Wednesday, November 16, 2022
By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
NATIONAL Security Minister Wayne Munroe said his ministry plans to launch a series of crime prevention programmes in the coming days geared towards youth to help deter them from turning to a life of crime.
His comments to the press came as the country continues to record a rash of homicides, with the murder count for this year now at 118, according to this newspaper’s records.
This is just one murder shy of last year’s tally of 119.
“The only way that we’re going to stop murderers is if we stopped producing murderers and that is our challenge,” Mr Munroe said of the rising murder toll before going to a Cabinet meeting yesterday.
“There are going to be some programmes that have been launched that you’ll be made aware of and the object of those is to deter youth at risk from that type of behaviour.
“The programmes were ratcheted down over the last four years and we’re now ratcheting them back up.”
He said the intervention programmes set to be launched will be youth centred as many of the people being charged in the courts for murder offences are young people.
“The interventions used to be targeted at the high schools and we now have to target them at the primary schools because we’ve had a 15-year-old charged with murder and so the interventions have to happen earlier because these are our children. I keep repeating that,” Mr Munroe added.
“These are our children. We have socialised them to be murderers. We have socialised them to have no regard for life. We have to arrest that development.”
Following Mr Munroe’s interview yesterday, The Tribune contacted Pastor Carlos Reid, a consultant to the Ministry of National Security, to get more information on the ministry’s new crime intervention initiatives.
He said the ministry has a “comprehensive” plan that will target at-risk youth and is also moving forward with its Shock Treatment programme that was created for students with disciplinary problems.
Pastor Reid said while focusing on crime prevention and intervention is important, the country also needs to find ways to solve murder cases faster.
This, he added, will help prevent people from taking justice in their own hands which has fostered a revenge culture here in The Bahamas.
“There are presently 300 persons that are out on bail right now because of murder because we have a huge backlog. What the attorney general is looking at is how do we get rid of that backlog so people can go to court in a reasonable time,” he said.
“Because we have a constitution that the courts are responsible to protect, it states that unless we can bring people to court in a reasonable amount of time then they are entitled to bail because a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty so we need to get rid of that.
“If you check the statistics, the statistics shows a lot of the murders that were carried out were retaliation killings so to speak - persons that were out on bail that was shot down but as we work towards swifter justice, if we can get people to court in a reasonable length of time then there would be no need for bail so then persons would not feel that they have to take justice into their own hands.”
Comments
Sickened says...
Sounds like we're going to finally do some research to find out who are most likely to breed murderers and then stop them from reproducing.
But seriously... statistics are important with issues like this and we need to find out more about when and how these people became violent criminals. Only then can we begin to understand what we need to do to lessen the chance that they hurt others.
Posted 16 November 2022, 8:58 a.m. Suggest removal
bahamianson says...
Plans to deter youth from crime.....wait, what?
Posted 16 November 2022, 10:40 a.m. Suggest removal
SP says...
Is another Rodney Moncur-type plan on the way? All they do is stand around talking the same horse-shyt year in and year out.
Posted 17 November 2022, 7:06 a.m. Suggest removal
carltonr61 says...
Using the same people for the past umpteen years will surely bring about different results and the changes we want. At least they are 100% on the correct tract but the devilish details they refuse help with. And so, they will be preaching the same thing years from now without our willing skillset input.
Posted 16 November 2022, 1:15 p.m. Suggest removal
SP says...
Politicians are so accustomed to getting away with bullshyting us that they feel it is impossible to insult our intelligence!
Posted 17 November 2022, 7:09 a.m. Suggest removal
M0J0 says...
only way to deter crime is ensure that there are enough jobs for Bahamians. When the money was being spread around equally in the old days, people was too busy spending money to have time for petty crimes.
Posted 16 November 2022, 3:50 p.m. Suggest removal
SP says...
Totally right! Before the PLP came to power the British kept strict tabs on ex-pat blue-collar workers and illegal migrants, there was an over-employment, Bahamians could have two jobs if desired, and minimal crime to the point of even one murder a year sent shockwaves throughout the entire country!
The PLP changed all of that because too many of them are of Haitian descent and they padded their pockets by trafficking their people from Haiti for jobs in the Bahamas.
It was all downhill from there to the point we now find ourselves.
Posted 17 November 2022, 7:03 a.m. Suggest removal
SP says...
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all steaming horse manure!
**YOU, the government,** have socialized them to accept there are NO JOBS or other OPPORTUNITIES besides taking up a gun and turning to crime for survival!
**YOU, the government,** despite innumerable case studies online for all to see proving that unemployment fuels crime, but stupidly fail to acknowledge this blatantly obvious truth.
**YOU, the government,** failed to educate our people, then allowed blue-collar ex-pats to come in and take literally 10's of 1000,s of low-skilled jobs from our people!
**YOU, the government,** are the cause of unemployment, and the resultant crime wave now rocking our country!
**YOU, the government,** need to pull your heads out of your backsides and REVERSE the FAILED immigration policies which are destroying our people and country!
**YOU, the government,** is unquestionably our real problem!
Posted 16 November 2022, 5:26 p.m. Suggest removal
tribanon says...
Davis no doubt breathed a sigh of relief given his advanced age. LOL
Posted 16 November 2022, 6:59 p.m. Suggest removal
TalRussell says...
Has the crown, demoted Minister Wayne Munroe, taken away his substantive responsibility evicting the thousands of those taken up 'permanent' residency **'illegal land occupations'** ---- Yes?
Posted 16 November 2022, 8:34 p.m. Suggest removal
sheeprunner12 says...
What if SLOP had set up his youth training program?
A permissive society is now reaping the bitter fruit of the nineteen eighties.
Posted 16 November 2022, 8:58 p.m. Suggest removal
carltonr61 says...
Minister Monroe is working with what the political filters feed him, the politics of crime. We could bring in foreign experts, but a unique culture as ours has its own fault lines that you gat to be born there to know. But it is important to know the correct points of intervention and messages for it to work. Knowledge, environmental factors, hope and faith must all work together. Pastoral miracle alone has not arisen yet. They need help with that messaging and the lens needs to broaden out to those who have an understanding of our multifaceted calamity. When Civil Society does the research, present to government then we see plans in play like hot potatoes as they cannot handle its depth and bring results. Mr Monroe is correct with national intervention but the data sets of vulnerabilities are wide spread or longitudinal not lateral as in only poor communities produce criminals. There are peculiar things or data sets that Bahamian people repeat as a culture going in circles and The Minister demands intervention within these spirals that determine our way of life. Just that they keep an indifference to all on board.
Posted 17 November 2022, 8:23 a.m. Suggest removal
carltonr61 says...
The entrenched political lens is a hindrance to National development and has held back even the professional potential of UB initiated programs. Pontificating works with some things but others could help.
Posted 17 November 2022, 12:43 p.m. Suggest removal
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