By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

FOX Hill MP Shonel Ferguson yesterday expressed concern about the recent wave of gun-related violence in her constituency, as she pledged to "eradicate" the "stigma" of Fox Hill being labelled a crime hotbed by Bahamian society.

Ms Ferguson, in an interview with The Tribune, said her constituents are "enraged" over the stigma of violence attached to the area, saying much of what has happened in Fox Hill has also occurred in other areas in New Providence.

She pledged to eliminate the negative connotations associated with the community by "pushing the positive things" about the area.

Ms Ferguson's comments come after weeks of police reported gun violence in the eastern New Providence community.

Just on Tuesday, a man was shot and killed following an argument between a group of men in the area. The deceased, who The Tribune was told is Rahajgio Wright, was shot several times and died on the scene. That murder was the ninth to occur in the country in two weeks.

Two weeks earlier, a 32-year-old man was shot multiple times and killed during a drive by shooting in front of his home on Johnson Terrace in Fox Hill. Police said the victim was getting out of his car shortly after arriving home when persons in a vehicle opened fire on him before speeding off in an unknown direction.

A week before that officers conducted a walk-about in the community, gathering information and giving residents safety tips.

At the time, Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Stephen Dean said the walk-about was "the first of many" officers plan to conduct in the area, known to police as a crime hotspot.

Additionally, Chief Superintendent of Police Maxine Rolle, officer-in-charge of the Eastern Division, said she plans to canvass the area "at least twice a month".

When questioned on the state of affairs in her constituency, Ms Ferguson said while there are "so many wonderful things that are happening in Fox Hill," the recent wave of police reported violence in the community is "something that we are paying attention to".

The Fox Hill MP said she and the Minnis administration are currently looking at ways to implement various youth programmes and enforcing positive initiatives "that will keep children on a path that takes them to a fulfilling life rather than to a life of crime."

"…If you look at the little children, if I go to Sandilands School, if I walk through the village I'm surrounded by children, they grab me, they hug me," she said. "And then something changes after junior school for some of them, and those are the ones we are very concerned about, and we will have programmes to pull them in to show them that life can be different."

She added: "When you think about what's come out of Fox Hill, you look at people like Antonius Roberts, (former) Central Bank Governor Julian Francis out of Fox Hill, Daniel Ferguson (Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants) out of Fox Hill, the national pledge that children recite every day at school, (came from) Philip Rahming out of Fox Hill.

"And there's so many good things out of Fox Hill, and this is what we will push, this is what I will push over these five years and beyond, that Fox Hill is the cradle of so much that's good in this Bahamas, and we refuse to be defined by forces outside of Fox Hill. We will write our story, and that story will be a good story."

Still, Ms Ferguson suggested that her constituency has unfairly received a bad reputation for its crime issues over the years, arguing that "the same thing could happen in Pinewood, Kemp Road, Nassau Village, and it doesn't seem to garner the same national attention that happens in Fox Hill."

"I don't see Fox Hill as being any different from some of the areas that I mentioned before, but there's something about the mystique that causes Fox Hill to stand out, whether it's for good or for bad," she said. "I remember as a child many years ago they used to call us 'crazy Fox Hill people,' and I don't know if it emanates from way back then, but we have to have a programme that is intentional to work on fixing that, and we will fix it.

"We'll fix it in the national consciousness, because it's there, and just like The Bahamas, you see some people who have thrown out some negative stuff about The Bahamas and our tourist product. And we are all enraged as Bahamians when it happens.

"In Fox Hill, we are enraged when it happens, because The Bahamas as a tourist destination is not very different from many other tourist destinations. But usually when they throw something at The Bahamas it seems like it's the end of the world, or when something happens in Fox Hill it's the end of the world.

"All these things are fixable. We will do as much as we can to change that perception."