Monday, February 5, 2024
By JADE RUSSELL
Tribune Staff Reporter
jrussell@tribunemedia.net
NATIONAL Security Minister Wayne Munroe said Rodney Moncur and Carols Reid were never contracted to be violence interrupters, apparently contradicting comments Office of the Prime Minister communications director Latrae Rahming made in 2022.
He said Mr Moncur was contracted as an independent contractor for inner city communities, saying the talk show host has created an entrepreneurship programme. He added that Mr Reid was hired as a consultant for community outreach to produce initiatives such as Shock Treatment and Peace on the Street.
According to the National Gang Centre, violence interrupters are defined as individuals who, because of their past positions in the community or, in some cases, their prior history with a gang, retain the ability to reach and talk to key active gang members.
Mr Munroe said the government wouldn’t hire someone as a violence interrupter because that would identify the person and make them a target. He further explained that Mr Moncur and Mr Reid don’t fit the classic description of a violence interrupter.
In April 2022, Officer of the Prime Minister Communications Director Latrae Rahming said Mr Moncur was appointed as a violence interrupter because he understands the dynamics of communities and was trusted by people in the inner city.
Asked about this, Mr Munroe said: “Violence interrupter is somebody who tries to make peace everyone should be a violence interrupter. A violence interrupter in the form of the proper phase thing is actually a criminal. And I don’t think Mr Moncur or Mr Reid would say they would identify themselves as being anything other than in the up-and-up world. People use phrases other than what we call a term of art.”
“I’ve heard Mr Moncur say many number of things. His contract has him as an independent contractor for community outreach. Mr Reid’s contract has him as a consultant of community outreach.”
Mr Munroe said that Mr Moncur has started an entrepreneurship programme that has helped people create business plans and start their own businesses.
Last week, Mr Reid told this newspaper the violence interrupter scheme had not fully started despite him submitting a proposal to the government.
Mr Munroe said Mr Reid’s proposal is currently being considered along with other proposals that were submitted.
Asked when the public would know if Mr Reid’s violence interrupter proposal is approved, Mr Munroe responded: “There’s some things that we do in the fight against crime that we can’t tell the public for reasons you’ll be telling the criminals as well.”
Comments
bahamianson says...
Wasn't both plus the commissioner of police hired because of their experience? The call was that they could do something about the killibgs and the gang violence. Well, the three need to go. Hire someone else with gang experience. Their experience isn't working.
Posted 5 February 2024, 9:23 a.m. Suggest removal
sheeprunner12 says...
Resign with dignity ............. The four persons named are failing the citizens.
The MONS, the COP & the 2 "consultants"
Posted 5 February 2024, 1:44 p.m. Suggest removal
sheeprunner12 says...
These PLP Ministers are just a lying bunch of kuk sorkers
Posted 5 February 2024, 12:11 p.m. Suggest removal
themessenger says...
Wayne Munroe doing the old open his mouth to change feet routine Lol.
Posted 5 February 2024, 12:14 p.m. Suggest removal
John says...
Is this PLP government on the same page about anything? They appear to be so disjointed! Maybe they need to call a timeout and regroup.
Posted 5 February 2024, 2:31 p.m. Suggest removal
TalRussell says...
**What say,** Security Minister Munroe negotiates for a significant reduction in retaliatory homicides and shootings --- **CeaseFire?** --- And offer [A Large Lump Sum Cash 4 Surrendering Guns and Bullets?] --- Despite The Colony's [worst 36 days] ever on record. ... We've still to see a significant --- [Murders' and Shooters' interrupters] plan in place which, --- 'Can begin a cure to [avoidable' deaths']. --- Respectfully, the minister's [former profession] was skillful in the art of dealing with [the broken]. --- However, constitutionally restrained from cutting through the confusing statements --- Springs forth from the communications mouths of those stationed up in the Officer of the Premiership [(OOP)]. --- [Surrendering the more powerful guns and bulles -- stands to recieve a cash payment in the thousands of dollars]. --- Yes?
Posted 5 February 2024, 3:22 p.m. Suggest removal
themessenger says...
Sounds like a great idea Tal, If I was one of dem Funky Nassau gunslingers wid large bounty on my head, I's ga do what all honest criminals dem is do. Take da money an run and buy another gun.
Posted 5 February 2024, 4:19 p.m. Suggest removal
TalRussell says...
@ComradeTheMess, thought you'd be overly disappointed at the US Embassy [out Nassau] --- Inclusion of Grand Bahama [GB] to its [Level 2] Travel Advisory. --- Could've been the real reason for US Embassy officials visit to [GB in December 2024]. --- Yes?
Posted 5 February 2024, 5:01 p.m. Suggest removal
TalRussell says...
Correction: Could've been the real reason behind US Embassy [officials' visiting GB in December 2023]. --- Yes?
Posted 5 February 2024, 5:17 p.m. Suggest removal
John says...
