The Tribune

By BRANVILLE McCARTNEY

Leader, Democratic 
National Alliance

IN LIGHT of the recent tragedy in Fox Hill, the Commissioner of Police commented that he must draw the line in the sand regarding the criminal activity in the Bahamas. This is indeed good to hear but that line should have been drawn years ago, not only by the Commissioner but by the government of the day – past and present.

In light of that statement, we in the Democratic National Alliance do trust that the Commissioner and his team take an absolute no tolerance stance against crime and wage war against the criminal element in our society.

Indeed, there were other statements made by the Commissioner that warrant comment. The Commissioner said that in many instances the police are successful in capturing these menaces to society and put them before the courts just to see them out in the community a short time later.

This must be most frustrating and cannot be right! And you can see the frustration on the face of the Commissioner. The question is why is this happening? In our view there can only be one of two reasons.

The first reason would be political interference by our elected officials. We in the DNA are reliably informed, that in many cases when a person is arrested by the police for an alleged crime, “a call is made” to have that person released, notwithstanding the significance of the crime and the fact that those persons have been known to the police.

The fact of the matter is that over the years, many elected officials use their “political clout” to get their constituents, generals, friends or family members released thereby evading the law and depriving victims and their families of justice.

This is simply wrong and the Commissioner must draw the line in the sand in this regard and ensure that there is justice for all.

We in the DNA urge the Commissioner to stand up to any elected officials who “make the call” in future, and do what is necessary and right and ensure that his conscience be his guide.

The second reason would be that our judicial system is seriously flawed and consequently justice is not served. This is due in part to the fact that the laws we presently have ought to be revised, redefined and strengthened. There is also a lack of judges and magistrates to deal with the multitude of criminal matters.

It is therefore incumbent on the government to address this issue and resolves the problem. After all, they were the ones who said they had the answers to crime in our country.

We in the DNA therefore publicly challenge the government to rebut our position on elected officials interfering with the administration of justice.

We know that silence is tantamount to consent so we wish to hear from the government in this regard. We also wish to know, after almost two years in office, what is the government’s strategy to cure the inefficiencies in the judicial system?

In light of the fact that nothing has been done to date by this administration, we in the DNA can only assume that this government has no plan, was not ready to govern on day one and, hence, we continue to refer to this administration as the “Promise Makers” who are all talk and no action.

We in the Bahamas need better representation and must not settle for mediocrity.