FNM: It’s time for Nottage to be replaced

Minister of National Security Dr Bernard Nottage.

As of Thursday, September 3, 2015

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement Chairman Michael Pintard yesterday called for Prime Minister Perry Christie to replace National Security Minister Dr Bernard Nottage over his uninspired and lethargic response to mounting crime.

Mr Pintard underscored a critical need to secure a credible alternative for the post, adding that State Minister for National Security Keith Bell was “substantially worse.”

He was responding to Dr Nottage’s recent assertion that his critics were in for a “sad awakening” if they thought there was a quick fix for crime.

“What’s sad is that he’s just realised it,” Mr Pintard said, “because he was one of the persons most critical of the former government. He is asking for a bipartisan approach now, which is what our (FNM) plan has always been.

“He is ill-suited for the job, his comments are pretty much the same. Now that the shoe is on the other foot he has a different look on the matter. He’s out of energy, out of ideas.”

“The prime minister needs to look at an alternative, someone who would have credibility to deal with these issues. Dr Nottage is not it, and Keith Bell is substantially worse than him,” Mr Pintard said.

At a forensics training workshop on Tuesday sponsored by the US Embassy in Nassau, Dr Nottage said that crime was not the fault of the government, and insisted that he never blamed the former administration for the situation.

However in 2011, he told parliamentarians that the Ingraham administration’s “ineffectiveness” had resulted in a “crime explosion.”

In defence of the government, this week Progressive Liberal Party Chairman Bradley Roberts argued that his party was the only organisation with a plan to tackle crime.

His statement came even though the homicide count for this year is steadily outpacing the figure for 2014 at this point. Up to press time, there were 99 murders recorded. At the end of August 2014, the country had recorded 84 murders, according to police statistics.

Yesterday, Mr Pintard maintained that the FNM has a 26-point plan to tackle crime.

Central points of the FNM’s scheme include: ramped up police presence; gun amnesty; strengthened intelligence through networking with community leaders and faith-based groups; increased use of technology, such as gunshot detection devices, mobile forensic equipment, and drones; victim counselling; and the establishment of a non-partisan Crime Commission.

TalRussell 9 years, 3 months ago

Comrades, it is hard to believe that it was only just over three years ago, there were mass democratic rejecting of the red party’s crime plan’s during the 2012 General, after crime worsened under the Papa Hubert’s and his security minister Tommy T’s regime.
Is this 26-point crime plan a farce salvaged from the desk draws Comrade Tommy T, as the clock ticks toward the 2017 General.
I am not going suggest Comrade Minister Dr. Nottage, shouldn’t be dumped from his security portfolio but strange when the call comes from the same red party, who must have forgotten all about their own regime's Tommy T.
The former regime must bear direct responsibility for their costly failed crime fighting theatrics during their 15 years in power.
Why not equally blame Papa Hubert, for today's crime - when these are the same reds that keep blaming all crime on the late Pindling’s regimes.
The red chairman has his own behind the closed doors problems to deal with, cuz not only is it just over Minnis’s weak leadership - but now his own deputy leader Peter may be on verge of not getting his own House of Assembly seat ratified to run for the 2017 General.
What makes this all the more comical is the red party’s Minnis, was just back in March 2015, demanding the immediate resignation of the PLP’s deputy prime minister “Brave” Davis.
You know’s what I keep saying. Tis no way I be’s capable makin this stuff up all by me lonesome self. This is more like a community effort in conjunction with the two main political parties.

TruePeople 9 years, 3 months ago

Tal... the point is they all seem woefully incompetent at their reputed profession. None of them should talk when you consider how much they actually suck at doing what they're supposed to do, or what they say they will or can do. But still they MUST talk because they are supposed to represent the people, and what is being said reflects the thoughts of alot of citizens.

That said, more than ever now is the time for the people to effect positive change. We know the gov't won't help us, but God helps those who help themselves.

