By NICO SCAVELLA
Tribune Staff Reporter
nscavella@tribunemedia.net
STATE National Security Minister Keith Bell yesterday blamed the Free National Movement for the country’s current crime crisis, adding that had the former government “been responsive, a great deal of the violence that we are experiencing today could have been avoided”.
Speaking in the Senate yesterday, Mr Bell criticised the FNM for “adopting an attitude as though they were never in a position to address many of the crime challenges that we are experiencing today.”
Mr Bell said criminal gangs flourished under the former administration, adding that the PLP is now left to “clean up the mess left by the FNM’s inaction and deal with today’s crime challenges.”
Mr Bell also accused opposition senators of “twisting” every debate, no matter the subject, to one on crime and violence to “suit their limited purpose.” He subsequently challenged the FNM senators to point out the FNM’s crime initiatives that had any affect on crime between 2007 and 2012 – the Ingraham administration’s last term in office.
However, FNM Senator Kwasi Thompson subsequently blasted Mr Bell’s comments as “shameful”. He added that the remarks were a “waste of time because they do not go to resolving our problems that we are facing today.”
The exchange came during yesterday’s Senate debate over the government’s Rehabilitation of Offenders Amendment Bill, which seeks to shorten the time for some convicts to have their police records wiped clean.
It also comes as the country is on pace to set a new record for murders. There have been 122 murders for the year so far, one shy of last year’s total of 123. There were 127 murders under the FNM in 2011.
At the start of his contribution, Mr Bell lashed out at the FNM, criticizing the party for allowing the growth and strengthening of the country’s criminal element during its last term in office.
“Madam President, more criminal gangs developed between 2007 and 2012 under the FNM than at any point in our history,” Mr Bell said. “Members of these gangs were allowed to wreak havoc on society between that period and now today, we have to clean up the mess left by the FNM’s inaction and deal with today’s crime challenges.
“Madam President, most of the violence in New Providence today stems from young males who have a genesis or connection to the ‘One Order’ gang,” Mr Bell added. “Had the FNM government been responsive, a great deal of the violence that we are experiencing today could have been avoided.”
He continued: “I challenge members opposite to give (any) of their crime initiatives that had any effect between 2007 and 2012. But they can’t, because they set about implementing their policy of stopping, reviewing, and cancelling everything. Yes, a great concern remains the murders and the criminal gangs. But can the FNM account for its stewardship between 2007 and 2012? Absolutely not.”
Mr Thompson, however, defended the FNM’s governance from 2007 to 2012, suggesting that most of what the government is doing now to combat crime are things that the FNM implemented in their last term in office.
“So for Senator Bell to make that kind of comment, when his very government is building on the things that the Free National Movement put in place makes absolutely no sense,” he said. “And the comments would have been shameful comments. And there’s been much more that the Free National Movement has put in place between 2007 and 2012. But that’s not the real question, and honestly, us having a debate and having a fight about what took place between 2007 and 2012 does not correct or fix the problems that we are facing today.”
Regarding the Rehabilitation of Offenders Amendment Bill, Mr Bell heralded the legislation as a mechanism to “assist those who are serious and committed to positively changing their lives,” specifically as it relates to persons seeking employment despite not having a “clean” police record.
Comments
sealice 9 years ago
So i guess he's saying that because he know's that he and his government have done NOTHING to combat crime since they got in ...... it must be the FNM's fault. Shut up and do your job, just do something besides talk, while you have one bey cus you know when your boy's are out you are to, and that would be cronism that is actually good for the country
Honestman 9 years ago
PLP = The party that will not accept responsibility for anything. Bell's utterances on crime are indeed shameful but no more than we have come to expect from him and the PLP at large.
asiseeit 9 years ago
This man is nothing but a sphincter muscle that needs a dose of Dr. Collis so he can stop the drivel of stupid crap that emanates from his orifice. How people actually vote for such an idiot is beyond me, but then again I actually learned and studied when I went to school.
marrcus 9 years ago
Where did this guy come from. He is not elected. Must have been appointed.
John 9 years ago
Bell has been accredited with introducing a certain culture on the police force when he was an officer. That culture still exists today and many believe it contributes significantly to the increase in serious crime. It is a renegade form of swift justice carried out by police officers.
