The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

DESPITE more than 600 murders during the Progressive Liberal Party’s last term in office, former Cabinet minister Glenys Hanna Martin criticised the Minnis administration yesterday saying the country cannot sustain the high rate of murders and violence.

Following an eight-year-old boy’s death in hospital after being struck by a stray bullet while in his home, the shadow national security minister criticised the government insisting the Official Opposition would not accept this disturbing trend of children losing their lives to gun violence.

While there have been 105 murders so far this year, 53 of these have occurred during the four months of the Minnis administration. Of this number, two children – including an infant - and at least four teenage boys have been murdered.

However, youngsters were the victims of homicides under the Christie administration as well, many of them killed this year before the general election. In March, two teen boys – one 13 the other 15 – were found shot dead on a dirt road in the Yellow Elder Gardens area.

In early February, a 15-year-old boy was shot dead while walking in the Peardale area.

In response to the child’s murder on Monday, the Englerston MP said: “This is now the fourth child or youth in the last several days to be killed by gunfire.

“On September 5, the Official Opposition requested the Minister of National Security (Marvin Dames) to bring together all of the relevant stakeholders in our country including the opposition to initiate dialogue in search of solutions to this deadly scourge in our country.

“The minister has yet to respond. This lack of response is beyond disappointing. We are facing a very serious problem and it is impacting all of us. We must find a resolution.

“Our country cannot sustain this high rate of homicide and violence. We will not accept this disturbing trend of children, in this instance a primary school student, losing life through gun violence.

“The social fabric of our country is being damaged and our economic health undermined. We are losing our young men,” her statement yesterday continued.

“Again, we call on the minister of national security to move with great urgency to mobilise national stakeholders, including the opposition, to bring about a collective end to this terrible violence.”

Last week in the House of Assembly, Mr Dames outlined the chronic challenges the country faces in its fight against crime, while noting murders were up 41 per cent compared to this time last year, but overall crime was down by 19 per cent.

At the time, he said the crime problems are worsened by an ineffective electronic monitoring system where 13 people with ankle bracelets have been murdered and another wearing a device was recently charged with a killing.

The minister said latest crime figures show 268 offenders are being monitored. This includes 70 for murder, 18 for attempted murder, 102 for armed robberies and 59 for firearm offences.

Also contributing to challenges with serious crimes is the failing CCTV Monitoring Centre, the minister said.

In 2012, the Christie administration spent $4.6m to establish a state of the art centre and installed 243 CCTV cameras mainly to the downtown Nassau areas and other crime hotspots throughout the island.

However, Mr Dames said the system, one of the most vital in the fight against crime, was not being properly maintained and could not be expanded due to insufficient bandwidth, which is essential for producing quality images. This impacted nearly half or 119 of the 243 cameras. In addition, hard drives and servers were not upgraded and staffing issues at the CCTV centre were far from adequate, he said.

The ineffectiveness of both crime-fighting tools has contributed to the nation’s overall crime picture, Mr Dames suggested.

Mr Dames said the government is now in the initial phases of its crime fighting strategy.

These include conducting a manpower audit of the Royal Bahamas Police Force, a zero-tolerance approach to crime, increased police visibility, targeting of hotspots and a focus on prolific offenders.

Other strategies include strengthening of police and community partnerships, and the establishment of a guns and gangs unit, which was formed last week Tuesday.