MonkeeDoo 9 years, 3 months ago

Who will put a sign on the door of the H.O.A. Bahamas M.O.H Geriatrics Unit ! These OLD FARTS gots ta go !

John 9 years, 3 months ago

Any suggestions as to who should replace Nottage?

Cobalt 9 years, 3 months ago

Forget Bernard Nottage!!

A white Texas Sheriff's Deputy is being buried today after being shot and killed execution style by a black man! It astonishes me that you use this site to voice your displeasure whenever the tables are turned; but yet you remain mute when whites are killed by blacks!

It's obvious where your motives lie. You're a bais, black racist! If this were a black man that had been killed by a white man, you would have speared no expense in letting the entire Bahamas know. Isn't that right, John?

TalRussell 9 years, 3 months ago

Comrade John, this is much more than replacing one body for another ministerial body but hopefully at least this time the PM can find a someone with a live pulse.
When the new murder numbers are released to the media, they no longer cause the readers and viewers of the statics to gasp - and those numbers can quickly be outdated even before they ink dries on the murdered victims reports.
When the, do not cross crime scene yellow tape comes down, and the detectives leave the scenes, seldom are their be spotted a pastor, chaplain, social agency representatives or member of parliament - left behind to console the bereaved family.
It seems nobody gives a good damn there are people in that home that are hurting, after all it is but another murder statistic.

banker 9 years, 3 months ago

Actually, nobody is going to solve the crime problem, until the economy is fixed. HAI tried to diversify the economy with his Third Pillar (which Jamaica embraced and actually accomplished), however the criminal, brain-dead organisation whose colours are those of urine, campaigned against the PM and his policies, including the constitutional equality of women change, and rigged the election with vote buying to defeat it. The responsibility of the current state of crime and the Bahamas rests solely on the political party whose colours are those of urine, and who are soaked in it with the kleptocracy, perfidy and unpatriotic, sub-human activities.

TalRussell 9 years, 3 months ago

Comrade Banker, the degree the so-called sociologists and economists experts want you to believe that there exists the unmistakable connection between crime and poverty - is misguided. Poverty may rank as an obstacle to a country's development but it is also overplayed. There is evidence all around our Bahamaland, that all three claims - are false.

banker 9 years, 3 months ago

I would refer you my dear, to http://www.poverties.org/poverty-and-cr…

The Unmistakable Connection

Poverty and crime have a very "intimate" relationship that has been described by experts from all fields, from sociologists to economists. The UN and the World Bank both rank crime high on the list of obstacles to a country’s development. This means that governments trying to deal with poverty often also have to face the issue of crime as they try to develop their country's economy and society.

Crime prevents businesses from thriving by generating instability and uncertainty (at micro and macroeconomic levels). This is true in markets of all sizes, national, regional, municipal and even neighborhoods.

Unemployment, poverty and crime

Starting from the 1970s, studies in the US pointed more and more at the link between unemployment, poverty and crime. After that other connections with income level, time spent at school, quality of neighborhood and education were revealed as well. Fresh research from the UK even indicates that economic cycles may affect variations in property and violent crimes. - Same link

The most interesting one, is from the Economist: http://www.economist.com/news/science-a…

The posit of this one small study, is that even if you increase the level of income of neighbourhoods inculcated into the crime life as poor people, the crime doesn't abate. In other words, you have educated a generation of potential criminals.

The Bahamas is in for a long haul.

TalRussell 9 years, 3 months ago

Comrade Banker, first you must define what poverty is. In Bahamaland, we define poverty as not being able to afford a car, go dancing, to a movie - or to take a shopping trip to Miami. These have nothing to do with poverty. Poverty has nothing to do with raising your children as law abiding citizens. I have read the report and disagree.

Zakary 9 years, 3 months ago

In Bahamaland, we define poverty as not being able to afford a car, go dancing, to a movie - or to take a shopping trip to Miami. These have nothing to do with poverty.