Islandgirl 9 years ago
You all campaigned that you had the solutions to crime. You are in power now. Fix it. Always about casting blame and have no answers to anything. You stay in campaign mode, blaming the opposition for this and that, but you people are the government. Do the job you are sliding money out of the treasury and paying yourselves for. Are you admitting we pay you for doing nothing? Be honest enough to admit that the roots of the crime situation in this country came about in the 1970's when pindling was in power. It was under that era that many of the morals of our people went out the door and drugs were the savior of the economy. Greed ruled. The people in charge, your party, allowed drug dealers from the south to take over and run this place like it was their own little kingdom; lives were lost to drugs and many homes lost the traditional father figures that had previously been there, and young men had no role models; gangs came in and rolled over societies by the next decade; we had to start locking ourselves in our homes in fear from a new, unfeeling, cruel and violent culture that was very foreign to us. You came in to the police force in the mid 80's at the height of it all. You don't remember? This place has been on a downward spiral for a long, long time, so don't act the fool and try to convince people that this just came about. Please. Stop it. What the rest of us with knowledge have to do is make sure it is spread to the least informed among us, the group you all depend upon the most to keep you in power. Getting back to the point, we can all pontificate on history, but as it really happened, not the twisted and skewed and made up version you spewed forth. We all know crime is a massive issue; but you are the ones who campaigned on having the answers. Apply those wondrous solutions. Fix this.
TheMadHatter 9 years ago
You are 100% correct. Unfortunately, though, due to the Government's BRILLIANT plan of keeping our education system running at D+ for more than 20 years - they now have an excellent supporting population who will vote them in (PLP or FNM) every time election comes.
Fried chicken, beer, sodas, stage acts, and some loud Reggae music - and man let me tell you Mr. Politican - Dey Ga Give You Dey 'X'.
Dey just ain't lern yet - dat chicken at Rally ain't ga keep dey belly full for 5 years. But don't check for dem. Use dem as the fools they is. Best of luck to you Mr. Politician. Carry on wisely. The people ga vote the FNM in next time - don't worry - cause they want to have "change" - LOL
TheMadHatter
EasternGate 9 years ago
Absolutely correct! The PLP's demigod Pindling was nothing more than a glorified gangster!
EasternGate 9 years ago
The higher a monkey climbs, the more you see his behind.... this fool always exposing his ignorant ASS!
realfreethinker 9 years ago
What an a..hole. His teeth must be stained by the amount of shit that comes out of his mouth.
TalRussell 9 years ago
Comrade Bell was one of the most vocal PLP’s in opposition who vowed he and his colleagues, if given the chance at power back in 2012 - had all the crime fighting solutions at their ready, so also said his now boss man’s the substantive minister for the policeman’s Nottage.
So the voters anticipated when Bell and Nottage walked into their respective ministerial portfolios; they must all be brungin their blue prints cuz they would knows from day one - what they were going to do to deal with the criminals.
But now going into four years since they took over the government, Bell and Nottage confessing they still don't even have a crime plan. Instead Bell and Nottage are ducking behind calling their jobs much too overwhelming and that they don’t have a fu@@in clue what to do.
But what citizens does now knows abut these two man's, is that both ministers Bell and Nottage do now think thy have a need to carry concealed pistols strapped under their suit jackets, for their personal protection against the very criminals they once claimed to have a blue print at the all ready deal with.
I have ask, if either Bell or Nottage carried a canceled pistol before the final votes were counted on the night of the 2012 General?
Comrades you know what I keep on saying. I don't make this stuff up. It for real.
MonkeeDoo 9 years ago
Someone needs to wake up Rip Van Winkle and let him know that the PLP ( his party ) has been in power now these three plus years and he is the deputy to the Minister. Saints preserve us from this lunacy. Truly the patients are running the asylum now.
proudloudandfnm 9 years ago
The PLP came in to office whining about the tough sentences the FNM created for criminals. Whining about PRISON SENTENCES. A prison sentence usually happens when? AFTER A CRIME!!!
And now this spectacular idiot wants to say crime is the FNM's fault.
Keith Bell gives morons a bad name.......
themessenger 9 years ago
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were Keith Bell. But then I repeat myself!
banker 9 years ago
I've seen decomposed bodies that are less offensive than Keith Bell. There goes a man who lives stupid and is going to die stupid. But typical PLP, they are all unacquainted with the truth. Sad how a bunch of sub-human scum can get elected.
Cobalt 9 years ago
I won't even waste my time commenting any further.
I'm just marking off the days to 2017.
The_Oracle 9 years ago
Like petty thieves in a police interrogation, "It was his idea! (Fault, job, etc etc) this finger pointing at each other aught to get them all 20 year sentences! If we could find a Judge......
John 9 years ago
The murder record for this country is about to be broken a few days. And based to the current trend of 12.53 murders a month, The Bahamas could easily record 153 murders by December 31, 2015. And the most Keith Bell could do is try to politicize the matter and blame the opposition; no solution for the crime, no sympathy, no compassion for the victims. But if that does not bother you the meditate on this; The murder rate in this country is increasing at an increasing rate! It can easily go up to 180 next year if nothing is done. That is 15 murders a month. At least government should (publicly) consider hanging persons convicted of more than one murder, while they figure this out. And make life more difficult for those convicted of murder. Otherwise young men between the ages of 17 and 45 may as well start painting bulls- eyes on their foreheads. Yes it is that serious.
