By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party Chairman Bradley Roberts said the scourge of crime must not weaken the government as he urged officials to implement all of the plans contained in the Urban Renewal 2.0 programme.

He further called on the Christie administration yesterday to implement, without delay, the National Youth Restorative Programme for at-risk youth in collaboration with YEAST and the Catholic Diocese.

“It costs significantly less,” Mr Roberts said during a PLP prayer breakfast, “to reform an at-risk youth than to incarcerate a convicted felon, not to mention the toll criminality takes on families, our communities and our economy.

“We cannot put a cost on rescuing our wayward youth and protecting the innocent among us. We owe it to the current and future generations of this country to stop at nothing and leave no stone unturned in our quest to rid this country of this menace.

“Danger, my brothers and sisters, is very real, but fear is a choice that exists in our minds and in our hearts. We cannot concede to fear and hysteria and must reject those who seek to spread this poison. We must cooperate and work with the police in exposing the elements of social rot and criminality that lurk among us.”

Mr Roberts said the “bad apples” who are smuggling the drugs, guns and human cargo into the country are not strangers, but they are family members, friends, acquaintances and neighbours.

“My advice to Bahamians is to reject the spirit and culture of fear, and become empowered by cultivating and inculcating a spirit and culture of tough love through intolerance to criminality.

“There is power in numbers and the sheer collective will and force of a people united around a singular cause cannot be denied or turned back.”