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THE BIG QUESTION: What would YOU do to reduce crime in 2016?

As of Tuesday, January 5, 2016

After a record high of 148 murders in the Bahamas last year, The Tribune is asking readers:

What would you do to reduce the crime rate in 2016?

Post your answers in the comments section below . . .

Comments

DWW 8 years, 10 months ago

Simple but long term solution- double teacher salaries. It won't pay any benefits for 5-10 years minimum.

birdiestrachan 8 years, 10 months ago

In my view the problems lie in the homes. The home is the first church and the first school. what kind of homes are these people coming out of?. and being poor is no excuse. The blame game will not work. every human being should look in the mirror and say "I and I alone is responsible for my actions" I know that some parents try. But once you see your child going the wrong way. Put a stop to it before it goes to far. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. Also parents should be good examples for their children. some one once said " preach with your life and if necessary use words."

Revolutionary 8 years, 10 months ago

This is a complex question and deserves a complex answer. For the short term: 1) Legalize Marijuana. Legalizing marijuana would drain the street gangs of their revenue (and perhaps turn them into taxable business's). It would greatly reduce our black-market, who's transactions lead to a large portion of our crime. It would reduce unemployment, a HUGE contributor to crime (theft and armed robbery, which can end violently). It would free up the police to look for violent criminals and real crime. It would depopulate our crowded prisons, so that our violent offenders no longer need to be granted bail. It would give the government the tax revenue it needs to combat our criminal-crisis. No more gangs. No more petty criminals crowding jail. No more wasting money and police efforts on a losing battle.

2) Reduce Unemployment As mentioned previously, unemployment contributes directly to crime rates. When there are huge numbers of people unemployed, many are forced to resort to crime to get by. Government could have reduced unemployment with the massive construction projects we've seen done by Chinese workers. Employing foreign labour should only happen when local labour isn't an option. Massive projects like Bahamar, the Sports Stadium and the current hotel were great opportunities to reduce unemployment by negotiating Bahamian involvement with the investors/constructors.

3) Policing Reform Weather the RBPF is short staffed or low on supplies is unknown to me, but I rarely see enough of them where I should. Should either be the case, funds must be allocated to fix this. Our officers should be frequenting the high crime neighborhoods and doing routine checkups on those recently out of prison. That being said, they must not alienate themselves from these communities, but be apart of them. With our culture today, police have to put great effort into being seen as community leaders rather than oppressors.

Revolutionary 8 years, 10 months ago

For the long term: 1) Improve The Standard of Bahamian Education. This includes higher quality teachers and faculty (making it harder to become a teacher at government schools and/or hiring higher caliber foreign teachers), higher pay and respect for those teachers (respect via more national recognition, ALWAYS paying them), a thorough review of the educational curriculum in government schools.

2) Rehabilitative Prison System. As much as some Bahamians are in favor of capital punishment, years of data in almost every country on earth shows that the death penalty doesn't lower murder rates at all. In the US, states with a death penalty have had a higher murder rate for 22 consecutive years than those without. What has been shown to work well is rehabilitative prison systems. This would mean changing Fox Hill from a dilapidated human rights violation into a modern, rehabilitative correctional facility. Norway, for example, has one of the lowest recidivism rates (meaning inmates don't return after leaving) in the world, and has seen a massive decline in crime since implementing its "restorative justice", meaning that inmates focus on righting their wrong rather than just being punished for it.

*Although this just skims the surface of only a few solutions, all of these suggestions have sufficient data to back them up if you have the time to research them.

Shandiola 8 years, 10 months ago

Well we can never stop crime but we can prevent it, Firstly the streets of the Bahamas needs a video cameras, secondly all alcohol sales must end at 8.00 pm. Thirdly police should carry metal detectors and breath testers for drinking and driving, at all times in case they wish to stop and check a civilian. The highways are already in place so road blocks should occur more frequent with shifts. Children and teens are to be in house by 7:00 pm parents will be responsible if children are found roaming the streets. Crime watch groups should also be encourage in the residential areas and non stop. We all have to work together and stop blaming each other. It's never to late to begin peace.

Tarzan 8 years, 10 months ago

Let's limit ourselves to immediate actions. Addressing social problems like educational reform is too broad a topic for a discussion like this.

