The Tribune

“Yes, mommy, I love you too.”

If these simple words from the lips of a handsome little eight-year-old boy as he lay dying in his pregnant mother’s arms did not bring tears to every eye that read The Tribune’s front pages on May 26 and 27, then The Bahamas indeed has a major crime problem.

While politicians were busy criticising each other for not being able to solve this country’s escalating crime, little Eugene Woodside, a student at Albury Sayles Primary School, became an innocent victim in the crossfire. Eugene left school on Monday with a friend and an ice cream cone in his hand. He was on his way to meet his grandmother at a nearby takeaway. The next we hear of Eugene he is at his home on Rose Bud Street in Chippingham being assisted by an older sister with his spelling homework. Suddenly, shots were fired into the home, little Eugene crumbled forward as his shocked mother rushed to protect him with her body. A quiet family scene inside the little house with a little boy — not hanging out on the blocks, but quietly inside his home concentrating on his schoolwork. Suddenly, an unintended bullet fired by a gun-toting criminal outside hit the family home and penetrated the wooden walls. A precious little boy, inside the safety of his home, killed by a stray bullet from outside. The criminal running wildly in the crowded street, chasing a young man, who was eventually killed by one of the many bullets. The search is now on for the criminal, a desperate man who probably has a troubled background, but, unlike Eugene, had no home to go to as a child and learned his trade by hanging out on the blocks.

About a week earlier, former PLP Cabinet Minister Glenys Hanna Martin was criticising the Minnis government – only six months in office – for not having reduced crime. She should have been ashamed to have even brought up the subject when her party had won the 2012 election by promising a country, tired of crime, that if elected her party had the solution to eliminate it. The PLP were elected, instead of solving anything, crime grew and spread like a forest fire. Urban Renewal was meant to have been the cure. It was tried. It failed. It was a good idea, but the crime problem, being an even more complex issue, needed more than Urban Renewal as the cure.

Last week, the Catholic Church’s Men’s Association came forward with another brilliant idea — an idea that will go a long way in helping to rehabilitate the criminal, but without other assistance, it will not be the complete cure to reduce crime. The Association launched its “Hope” campaign aimed at rehabilitating prison inmates by providing them with mentorship, legal aid and jobs during and after their release from prison.

All of these programmes are needed, but crime will not be beaten until society — all of society realises that it is their problem, and only when every member of society joins the battle will crime be controlled. Firstly, Bahamians can start with assisting the police with information so that they can get to these troubled persons before they commit the crime. Many Bahamians live with some of these troubled souls, hear their talk, know what they are thinking and planning. These are the members of society, who should quietly tip the police off so that the criminal’s plans can be crushed before they can be implemented.

Society’s problems started in the drug years, when the youth of that era were corrupted by the popular idea that success meant money — money no matter how earned. All the old Christian principles that made a person have second thoughts when tempted to do wrong were abandoned. Each generation, with examples from some of their elders were being corrupted - and made to believe that ill-gotten wealth was smart. Drug peddling destroyed our society, and knocked our “old fashioned” Christian principles off their pedestal.

However, our problems begin in the home. Children coming home after school with no parent at home — and one knows the consequences of “idle hands”. We shall never forget the comment several years ago by a very troubled young gynaecologist. “You know,” he said, “I am daily working in a factory that is producing the future problems that are going to destroy this country.”

He was, of course, referring to children giving birth to illegitimate children — none of the mothers old enough to take care of themselves, let alone their precious offspring. Many of these child mothers were regular visitors to the delivery room, all pregnant for different men, few of whom they would identify. The horror of it was that this was the time that AIDS was the dread disease. It was claimed at the time that young girls were being taken advantage of because it was believed that they were still too young to have contracted HIV to pass it on. The tragedy was that they were the prey of older men. It was a horrifying scandal being hidden behind sealed doors.

As some of these children grew, they joined gangs because without a caring home, they needed friends, they needed to be wanted and needed. The gang became their home - for many of them their prison.

We vividly recall one day, looking up from our desk at The Tribune and seeing a frightened young man looking down at us. He said he had come to surrender himself to us. The police were looking for him. He would only feel secure if we would take him to the station and turn him in. We telephoned the Commissioner of Police, told him the situation. He said we should wait and he would send an officer to us immediately. That was our first meeting with now Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade.

The three of us went to a small conference room, closed the door and sat down. The frightened youngster poured out his heart. All he saw in his waking hours was being stalked by a gun. He desperately wanted to get out of the gang, start his life over, but his gang members were stalking him. He couldn’t leave because they would kill him. On the other side, he was wanted by the police. He was in hiding, not knowing which gun would take his life — the police or his gang. That was the day that he looked up at The Tribune and decided to put his life in our hands. He was indeed a tragic figure, and Mr Greenslade rose magnificently to the occasion. He talked to the young man like a father, and with his arm around his shoulders escorted him from our offices.

In our opinion, the police will have to concentrate on breaking up the gangs, and get the peddling of drugs and guns under control. We can all play our part by helping in various areas. However, crime will never be brought under control unless the whole society gets involved and quietly assists the police with information.

Those who have information can start today by delivering up the killer of dear, innocent little Eugene, whose last words were his love for his mother.