The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

AMID a spate of armed robberies in the capital, National Security Minister Wayne Munroe gave an asssurance that police officers are actively working to fight crime.

“The police are out there in numbers,” Mr Munroe told reporters yesterday.

“The vehicles are being made available to them. You would’ve seen that we got a gift of six new vehicles from the US Embassy and so the police are there and if you continue it, they will get you and you will be held to account.”

Mr Munroe spoke after police reported six armed robberies in New Providence over the weekend. Two more armed robberies were reported on Monday.

According to police reports, a few people were robbed of their personal belongings that included their cell phones and other items, while several business establishments were robbed of an undisclosed amount of cash.

Another armed robbery reportedly occurred at a popular liquor store.

Photos and videos of the incident made its rounds on social media on Monday.

Mr Munroe said he was told that two men connected to the crime are now in police custody.

He also condemned the recent increase in armed robberies, saying the number of people involved in criminal activity were a minority.

“We are always concerned about all levels of crime,” Mr Munroe said. “I am made to understand that two of those three men may be in custody at this very moment. The message to the criminal element is - yes, you may be able to do something, but the police will find you and you will be called to account.

“The message to the general public is this – we have too many people giving, for want of a better word, poor people a bad name. ‘Oh, their economic circumstances drive me to rob.’ That’s nonsense.

“You rob because you’re a criminal. You have a bunch of people who are struggling who don’t rob people so you need to stop it. You need to stop tolerating this minority of people who give the majority a bad name.”

He said the same message applies across the board, especially when it comes to violence among our youth.

Mr Munroe continued: “Students need to stop tolerating the five or ten percent of students who cause people to talk about, oh well, this is a generation loss. When we see 50 or 75 students carrying on badly and you add up the school population and the population is 1,500, you have 50 to 75 out of 1500 students causing people to have this name.

“So, firstly, we must recognise that it’s only a minority of people who are doing this and if we don’t weed them out, if we don’t identify them to authorities, they will continue to make the majority of us look bad.”