I agree. I believe our problem is greed, not poverty.

TalRussell 9 years, 3 months ago

Comrade Zakary, our out Islanders to this very September 2015 day, have remained testaments to Proverbs 19:1
"Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool."

banker 9 years, 3 months ago

Poverty is rampant in the Bahamas. Just walk about Bain Town or Grants Town, or select places along Cowpen Road. If you live in a certain social strata in the Bahamas, you are insulated from it. Ride the jitneys and you will see poverty. They are among us, and we don't see them.

But there is also another kind of poverty that every Bahamian suffers from. It is poverty of spirit.

This is most exemplified in our standard of living and non-ease of living. If you have ever lived abroad, you will know what I mean. Abroad, one can start a business, incorporate online, print off the corporation papers, open a bank account in just one day for $400. And those corporation papers are your business licence if you do not operate a storefront. The cable guy says that he will be at your apartment the next day between 1PM and 4PM and he arrives. A non-resident driver's licence takes you a day to get a temporary one, and you get the real one in the mail a week later. A passport can be had in ten days for $140 dollars. A repair part for a washing machine arrives the next day from a city 500 miles away. The clerks stay at a store or a government office until all of the people have been served.

You can go to a gas station 24 hours a day, and the one near my apartment has no attendants at all. It is entirely automated. I stick my bank card into an ATM machine and it asks me if I want to conduct business from my credit card, my bank chequing account, my savings account, my line of credit or my Tax Free savings account.

Every single traffic light works. Every single street lamp works at night. The power never goes off. You can drink the tap water from every faucet in the house. Every place that I have ever lived in had a washer and dryer.

Life is so much easier abroad where everything works. We are poorer for our cultural slackness, our sweethearting, our tolerance of criminal politicians, our tolerance of hypocrisy, our support of non-religious religious people, our disrespect for human life, our tolerance of gunplay, and our sexual mores where premarital sex and single parenthood is the norm rather than the exception.

As to your bucolic views of Family Islanders, I would ask you to talk to social workers. The incidence of child molestation, pederasty, incest and buggery is rampant in most out island remote communities.

Nay, we have a long way to go as an enlightened peoples, and we are poor for the tolerance that we have for the lower, baser activities on the scale of human enlightenment.

I still maintain that the only way to ameliorate all of the ills, is to make everyone financially safe, secure and happy -- all through economic means.

John 9 years, 3 months ago

If anyone has less of a case to keep his job it is BJ Nottage. Crime overall is up significantly over what it was when he took office and murder is up by almost 50 percent. And while there may have been slight decreases year over year within his tenure, every category of crime is up over the 2012 figures. Of course the declining economy has contributed to the increase in crime but the increase represents failure of the minister of national security. And as the world economy appears to be slipping into an even deeper recession (depression?) a further spik in crime can be expected

Bahamianpride 9 years, 3 months ago

Crime is a symptom of deeper social and economic problems. Banker is right about the poverty it plays a huge factor because it puts people in survival mode. There is a huge disconnect between those that have and the poor. This country treats poor people like a disease and the ghetto is a breeding ground for violent criminals. The environment is toxic with all the fatherless kids born each year. We have Bahamian people still living with no electric, running water, or any modern day amenities except a cheap minutes phone. We have predators like webb shops sucking the life out of these communities even further damage an already destructive environment. We have people in power who profess this is a christian nation, talk about God all day but nobody LIVES JESUS, that is the teachings of Jesus Christ. The country double taxes its people with duties and vat inflating the cost of necessities putting further strain on everyone but the rich. I could go on for days as to why the crime is bad, but somehow many believe that we can arrest our way out of this, good luck with that type of thinking. You cannot cure the measles by popping pimples. Here are a few steps in reducing crime: stop treating poor people like a disease and aggressive target family planning to stop irresponsible baby making, improve social service response and involvement, enforce child support, and proactively shut down webb shops and other destructive forces in these communities.

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