  1. Impose an immediate curfew on all persons under age 21 at midnight, seven days a week. Flood the crime area streets of N.P. with police at midnight and make the penalty sufficiently severe that within weeks, those under 21 will be inside at midnight or in jail.

  2. Do whatever is necessary to alter the recent criminal conspiracy laws, so that the kind of evidence the police are able to adduce will be sufficient to establish membership in a criminal gang. Enforce those laws with such rigor that all such gangs will be wiped off the streets on N.P. Island.

  3. Recognize that in a country with such a small population, family ties will trump rule of law far too often. Arrange to exchange local police officers in significant numbers with officers from similarly challenged Caribbean nations.

  4. Remove the chief law enforcement officer (A.G.) from the first level political process. Have the judiciary recommend an A.G. for appointment and give the judiciary the power to request the A.G.'s removal. No A.G. to be elected by government except with approval of judiciary.

  5. Create senior position in RBP that has to be staffed by foreign officer, preferably from U.S. or Great Britain. Make position sufficiently high and with sufficient powers that if there is any corruption or playing with equal justice in RBP, that officer can blow the whistle loud and clear.

Fox 8 years, 10 months ago

Go after the two main tools (illegal guns and vehicles – which are mostly stolen) WHILE helping the Youth.

This would be done by putting in place –

1.a proper (limited) backed by strict legislation CCTV program designed for the sole purpose of tracking vehicles (reported stolen or used in a crime). When the report comes the police would follow and rewind to find the suspects in vehicle OR the area in which the vehicle stopped and from where the vehicle may have come from.

2.Along with the strategic use of K9’s trained to detect firearms/explosives. This makes getting to and getting from harder. We may not be able to tell who will commit a crime but we do have ways to tell who is in possession of the tool.

3.a National Boot Camp for Unruly Students – one that will remove troublesome children from their homes and from the school (creating a better learning environment for those willing to learn) and place them (the troublesome) in a strict, disciplined, military style (wake up early go to bed early yes mam – yes sir) educational environment.

bismark 8 years, 10 months ago

get rid of those lousy judges who are only pandering to these lawyers,all of those judges are LOUSY think they are Gods in this country when none of them worth shit,they who have the power vested in them by the law do not exercise that power because we wouldn't have so many of the same scum out on bail over and over again,thanks to those wigsy head idiots.

Godson 8 years, 10 months ago

STOP ALIENATING AND MARGINALIZING CITIZENS DUE TO SOME INDISCRETION THE PERSONS MIGHT HAVE COMMITTED IN THE PAST. We can ill afford to continue ostracizing persons who have had to overcome poverty, social and environmental flaws dominant in the community they were born and raise in. To begin with, they were ill prepared from the get-go to deal with these crippling factors, however, they rose above the hurdles which can be attested. These persons possess have valuable life experiences and education from which the community can tap into so as to gather insight as to a solution going forward. An unforgiving attitude only perpetuates the damage already done and serves to incur further despair and alienation resulting in resentment to the society they were meant to partner with.

ThisIsOurs 8 years, 10 months ago

I'd have a special presentation in the house to give each member concrete examples of what is considered unethical and what is illegal and that both infractions would result in removal from the house.

donavon228 8 years, 10 months ago

There is no solution to end all crimes in the Bahamas but there is an absolutely a SOLUTION to REDUCE the number of crimes that occur in our lovely Bahama land. I am a young Bahamian and it saddens me to see the large number of murders that occurred in 2015. In the Bahamas, at the end of 1968, there were 19 murders in an estimated population of 161,000. In 2006 when I graduated from high school in Nassau, Bahamas the murder count raised to 60, which was the highest it has been since the year 2000 when the murder rate was 74. By the end of 2015, we have set a record high of 148 murders which is unbelievable for a nation in which Tourism accounts for about 50% of the GDP. As a Tourism nation, high crime rate will destroy our country. Government need to take action and take action now. LET MY VOICE BE HEARD AND LET CHANGE HAPPEN.

A wise man once said, “One man can make a difference and change”. I hope government listens to me and give me a chance to educate them on ways to improve the Bahamas. I have research projects and spreadsheets of data and information of how the Bahamas can improve itself. Tell government to email me or call me so we can talk.

