking scares the absolute hell out of me.
He states, “The government has the biblical mandate to carry out the death penalty.” Wow. 2018, and some of us are still thinking like this?
Evans took the time to list the countries that have higher murder rates, but failed to mention the number of Christian scholars, Christian institutions and Christians who simply believe he is totally and unequivocally wrong on capital punishment.
First off, I am no Christian scholar, however I do hold in high esteem, “Amnesty International, the United Nations, Rights Bahamas and other freethinking, liberal organizations”. I try to imagine what this world would truly look like but for the work of so many of these “liberal” institutions. It would not be prettier in the least. But, having gone to Catholic kindergarten, Catholic grade school, Catholic high school and Catholic college, some of the Christian stuff did stick on me.
“Thou shall not kill”. Is there a clearer mandate?
Unless, the original Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Aramaic weren’t translated properly into Greek and then at some point down the long line translated into English, could perhaps the words have gotten jumbled over how many hundreds of years?
Given the anecdotal evidence of how many fatal, permanent mistakes have been made in the U.S. alone since the advent of DNA testing, one could only wonder about the thousands, tens of thousands, of innocent people who were killed.
The danger with Evans’ vengeful retribution mindset and desire to kill is that regarding capital punishment he has been proven to be wrong on every aspect he attempts to logically argue. It is not a deterrent. Study after study has supported this. It satisfies nothing but a primal urge and does not deal with the root problem of the breakdown of our society. What these “liberal” organizations Evans chastises have done is to provide the truth, as opposed to the distortions Evans would like us to believe.
Porcupine 5 years, 4 months ago
Evans and a lot of Bahamians think hanging someone will solve the problem. But, I tend to think, along with many others, that violence, quite simply, breeds more violence. I think Martin Luther King Jr. was absolutely right on this point. But, thinking like Evans does save the time of actually doing the work of learning and implementing methods of truly improving the lot of all society. Something the “church”, despite the long history of evangelical Christianity here, has completely failed to do. Let’s just hang ‘em and murders will go down, and our society will be one big Christian brotherhood again.
Evans closes his close-minded tirade with the following sentence, “But someone will have to pay for ending the lives of 1,600 human beings.”
There are others, perhaps even yourself Mr. Evans, who have been warned of being judge, jury and executioner. Something you seem to claim the right to do in condemning another to death.
No, Mr. Evans, your thinking absolutely scares me, and god forbid should you ever get into a position of power here. I believe you are dead wrong on capital punishment.
– Porcupine
Sickened 5 years, 4 months ago
For some reason, we Bahamians can't find sensible ground. One group says kill criminals and the other says to pray for them. Can we PLEASE meet in the middle and hand out sensible penalties in order to ensure that criminals think twice before committing heinous crimes and when they do, societies next generation does not have to fear or hear of them again? Not everyone can be saved. Not everyone wants to be saved. Not everyone should be saved.
joeblow 5 years, 4 months ago
I really don't see the issue here. The state prescribes a penalty for breaking the law, any law. In instances where murder has occurred and there is clear incontrovertible evidence that links a person(s) to a murder, I believe in the death penalty as a deterrent in our country. I don't live in another culture and don't see why following their ways would be best for us in this setting! This is not violence begetting violence, it is the state executing justice, which is, giving a person what is deserved for a wrong committed against society or an individual!. Our failure to do so has allowed a group of hardened executioners to run amok. With hanging, you only get to kill once!
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