The Tribune

By MALCOLM STRACHAN

THE highest murder count The Bahamas has ever recorded was 146 in 2015 – as of Friday, with the first six months of the year having passed, the total stood at 74. If we keep on that rate, the country will be setting an unwanted new record.

Last month, National Security Minister Wayne Munroe acknowledged the high levels of crime, saying there had been an 18 percent overall rise in crime in the country.

Much of the focus of discussion has been on two areas – talk of an ongoing turf war between gangs, and the number of alleged offenders who have been murdered while free on bail.

The increase has been building – last year by the end of June there were 60 murders, a 62 percent increase on the year before, although the effects of the COVID lockdown should be noted in that context for the previous year. And now we have seen another rise.

The murder count has long been a part of Bahamian politics. In 2012, the PLP infamously posted billboards around New Providence saying “Under the FNM government 490 plus murders”.

A staunch defender of those billboards was the current Prime Minister, Philip “Brave” Davis, who said in opposition at the time: “We cannot hide the truth. Are we about hiding the truth? Are we going to be concerned about the impression that the truth gives? The only way we can get rid of these things is to address the issue.

“The fact is that there were more than 490 murders in this country (since 2007 until 2012). We cannot run away from that.”

Once the PLP arrived in office, however, Mr Davis, then the Deputy Prime Minister, complained that crime had the country “under siege” and criticised the media for “flaming this fire of discontent”.

He said in 2014: “We are an angry society. We need to calm our most vicious tendencies to lash out at everything and everyone. This type of behaviour has not been made easier by the fact that we have a media and other forms of social communications which seem to take delight in flaming this fire of discontent.”

He didn’t specify how the media was doing this – but this was even before the record year in 2015 of 146 murders.

Despite that, in 2017, the then National Security Minister, Dr Bernard Nottage, somehow claimed the country was made safer for Bahamians, despite a murder count that surpassed the previous Ingraham administration.

Taking a look at the raw statistics, the number of murders has been on a general upward trajectory since 2005. That year saw 13.8 murders per 100,000 people, but from there the curve has gone up and up.

The COVID lockdown saw the biggest drop – with murders at their lowest point in 15 years during the lockdown. Both the outgoing Police Commissioner, Paul Rolle, and the then-Minister of National Security, Marvin Dames, suggested that was thanks to the hard work of officers rather than anything else. Mr Dames said: “There is no empirical study to suggest how much curfews or lockdowns would have impacted our (crime) numbers.”

Meanwhie, Commissioner Rolle said in January 2021 of the suggestion that COVID restrictions played a part: “I could answer that with one word… nonsense.”

He added: “That has nothing to do with COVID. I never saw COVID gone out and lock nobody up and I ain’t see COVID on patrol. We were out there.”

And yet, once the lockdown lifted, here we are on pace towards a record year of deaths.

No one wants that. No one wants to open the newspaper and read again of murder after murder. No one wants to see the effect these deaths have on families, on communities.

The question is, what do we do about it? The Commissioner may be on his way out, but he would presumably say that it’s the same officers working hard now as it was in 2020.

Indeed, just last week, he was talking up the high-ranking police officers he had return to the force after being sent on leave during the Minnis administration. Presumably their return strengthens the force, which is why he resisted their being put on leave in the first place. One of those, Clayton Fernander, will become the new Commissioner tomorrow.

The PLP’s Blueprint for Change ahead of its election to office was notably light on detail when it came to fighting crime. It mentioned crime just three times – saying it would “commit to enhancing crime fighting methodologies in our aggressive war against crime”, and that it would “ensure the necessary reforms are executed for a safe Bahamas” as well as strengthening border protection, increasing investment in community policing, introducing “research-based analysis and policies on countering anti-social behaviour, violence and crime”, and establishing partnerships between various bodies, including education establishments. Specific measures to tackle increased crime in Abaco were also promised.

Last month, Minister of National Security Wayne Munroe reported crime this year was up by 18 percent, and murders by 26 percent, but painted it as comparable with crime rates in the region, saying: “Like our regional counterparts, there has been a high rate of violence, particularly homicides committed with firearms.”

He talked of “narrowing economic and educational opportunities” being to blame, and an “ongoing turf war”.

In terms of solutions, however, he offered few – and the most significant effort so far has been talk of pressuring the US to stop the flow of guns to The Bahamas. Again, looking to elsewhere in the region to stop our problem. Aside from that, what are we doing – apart from hiring Rodney Moncur to go knock on doors and ask people not to kill each other?

The evidence is thin on the ground of a major effort.

So as the new Commissioner takes post this week, he will do so in the middle of a surge in murders the likes of which have not been seen in a number of years.

He will also do so with an administration that has not been forthcoming with solutions to the current spike in killings.

Good luck, Commissioner Fernander – you will have your work cut out for you, but for all our sakes, it is vital you succeed.