The Tribune

By NICOLE BURROWS

Several weeks back, the Royal Bahamas Police Force and Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade, released the latest crime statistics.

There was a press conference at which Commissioner Greenslade emphasised that, since he took his position, he has always believed that we, the Bahamian people, have the ability to solve our crime problem if we join together, ie we have the answers to the problem of crime. But, so many years later, we still have the same crime problems from back then, plus more. Greenslade remarked that there is now a disturbing and increasing proliferation of cocaine and assault weapons trafficking in The Bahamas.

If, since the time you took the job, between then and now, all you’ve done is watch the Bahamian crime problem grow from bad to worse, feeling like your hands are tied when you arrest criminals and they appear before the court only to be released on bail and you keep playing catch and release, and what you end up doing each time is begging unashamedly for help, what does it say about your ability to fulfil the duties you were appointed to fulfil?

Is your inability to make a real dent in criminal activity not an indication of your ineffectiveness in your role? If so, why are you still there in that role? If not, why are you ineffective? Are there other reasons why you can’t get any success? Is the system the problem? The judicial system/courts? Political interference by the executive? Is the method of law enforcement the problem? The staff you have working with you; are they the problem? What’s the minimum IQ, problem solving ability, or educational attainment level necessary to solve criminal activity or to stop criminal activity in The Bahamas?

What will help you to do your job more effectively as lead law enforcer? Is the Bahamian public the problem? You continuously plead for their co-operation ... do they not believe, by and large, in law, upholding law, enforcing law? Are you at your wits’ end because lawmakers are also lawbreakers?

The people who create and pass laws don’t agree and can’t even stay on topic in a session of Parliament. They’re busy earning brownie points on their respective teams, seeing how much lowness they can throw at the other side to make their opponents look worse or appear more culpable in the eyes of the Bahamian public.

The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) and the Free National Movement (FNM), and the nearly quiet Democratic National Alliance (DNA) and the near to nothing United Democratic Party (UDP) etc, are all ineffective right now. What hope do the Bahamian people have? Do the people even care, when they send their email messages to show their support, their understanding, their frustration, their disgust, privately, but they still won’t do it publicly? They remain a silent majority, afraid to speak out for any number of reasons, so the vocal minority, the Facebook and message board trolls and addicts, the people who have nothing to do with their time all day but post their commentary to drown out the silent majority continue along and won’t ever shut up.

They believe the more they say the more they’re right, when, in actuality, these people have little or nothing new to say and do nothing but clutter the dialogue with hate speech. They feign upset and they feign purpose with comments that appear to be opposed or disagreeable but they’re too evil to recognise that they’re really arguing the same points as the silent majority or any from among the silent majority who decide(s) to speak.

The vocal minority’s hatefulness is a shroud that covers that silent majority and causes them to feel the need to remain even more silent. And that’s our problem; the people who do speak or insist on speaking all the time are the empty vessels, and the people who are of substance and can improve their country, if they allowed their voices to be heard, are too afraid to say what’s on their minds. The hateful empty vessels won’t stop talking and the truly patriotic Bahamians who can together effect change won’t even be brave enough to start a conversation.

So what are we hoping for here, silent majority? That a magical solution to these problems will fall upon you with no effort expended on your part? That the empty vessels can be relied upon to provide the answers if ever they could shut up long enough to 1) hear anybody else speak, 2) actually think about what they’re really saying?

Exactly how do we get that better country when opposing forces just butt heads resulting in zero improvement in every sphere of our society?

That said, please don’t email me about what or how much you think should change and then go silent when it counts. Stop sending me messages about being on the right track when you won’t even get on one.

My job, in case you didn’t realise it, is to point out the problems and show you the dirty undergarments of your leaders ... to make you lift your own eyelids and come face to face with the gravity of all your people’s filthy laundry, to shock you into the place of recognition that forces you to think for yourself about what your problems are and what lies at their roots, individually and collectively, and to decide what to do about them. And, if you’re not prepared to do that, why am I wasting my time and energy trying to give you guideposts to launch your dissatisfaction?

If you don’t give two shakes about your own future or that of your children’s, to be inventive enough to identify your own solutions to your own greatest afflictions, then I’m wasting my effort and my rallying cries. If you continue to roll over and accept what the noisy minority pushes forward as a national agenda then you deserve what will come after.

The silent majority of the Bahamian public already perceives those in government, leadership and power to be empty vessel representatives. No matter how you try to convince them otherwise at this point, it doesn’t change the fact that there is no real trust left between the Bahamian people of quality and the people who govern them.

It doesn’t matter how many times Jerome Fitzgerald says a certain group of people want to ‘bring down the government’; it doesn’t frighten anyone, because the reality right now is that most Bahamians who have remained silent and often feel helpless do want to ‘bring down the government’ ... by way of voting the current government out of power. Fitzgerald says “we ain ga take dat. And if you touch one a us you touch all a us Mr Speaker, it’s as simple as that.”

Well, what if the silent majority took that stance? As Bahamian people who want to save their country, they should want to ‘destabilise’ a corrupted and corruptible government so that you, Fitzgerald and the current administration, are no longer in a position of power and some others with better ideas and work ethic are.

Yes, yes, Christie administration, we want to shake you to your core and cause you to feel what we feel because you lead inadequately! So do us a favour and do something useful, or prepare to be tossed into history.

How did Fitzgerald get private emails anyway, and why is he the one speaking on behalf of his gang?

Meanwhile, the gang and the Commissioner of Police want to know how a Florida investigator could enter the country to do investigative work without police knowledge or approval and without the required work permit for that particular kind of work. And the fact that you have to ask this question after it has already transpired, takes me back to the point I started with ... the end product which is before you today is a reflection of your ineffectiveness in your role as leader of anything. When there is always a chance that something of consequence can fly under the radar in law enforcement - or anywhere else - then you have failed to successfully execute your role.

And just so you know that we know, here’s how the investigative work you didn’t approve could still take place: lies.

Lie easily and lie confidently. Enter the country and say you’re a tourist coming on vacation. They’re stupid at the border, apparently, so once they’re convinced you’re foreign and you don’t look destitute they let you in to do whatever it is you said you came for. If you represent a large enough organisation with foreign ownership or management, it is very easy (and affordable) to get a Bahamian who is ‘friends’ with a Permanent Secretary or other official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or Department of Immigration to drop in with a short-term or other work permit application and get it approved in one afternoon, as long as you’re willing to pay that Bahamian a few thousand dollars to do that on your behalf.

Perhaps you’ve made the bed you lie in?

• Send email to nburrows @tribunemedia.net.