BY DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

Grand Bahama youth leaders are seeking to unite to stop the "senseless" killings in Grand Bahama, where they say young men are being gunned down in the streets as a result of gang violence.

Local community youth leaders Dudley Seide, Lindy Russell, and Cecil Thompson expressed concerns over the murders and shooting incidents occurring throughout the island, including the recent shooting death of a man this week in Freeport.

Mr Seide, founder of Reach Out Youth Organization, believes that while there are many youth organizations on the islands doing their own thing, many young men are still not being reached in the streets.

"We want to get all youth leaders together, along with the Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Culture to have a Youth Crime Forum and to put a Committee together to try tackle the crime problem here," he said.

There has been a string of shootings on Grand Bahama that has resulted in the deaths of several men, some including businessmen - Anthawan Simms, Lester Adderley Sr, Lester Adderley Jr, and Henry Johnson.

Mr Seide mentioned the recent murder of a man at Hearn Lane early this week, and the two murders that occurred in Bimini in less than a month.

"Everyone is just sitting on the sidelines. We want to put a team of youth leaders together and once a committee is formed, we will meet with the Ministry of National Security to get a national programme going to put a dent in the crime problem facing The Bahamas," he said.

Mr Seide said that they want to go into High Rock, West End, and hitting different areas to sit down and talk with known gang members to stop the violence.

"There are known gangs in the schools and around the community, we want to sit with them and find out the issues, and show them that there is better way," he said.

"A lot of young men are dying senselessly, and all we saying is another one gone. All the youth organizations are doing their own thing, but we have to join forces if we want to tackle this problem."

Mr Seide said that the key to solving this crime problem is to collectively deal with it together, not separately.

He noted that young people lack conflict resolution skills. He said many of the murders are revenge killings.

"Too many young boys have the mindset that they are not going to live long, and there is no fear to die or take a life," Seide said.

"I think we have to bring back capital punishment. We in The Bahamas still do not understand the severity of the crime problem."

Mr Seide said the teens are killings each other. "It is not normal for a 19 years to take another the life of another 19 year-old - it is unacceptable and we cannot sit back and watch this happen day in and day out, and do nothing."

"It is important that we put this committee together to try and make a difference; if we fail, we fail trying. But doing nothing is not an option anymore; we cannot continue to sit back and watching these young men die on our streets every day - everyone knows it is a gang issue," he said.

Mr Seide said that they will hold another meeting with youth leaders on Monday who are interested in being a part of the committee.