TAL Russell: your post has to be the stoopidest post for the year!!! Hands down! Too bad it couldn’t be ‘guns Dow n’. It has been proven over and again that cash for guns DO NOT WORK, periodd! In fact it is well documented that offering cash for guns actually increases the proliferation of weapons. The guys will turn guns they are not using and collect the cash and probably use the cash to buy better weapons. REMEMBER criminals carry guns not only as an assault weapon but also as a means of protection. Next there will not be any cease fire among gangs. Remember the intention of gangs is to create havoc in a society, promote crime and antisocial behavior and kill and destroy. So to tell a gang not to do any of these things is like telling them to change not only their lifestyle but their nature. And facts will bear it out that most of the young men being gunned down are NOT involved in criminal activity. They are hardly ever found to be carrying a weapon when they are gunned down, so most likely they don’t even realize a hit is out on them. They are doing normal activities like going to or from work or home or just chilling when they get gunned down. So your post needs rethinking and a definite rewrite!
Posted 5 February 2024, 5:45 p.m. Suggest removal
John says...
When they were running drugs through the BaHAMAS in the 1980’s and 1990’s under the name of the ‘war on drugs, one tactic tge DEA used to create violence and disharmony in this colony was they would ‘go undercover’ and befriend a ‘drug dealer’ to buy a stash of cocaine ( they wasn’t really that interested in marijuana. Then they would pay the drug dealer in counterfeit money and he, in turn would pay his suppliers. Then the supplier would find that the money was counterfeit so he would start a beef with the drug dealer, demanding payment. The drug dealer in turn cannot pay the supplier because the cut he got in the deal was also counterfeit. By this time the DEA had loaded the drugs onto a helicopter and took them to the US, because they claim they didn’t trust Bahamian police or authorities. So the drugs hit the US and are sold and the funds used to fund the Contras in Somewhere in South America whiles Bahamians are left losing or begging for their lives and the supplier of the drugs didn’t get paid
Posted 5 February 2024, 5:56 p.m. Suggest removal
John says...
It didn’t just happen here but in Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados and Mexico. Drugs don’t flow through the BaHAMAS like the Caribbean Sea but the violence are carnage they initiated still plague this colony of islands
Posted 5 February 2024, 6 p.m. Suggest removal
hrysippus says...
Starting to think that "John" is not a real person, but instead a creation of the Russian Intellegence Department responsible for sowing dissent in Caribbean democratic countries. Or perhaps he is an AI Bot created for the same end.......
Posted 5 February 2024, 7:13 p.m. Suggest removal
John says...
The Bible speaks of people like you, hrysippus. It’s ok for people like you to come on here and spew garbage and misinformation but as soon as someone offers a correction or a rebuttal, they are labeled a communist or anything other that a child of God. Maybe you are shocked that the truth is being revealed and now you realize that those who are wreaking havoc on this country will have to face a judgment. Maybe rather than calling me a communist or a Bot you can tell me that part of my posts that you disagree with or find to be untrue. Get some credibility before you try to label someone else incredible. The day of reckoning is nigh! Fortunately the average Bahamian doesn’t even read the Tribune blogs. Their attitude is ‘let them run on. That’s the nature of the beast!’
Posted 6 February 2024, 2:04 a.m. Suggest removal
TalRussell says...
Personally, I had no worries with our Comrade John's [sermons on everything wrong.] --- Yes?
Posted 5 February 2024, 7:45 p.m. Suggest removal
John says...
Read your stupidity! You are suggesting that the government offer large sums of cash to gangs that are already wreaking havoc in the country. So in all your intelligence, where is the sanity and logic in this? What , even in your least wildest imagination, do you think this money will be used for? Whilst you at it, let’s find some women for rapists to rape so they don’t have to rape ‘innocent’ and unsuspecting ones! And let’s funds some slaves for the slave massas who lost theirs when slavery became illegal…
Posted 6 February 2024, 2:14 a.m. Suggest removal
themessenger says...
@hrysippus & Tal, sometimes in life you have to stop arguing with people (John), and simply let him be wrong!
Posted 6 February 2024, 6:35 a.m. Suggest removal
John says...
@ messenger: Stooges come in threes. So obviously you are the third fool! There is:was no argument, can’t you see? Ok maybe you blind like the third ( blind) mice. I posted a rebuttal to the Stupidity that Tal Russel posted, then it became a personal attack.. and that’s how y’all do. You come here and spray this blog full of garbage juice on a daily basis. But when someone challenges you, you ( cowards) try turn into something personal!
Posted 6 February 2024, 6:55 a.m. Suggest removal
John says...
The Bible says there will be a great shaking up of the earth! ‘ See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. His voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven." This phrase, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of what is shaken, as of what has been made, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews12:25-29 RSV)’. See what happening in Britain right now? King Charles may be off the throne by May and the person he least wanted to replace him will! And watch the massive transitions that take place in the Yas between now and that country’s November Elections and the transformation that will take place thereafter! Y’all keep y’all’s poison bens close bak! Ok!
Posted 6 February 2024, 6:58 a.m. Suggest removal
themessenger says...
@john, you wouldn't by any chance be related to the chosen by God, Pedro Smith, would you??
Posted 6 February 2024, 8:50 a.m. Suggest removal
hrysippus says...
Mr. P. Smith? Now, Messyger, that be funny.
Posted 6 February 2024, 4:36 p.m. Suggest removal
John says...
Should be ‘poison pens’. And don’t worry whom I am related to. Worry about who works you are doing!
Posted 6 February 2024, 2:52 p.m. Suggest removal
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