Government needs to listen to the citizens and understand the community. I feel as thou there is a disconnection among government and citizens; because while MP’s at their nice homes and good jobs, the neighborhoods of the Bahamian people are broke and jobless. Robing, killing and stealing are the only few things people know how to do in order to put food on the table when they broke without a job. Government doesn’t understand the crime and effect of unemployment because they aren’t the ones affected by the unemployment. They have a secured job. With my ideas and plans, if government decides to listen to me, we can improve the Bahamas tremendously. There is numerous ways for government to raise money besides implementing additional taxes. Our nation is not ready for sales taxes increase and current sales taxes in the Bahamas is currently reducing local business operations and profits, which will result in less local jobs availability and reduction in sales. Taxes also cause a lot of investors not to invest in that specific area, because of tax cost, which in the end will cripple the Bahamas economy.

There are two main problems for a high crime rate in Nassau. The first is that Nassau is over populated, which 70% of the total country population resides on the smallest island. Whenever a place is over populated crime tends to increase. As a result of over population, unemployment percentage tends to increase, which is the second main reason for high crime. Therefore what government must do is develop outer islands to make it attractive to investors to invest, which will create jobs and people will move to other islands for work. In the end result, this will reduce the over population of Nassau and create jobs and prosperity around the Bahamas.

donavon228 8 years, 10 months ago

There is no solution to end all crimes in the Bahamas but there is an absolutely a SOLUTION to REDUCE the number of crimes that occur in our lovely Bahama land. I am a young Bahamian and it saddens me to see the large number of murders that occurred in 2015. In the Bahamas, at the end of 1968, there were 19 murders in an estimated population of 161,000. In 2006 when I graduated from high school in Nassau, Bahamas the murder count raised to 60, which was the highest it has been since the year 2000 when the murder rate was 74. By the end of 2015, we have set a record high of 148 murders which is unbelievable for a nation in which Tourism accounts for about 50% of the GDP. As a Tourism nation, high crime rate will destroy our country. Government need to take action and take action now. LET MY VOICE BE HEARD AND LET CHANGE HAPPEN.

A wise man once said, “One man can make a difference and change”. I hope government listens to me and give me a chance to educate them on ways to improve the Bahamas. I have research projects and spreadsheets of data and information of how the Bahamas can improve itself. Tell government to email me or call me so we can talk.

Government needs to listen to the citizens and understand the community. I feel as thou there is a disconnection among government and citizens; because while MP’s at their nice homes and good jobs, the neighborhoods of the Bahamian people are broke and jobless. Robing, killing and stealing are the only few things people know how to do in order to put food on the table when they broke without a job. Government doesn’t understand the crime and effect of unemployment because they aren’t the ones affected by the unemployment. They have a secured job. With my ideas and plans, if government decides to listen to me, we can improve the Bahamas tremendously. There is numerous ways for government to raise money besides implementing additional taxes. Our nation is not ready for sales taxes increase and current sales taxes in the Bahamas is currently reducing local business operations and profits, which will result in less local jobs availability and reduction in sales. Taxes also cause a lot of investors not to invest in that specific area, because of tax cost, which in the end will cripple the Bahamas economy.

There are two main problems for a high crime rate in Nassau. The first is that Nassau is over populated, which 70% of the total country population resides on the smallest island. Whenever a place is over populated crime tends to increase. As a result of over population, unemployment percentage tends to increase, which is the second main reason for high crime. Therefore what government must do is develop outer islands to make it attractive to investors to invest, which will create jobs and people will move to other islands for work. In the end result, this will reduce the over population of Nassau and create jobs and prosperity around the Bahamas.

donavon228 8 years, 10 months ago

If government spends about 200 million to develop Andros and some outer islands by building better roads, better airports for commercial flights to land and other infrastructures, I can project a return on investments about 1 billion within 5 years. Tell Christie and the PLP give me 1 hour to pitch my proposal on how we can take this Bahamas to the next level and prosperity. I have a Business Degree with a double concentration in International Business as well as Tourism Management and Hospitality Management. I am currently employ with a top Forbes list company in the U.S. With my studies abroad, experience and research, I truly believe if government listens to me about my ideas and how we can implement this, crime will decrease and many Bahamians will be back to work. I have numerous suggestions, but here are a few ideas just to give you an understanding.

