By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

DESPITE a recent spate of murders over the holiday weekend, National Security Minister Marvin Dames said Bahamians have no reason to feel unsafe, insisting police have the crime situation under control.

Mr Dames spoke after five men were killed in separate incidents between Thursday and Monday, sparking renewed public concerns about violent crime.

Police suspect some of the crimes are linked and are the result of retaliation between “rival” groups.

Yesterday, Mr Dames said while overall crime continues to trend downward, the most recent incidents prove there is still work to be done.

He said many of the country’s crime problems stem from decades of neglect by Bahamian parents and adults.

“What we’re seeing again is a manifestation of decades of neglect,” said Mr Dames. 

“You look at the age of the persons who are carrying out these heinous crimes. It speaks to our failures as parents and adults and we cannot expect that it would be the police’s job to kind of manage these young men, so it speaks to this continued concern that it is all of our responsibilities to address these problems.

“We’re seeking to do our role, certainly as a government. We’ve been looking at introducing a multi-agency, a multi-faceted approach at addressing these problems, looking at the work that we’re doing in the community (and) the work that we’re doing with all of our agencies to deal with conflict resolution, to find meaningful ways to keep our young men and women engaged.”

He said Bahamians have no need to harbour fears about gang wars happening in the country, insisting police have the situation in control.

“I don’t think that there should be public concern about a gang war happening as you could see, the police are very much on top of that but these things are going to happen and it just speaks to how important it is for all of us to be playing our respective roles,” Mr Dames said.

“We cannot sit back and rely entirely on police to resolve these issues. Usually when it ends up in the police hands it’s often too late, we all have a responsibility here and this is a constant reminder of that fact and until we come to realise that we have a role to play, this is something that we will continue to face.

“I mean if you look around the world, gun violence is the topic of discussion. If you look throughout the United States, it’s a concern throughout the US and other parts of the world. What is fuelling this? I’ll leave that for the researchers to tell us, but we’re going through a very difficult period here not only in The Bahamas, but globally.

“But after having said that, I’m confident that the path that we’re on is the right one as we continue to form up a lot of the policy initiatives and strategies that we promised.”

He said people should not be afraid to go out in public spaces. This comes after a man was killed after 10pm on Sunday at Arawak Cay, a popular hang out and dining spot.

Speaking specifically on the incident, Mr Dames continued “. . .You have violence in communities and so the thing is, I say that I have every confidence in our law enforcement officers and they are in fact in control... I’m not saying that incidents won’t happen, but we have issues within our households so should people be afraid to sleep in their own homes...

“The reality is in that (Arawak Cay) incident, the young man was taken into custody and a weapon was seized. Unfortunately, someone lost their life prior to it but it also speaks to the work that our law enforcement officers are doing and we just have to keep on pressing forward.”

On Monday night, Assistant Superintendent of Police Audley Peters acknowledged the recent rash in homicides was concerning.

“We are concerned about all of these incidents that are occurring,” he said “However, we are also encouraged by the information we’re receiving from the members of the public, and we are making good headway with respect to the previous incidents that occurred, and we look forward to giving some information to the media in due course.”

Asked if CCTV will be helpful in assisting police with the recent homicide investigations, he said police will look into this avenue, but added that some of the cameras are not in operation.

“It’s common knowledge that some of them are not operable due to whatever incidents with outage and so forth that maybe power may go down and so if they’re operable, we can look forward to getting information from them,” he told reporters.

Anyone with information on these incidents or any other crime is asked to call the Criminal Investigations Department at 502-9991/2, Crime Stoppers at 328-TIPS (8477) or the nearest police station.