By SANCHESKA BROWN
Tribune Staff Reporter
sbrown@tribunemedia.net
FREE National Movement Deputy Leader Peter Turnquest yesterday applauded the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s latest efforts to combat crime but said it is “unfortunate” that 134 people had to die for the government to finally get serious.
Mr Turnquest told The Tribune “it is about time” the police demonstrated to criminals that “we aren’t playing with them”.
For the past three days heavily-armed officers from the Selective Enforcement Team have locked down certain crime hotspots, arresting dozens of criminals.
While some critics have said the move is “too harsh and unwarranted,” Mr Turnquest said “we aren’t dealing with boys, so we have to do what we have to do”.
“It is unfortunate that the government has taken this long to recognise how serious the crime problem is,” Mr Turnquest said.
“It is unfortunate that it took them this long to come up with an action plan, especially when they promised to put any number of crime fighting measures in place to fix the problem. I am not sure if the strategies failed or if they failed to implement them, but what they were doing was not working.
“My personal view with the current situation is we aren’t dealing with schoolboys; this is a serious time that calls for serious action. We have to demonstrate to criminals that we are not playing with them. This latest show of force by the police is the appropriate course of action, it is warranted. We have to make these communities safe and we have to make persons feel safe and if that requires constant police presence, so be it.”
On Monday, Prime Minister Perry Christie insisted that The Bahamas is “not a killing field” as he suggested that in a matter of weeks Bahamians will see the government’s new and aggressive crime fighting strategies implemented.
Mr Christie said the country cannot and must not allow the continuation of the wanton display of disregard for human life.
He said as long as the country continues to be a tourist destination, there must be a heightened interest in security and new levels of commitment to meet the costs of security.
This comes as the country’s murder count for 2015 stands at 134, the highest annual total in the history of the Bahamas.
Comments
B_I_D___ 8 years, 11 months ago
The problem is we let so many petty crimes and silliness slide. Has a knock on effect of general slackness and promotes more malicious crimes.
TalRussell 8 years, 11 months ago
Comrade Deputy Leader Peter must know that other red party member Banker, who does have his vault full all kinds hypothesizes explaining solutions to cure the so many pressing issue things confronting we Bahamaland, likes why when you takes lead out we vehicles gas tanks, crime goin fall like ripe coconuts does from da tree.
Publius 8 years, 11 months ago
Notice, Turnquest cannot even tell you what the police have actually accomplished that he is praising besides having the media take pictures of them holding machine guns in the faces of unarmed women. And he cannot tell you what "we need to stop playing with these guys" means in terms of policy or legislation. In other words, he is simply just jumping on a bandwagon that he thinks will garner him popular support for the moment.
TheMadHatter 8 years, 11 months ago
The Bahamas does NOT have a crime problem.
It has an unemployment problem.
You are looking at the symptom and not the cause. Makes for being a bad doctor.
TheMadHatter P.S. the other cause is "belly swell-itis"
killemwitdakno 8 years, 11 months ago
Hopefully he's not calling a police state getting serious about crime. A police state is not a solution, it's merely what happens when there is no solution. They still need a solution.
Publius 8 years, 11 months ago
Right
sheeprunner12 8 years, 11 months ago
Has anyone stopped and wonder what the 4000 law enforcement officers who live and work in Nassau really do?????????? .......... we have more police/defense force officers per capita than most large first world cities and crime is still out of control ................................. HELLO????
Emac 8 years, 11 months ago
They drive on deserted roads to harass illegals for money...
sheeprunner12 8 years, 11 months ago
There is an easy solution ............ just put all of the junior and senior high school boys in all male schools (CC, CRW, RM or CI, AF, DWD, and LW) and make them boot camps ................. then we will clean up the problem in no time.................... Drastic situations call for drastic measures. Then the parents will get the message very quickly and either train their children or have the State do what is necessary
Economist 8 years, 11 months ago
Sheeprunner is correct. But remember we have a defence fore that is larger than most in the Caribbean and it has more large vessels, and better equipped, than any of them and they still are in capable of stopping a couple of Haitian smuggler vessels.......so no wonder they can't stop crime. INCOMPETENCE!!!
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