Well_mudda_take_sic 9 years ago
Our demented Pinocchio PM loves to be surrounded by daft imbeciles like Bell, Maynard-Gibson, Wilchcombe, Davis, Nottage, Gray, Fitzgerald, Gibson, Gomez (x2), Mitchell and so on, to just name a few.
MonkeeDoo 9 years ago
Well_mudda... because not one of them got a lick of courage and altogether they can't say no to him. And people question that he is a dictator ? Please.... I mean the man has wrecked the economy, allowed the Capital to gain status as a war zone, allowed the investment rating to go to junk, ( very soon ), blown up a significant FDI project by stupidity, sold out to a foreign state, I mean what else are these PLP HOA members going to allow. Collectively they have been a party to it all and are equally guilty. Renegades excepted with apology.
jusscool 9 years ago
Minister Keith Bell can you please tell the Bahamian people what kind of illegal drug your using so we can get you some help . Get your mind together so that you can finally make something of your life and move on. 5yrs in charge STATE National Security Minister and this is the best you can come up with? FixIT!
sealice 9 years ago
mista keit bell can you tell us what kinda drug you using so we could try some.... musse some good tings!!
TruePeople 9 years ago
FixIt
paul_vincent_zecchino 9 years ago
Blaming FNM, who's been out of power more than three years, for present day criminality is a familiar tune, isn't it?
The stateside version, sung in the same key, is 'It's all Bush's Fault".
Or Regan's. Or Calvin Coolidge's; someone elses fault, anyone but the ones responsible.
Required 9 years ago
What he's saying is this: "If they had succeeded in fixing it before the election, we would not have failed so abysmally at it afterwards."
SP 9 years ago
........................................................... Brillant! ............................................................
PLP kicking off their 2017 campaign strategy by blaming the FNM for everything they blatantly lied to the electorate about being ready from day one to resolve in 2012.
MonkeeDoo 9 years ago
Believe in Bahamians
MonkeeDoo 9 years ago
Reposted: Commenters, tell me something please. I have been assuming that the Tribune forwards these comments on privately to the subject(s) in the article. Can anyone confirm ? If not I think we may just be spinning our wheels. I mean if this does not get back to AMG what is the point ? I comment too so.... How can we get the messages to the subject(s). AMG, PGC, BBB, etc. Does anyone think that Tal and birdie take it back ?
TruePeople 9 years ago
I doubt the tribune does that. and if they did i doubt the subject persons read it.... HIGHLY certain they wouldn't read it actually.
Commenting here is hopefully to liberate those imprisoned by mental slavery. The Gov't and Media spin so many lies around it's hard to know the truth.
Sadly the only thing our politrickians can and want to read is $$$$$$$$$$$ so unless y'all start commenting in $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ expect that the gov't in wilfully oblivious to your point of veiw
genesis 9 years ago
Father in the name of Jesus i pray for our ........... government i pray they will be competent and responsible. HELP LORD.
genesis 9 years ago
FATHER!!! In JESUS name i pray for our................government. I pray they would be COMPETENT and RESPONSIBLE in JESUS' name. AMEN!!!!!!!
genesis 9 years ago
O Jesus help us o GOD!
John 9 years ago
According to Bodie all political parties have lackeys who frequent social and mainstream meadia to see what the consensus is. They are also paid to try to sway opinion. Like to say "the present government went from failure to complete failure... Just saying
TruePeople 9 years ago
You have to give ya baby a hand gun and a bag a weed on social media before they pay you any mind
ThisIsOurs 9 years ago
Bodie also said, (paraphrasing) "there's nothing wrong with taking money off the top when awarding a govt contract", he called it "skimming". This coming from a disbarred lawyer who's already been punished for unethical behavior and who's made no attempt to hide his desire to enrich himself through political appointments, I'd be skeptical of anything he says until he shows he truly understands what fiduciary trust means.
juju 9 years ago
Awwwwe.... SO VERY SAD....Bell....shameful
ThisIsOurs 9 years ago
How was Mr Bell ever selected as a senator??? His statement have dived head first into STUPID country on several occasions, and I'm almost certain the stupidity isn't limited to his public conversations. Who could possibly have looked through a list of candidates and said, oh yes, that's our point man???
ThisIsOurs 9 years ago
It's unbelievable, the senate is the place where we put our best minds, these are the Bahamian Aristotles...they've turned it into the corner whino "bar"
digimagination 9 years ago
Poor ol' Mr. Bell - a complete amateur!
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