By CELESTE NIXON

Tribune Staff Reporter

cnixon@tribunemedia.net

THE FNM are not serious about crime, DNA leader Branville McCartney charged during a radio interview yesterday.

Claiming the crime bills put forward by the government just prior to the election amounted to a "political stunt", Mr McCartney said crime has been at an all-time high for a very long time but the FNM has failed to act.

He said: "Look at all these crime bills that were introduced to Parliament six months before the election, have you seen any of them come into fruition? They aren't serious, they can't be serious."

He used the example of the Volunteer Bahamas Programme, which Mr McCartney said he and 500 others signed up for. Despite all the fanfare, the party leader claimed no one was ever contacted about launching any charity initiatives.

According to Mr McCartney, until recently, Minister of National Security Tommy Turnquest did not publicly recognise that the Bahamas has a crime problem.

He said: "Crime is the number one issue we have today, now that is something that needs to be taken care of, ASAP.

"Even when I was a minister in the government and my colleague minister said crime is not a problem, I had a problem with that - if I was the Minister of National Security, the criminals of this country would know that there are consequences for their actions."

Mr McCartney said the government has a responsibility to protect all citizens, and that a great deal could have been done to prevent the rise in criminal activity.

"We are an undisciplined society - the government has some responsibility to ensure that their citizens are safe by putting certain mechanisms in place and allowing the police to do their job," he said.