The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune

Re: ‘Criminals Will Ravage Country Unless Death Penalty Enforced’ (February 28)

IT IS absolutely mind-boggling that any reasonable person would tout enforcement of the death penalty as a worthwhile solution to crime.

Leaving out well-meaning considerations of ethics and religious beliefs etc, it has never been proven to lower crime rates significantly. Therefore, why continue to spout the crime-reducing benefits of a death penalty?

Reliance on the death penalty sounds like such an attractively easy and obvious solution. Furthermore, state-sanctioned homicide often has instant appeal to an apprehensive electorate (as long as it’s done in private, of course). It grabs the imagination and fires up one’s baser emotions very nicely.

But in order to improve our crime situation, we must also educate our young properly and use harsh approaches like tough love, community service in distinctive dress, curfews, aversion methods and public humiliation (such as caning) liberally. This should not only better their brutish lives but improve ours as well.

At present, far too many of our young people are actually too stupid to comprehend the meaning of a death penalty or any other kind of penalty - unless significant physical pain and/or degradation are involved (please spare me any references to slavery). Furthermore, the imbeciles are often so incredibly dumb that they frequently believe they are invincible and will not get caught. This lack of critical reasoning is carried over into adulthood.

On top of all that, they are too mindless to care. Many a bleeding heart will be shocked at terminology such as this. They might prefer to talk about poverty, lack of love in the home, low self esteem, culpability of the church and society etc. Others may even suggest formation of yet another committee to look into crime. Meanwhile, it’s as if the Bahamian house is burning. When there is a fire, there is little point in discussing the problem. We have to put the fire out. Immediately.

It would be nice if all the aspects of crime could be handled with a simple solution, such as the death penalty, but unfortunately, as much as we would wish it to be, it simply is not the case. It never has been and never will be.

We tend to focus on homicides when talking about crime, but homicides are simply a final symptom of the widespread disease of lawlessness. Homicide is not the first and only crime performed by these dangerously silly, mental midgets. Homicide is frequently a result of the previous life of crime that led up to it. Therefore, we have to recognise the ‘broken windows syndrome’ as well.

It is now essential to make some hard, expensive efforts to guide/teach the rudiments of civilised behaviour forcefully to these cowardly and violent predators. If this also means passing appropriate laws, or an introduction of a mandatory National Youth Service etc, then we should do it. Also, we must stop overlooking crimes of friends, family, lovers and especially our professionals and other ‘leaders’. We have to confront our failures and admit the only hope for our young, trigger-happy nitwits to become somewhat caring, productive citizens and improve their economic plight is to insist on, and enforce, improved academic or vocational education, as much as possible.

If a death penalty, along with praying and marching makes some people feel better, by all means continue. However, the limitations should be recognised.

Meanwhile, at the risk of sounding elitist, let’s actually do the hard and costly work to do something constructive about the clear connection between crime and our young people’s tiny, malicious, underdeveloped minds. Most of these young are worth salvaging. Not only is it essential for our self preservation but it is also our moral duty to try to do whatever is reasonable and necessary to accomplish that goal.

KEN W KNOWLES MD

Nassau,

March 31, 2017