  1. My suggestion is that we increase taxes on the Web Shops ONLY, at a tax rate of 35%-40% and remove sale taxes of general sales purchase to attract investors to come to the Bahamas to start businesses. Web Shops gambling has a detrimental effect on the economy and the society. The influx of web shops is increasing our poverty level, the poor is getting poorer. Instead of money being spent at our local stores from gas station to retail shops, people are taking their paychecks and last dollar to gamble it away instead of buying food or putting gas in their car. People are becoming addicted to gambling, spending hours playing slots. In addition crimes, such as robbery, theft and murders are happening because of web shops gambling. People are stealing to sell items for cash, and murdering others in the robbery and theft process, in order to use some of the cash to gamble. Since web shops are already legal, and negatively affecting our society, I suggest high taxes on all web shops.

donavon228 8 years, 10 months ago

  1. Hire me to help create and help run a private government sector in which we structure plans to improve the Bahamas and gather investor’s locally and worldwide. This organization will bring in over 1 billion dollars of revenue into the Bahamas over the next 5 years from various investors. This organization will gather and develop a team of young educated Bahamians to search out and contact various companies and rich individuals to advise them of the potential in the Bahamas market in regards to manufacturing goods and services, building hotels, schools, colleges, technology companies, restaurants, farming, salt distribution, movie production, fishing, and many more. We will also help get investors to purchase Bahamian treasury bonds. In the United States, the bank FDIC only insures up to $250,000 of an individual money. Therefore, multimillionaires and billionaires look for projects and emerging markers to invest their money to improve their portfolio. Their money is not safe siting in the bank, therefore this department/ sector will show them their potential of investing in the Bahamas. I suggest they name it Bahama Dreams where your dreams come true.

  2. Sell Bahamian treasury bonds to locals and worldwide persons and companies. Allow people or companies to purchase long term Bahamian treasury bonds with a term of 5 years, 10 years or 20 years, etc. This will allow government to raise capital in order to fund various projects and expansions. This is a common method many nations used to gain direct capital investment.

donavon228 8 years, 10 months ago

  1. Development of the outer family islands is another big project. Government must do their jobs before it becomes enticing to investors to want to invest and create jobs. We need better airports to allow commercial flights and improve road ways. Once this happen, investors will begin to invest and property on the outer islands will increase tremendously making the local owners rich from land sales as well as the government. Government will need to reduce the tariffs on certain goods going to the family islands. With the large influx of developments, government will make billions on the back end from trade, customs, property taxes, business licenses, car registrations, land sale, and many more over time. Take for example, before Atlantis came to the Bahamas, Paradise Island was known as Hog island and property over there was super cheap, some as low as 1,000 dollars 20 years ago. Now, property over paradise island aka old hog island, property value ranges about 3 million dollars and upward to 20 million. Bahamian people and the government will prosper if done right. It’s the similar approach as what Dubai has done. They reinvented the city. LET’S REINVENT AND TRANSFORM THE OUTER ISLANDS OF THE BAHAMAS LIKE HOW ATLANTIS REINVENTED HOG ISLAND AKA PARADISE ISLAND AND HOW DUBAI TRANSFORM THEIR CITY.

  2. Commercial Farming is also what we need. We need mass farming on a large scale on outer islands producing fruits and vegetables for local consumption and exporting to US, worldwide and other islands. We need to start exporting goods because trade is essential to any country success.

  3. Jail need to be turned in to something profitable, instead of a large expense. We need to have some criminals working while serving their time instead of at the expense of the Bahamian people tax dollars. About 70% of jails in the United States are profitable in which the prisoners work during their sentence. We need to develop various jobs that the prisoners can do that will contribute to profitability to the jail. Such as make furniture for schools, farming in the prisoner yard, dog training, making and sewing government school uniform for less privilege students, manufacturing products, and many other options. We can choose a few things that are profitable and have the prisoners work while lockup. This will allow government to make money and be able to afford to pay for the high expense cost to retain these inmates. Also inmates can earn a very small wage earning which can be put on their books/ account in jail. About maybe 2 dollars a day for 10 hours work which will allow them to buy maybe Ramon noodles or something. It will teach them a lesson of hard work and savings.

donavon228 8 years, 10 months ago

  1. Illegal immigrants need to work off the cost to transport them back to their country. Government spending on immigration is too much. We need to have them farming at the detention center and once they work a certain number of hours, the amount that they would have earn, government will keep and that would be the money the government will used to transport them back to their country. We don’t need to make the Bahamian people suffer for other people mistakes.

With the development there will be opportunities for jobs openings in various sectors and field in outer family islands which will reduce Nassau over population and high crime rate. With my plan over the next few years the murder rate will be lowered, startup businesses will rise, tourism will rise, and the Bahamian people will be safe and happy.

My solution to reduce crime is simple and effective. With my approach I can guarantee a 10 percent or greater reduction in the murder rate. The high unemployment rate is the result of the high murder rate. Only solution to reduce crime is to create JOBS outside of Nassau.

It may not come as a surprise that there is a correlation between unemployment and crime and that joblessness is a major motivator in theft, burglary and violent crimes that can have a monetary motivation. Unemployment is linked to a wide group of crimes which are mostly perpetrated by men without a college education. A fall in pay, however, has a great effect on crime also, since low wages don't always provide workers with everything they want and need.

In order to understand the crime rate in the Bahamas, one must understand the reasoning behind the crime. The population in the Bahamas is about 324,597 and last reported in 2014, the unemployment rate was about 15% last mentioned in 2014, which means about 48,689 Bahamian people are out of jobs looking for work. This is saddened to hear because I have family members and friends that are part of that unemployment numbers.

I love my Bahama land but it’s time that government gets some young educated people as advisors to help them. Obama don’t come up with the ideas for change in the United States, he has a team of advisors to educate him on the decision and what ideas are good. Perry Christie needs to fire his advisor staff and get some fresh young people to help educate him on this new age change that is needed. Through the grace of God is was able to get education abroad in which I pursue a double major in International Business and Tourism Management and Hospitality Management. If the government can give me about 1 hour to give a presentation on my ideas and how we can get some of these implemented immediately, it will change the Bahamas. Gandhi say, “be the change you want to see in the world”. Let’s step up Bahamas.

jackbnimble 8 years, 10 months ago

In my mind, I think we should focus on the little things first.

Hardened criminals start off committing small offences and then graduate to bigger things. Petty stealing evolves to house breaking which evolves to assault, which evolves to murder (just as an example) so we should start from the ground up. Catch the perpetrators in the small crimes, and you won't need to worry about catching them after they are career hardened criminals.

In many cases you can't get the police to follow up on what they probably consider as petty crime (petty crime in my mind being anything outside of drugs or murder). They make it obvious this is not their concern.

I know of at least 2 persons whose homes were broken into and the police never showed up. In one case, the perpetrator left a footprint on the door and his fingerprints all over the house and house was about a block from the police station. In the other, the owner recorded the beak-in on camera. In both cases the individuals had to go to the station to report it and nothing came of it. This leaves people with a feeling that the police do not care. They then become bitter and when they witness crime, they just don't speak up. If the police can show real concern for these small matters, then people will be more apt to cooperate in the big matters.

Additionally, our streets should be manned. You know there is no rule of law in a country if persons can run red lights, overtake, block traffic and the like with no fear of being reprimanded for it. Out streets should be saturated with road traffic cops to get a handle on this. If we can strike fear in the hearts of road traffic offenders for traffic offences, then dealing with the petty criminals should be easy.

Just a thought.

g9822033 8 years, 10 months ago

  1. Implement a long term (20 years) strategy to educate our people.
  2. Discourage teen pregnancies, too many young girls getting pregnant thinking that the 'man' is going to stick around. Make abortion easily accessible and pay - through NIB - adult females that do not have children up to the age of 30.
  3. Create a national lottery and do away with the numbers houses.
  4. Legalise soft drugs (specifically marijuana) and turn it into an industry such as it is in the Netherlands.
  5. Legalise prostitution and confine to certain location such as it is in Nevada.

Points 3, 4 & 5 will increase government revenues and decrease law enforcement costs.

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