has the police failed or is it another segment of the legal system that is continuing to fail and continuing to allow Bahamians to be held hostage to crime and by criminals? Lets deal with facts: According to the crime report, 45% of all persons who commit murder are captured and charged. According to other reports less than 10% of person charged with murder go to trial and less than 5% of those charged are convicted. Where then is the failure? Why are the additional courts not up and running? So you may argue that a 45% detection rate is low for murder. Well the commissioner of police has always maintained that most of the murder going on in the country is gang and drug related. One gang killing up members of the other gang. One drug dealer ripping off the other one or moving on his turf and getting killed. And yes many young men get caught up in this web and pay for their mistake with their lives. So when the police finally identify and catch up with persons responsible for murder, they have already been killed themselves. The commissioner has said more than many times, the police have to keep locking up the same people who commit murder and other serious crime over and over again. Three, four five six times, so where is the failure? When figures show that more persons are out on bail or in jail awaiting trial for murder than those who are convicted of their dirty deeds and should be rotting in jail, that tells me that more is wrong with the system than just a police failure. The talks on the street is a murder rap is the easiest one to beat. When you do the 'hit' you sit in jail for a year or two and you will get bail. After that there is a 90% chance that your case will not come up. Woe unto ye lawyers! Them is the facts BJ!

It was disheartening to hear that police plan to 'swoop on persons known to have unlicensed shotguns or rifles, then arrest them and seize their weapons.' There are reportedly some 80,000 shotgun and rifle license holders in the Bahamas but 16,000 or around 20% of these weapons have not been licensed. Before the police make any such raid they should extend to these delinquent gun owners the opportunity to go in and regularize their licenses. Government has only recently tripled the fees for licensing shotguns (from $50.00 to $150.00 with similar increases for rifles). Persons who pay late are required to pay a $50.00 late fee on top of these fees, so many license holders may not be in a position to pay, especially if they have more than one weapon. Rather than trying to brand these individuals as criminals (less than one percent of licensed guns are used in crimes) the police should advise these persons what to do if they cannot afford to license their guns. In any event surrendering these guns to the authorities and losing ownership of it beats being arrested, and facing a possible fine of $2,000 and jail time for each weapon. It is petty for the police to brand these persons as criminals if they are simply facing economic hardship.

I am not sure that I totally agree for marijuana becoming legal in the Bahamas at least not yet. What America realized was that besides having a drug (abuse) problem, it was also faced with the problem of narco drug money being used to fund gangs both in the US and abroad Mexico, Colombia Jamaica) and money possibly being used to fund terrorist activities. So by legalizing weed the drug became more available and less expensive and so much of the funds leaving the country or going to gangs has dried up. Not only that but reports are that marijuana usuage in some states is down. But in Nebraska the results of residents being able to legally grow 3 marijuana plants per person has not been good. Ordinary residents of the state have imported persons (friends lovers family) to the state do they can increase the number of plants they can grow. This has caused a deterioration in the social life as many residents who did not want to be a part of the marijuana culture have put their houses up for sale and left. This too led to an even bigger problem as the state is now full of strangers, tax revenues are down and property value is falling because of the number of empty houses

If the PLP deported all the illegals and locked up all the criminals, murderers included, then there won't be many persons left to support that party... Just sayin

After becoming legal in the state of Washington there is an abundance of supply of the drug in that state. The supply is like 5 times what is being sold legally and even though the price is half what it was when marijuana was illegal the demand is still falling. Bottom line. People don't want to smoke weed once it becomes legal.

Then the additional courts that were promised to help keep repeat offenders off the streets and to help with swift justice have not been delivered after some two years. Then when you see who got the contract to complete these courts, you can only look at this government and say "Dey ain't serious"

Barak Obama said in his state of the nation address last night that not only is crime down in the United States but so is the number of people going to jail. BUT unemployment in the United States is also down. Unemployment is at its lowest level in 10 years in the US while here in the Bahamas it has climbed beyond pre PLP levels. The credibility of the commissioner is not one that ordinarily come into question and he has always maintained that murder is directly related to gang and drug activity. The drugs and the gangs and the supply of guns on the street are all interconnected and once a young man gets caught up in this web of activity he will most likely pay with his life. Drug dealers recruit both on the demand and supply side and many drug dealers are also gun dealers who use the sale of these contraband to fund gang activities. The commissioner must now move to identify gang leaders and drug dealers and force them off the streets and flush them out of communities they use for cover. Then the murder rate will go down. Too many young men are being lured into drug and gang activity and it is too late when they find out the only exit is in a body bag.

You still have to wonder why Perry Christie and the PLP government seem to have Leslie Miller to do battle with the BEC Union alone? Don't they realize it is useless traveling all over the world seeking investors unless you have sufficient, affordable and a reliable power supply? Leslie miller seem to have brought the union from the 50 yard line to the 5 yard line all by himself. He only needs the backing of his government to make the touch down. It may just be a matter on convincing these greedy, selfish overpaid negroes that if they come together and work with management and get the power supply stabilized and reliable then the entire country benefits. Pay raises do not necessarily have to come in the form of more money on your paycheck. If you bring down the cost of electricity then the cost of many other things including food will come down. So if you stop being selfish and greedy and power struck you, BEC Union can increase the purchasing power of every Bahamian and every person living in this country. You, BEC workers can improve the quality of life for every Bahamian by not having they live in a country of constant blackouts or the threat of them. STOP. Being a wuss and take one for team Bahamas!

correction Perry Christie is the most experienced active politician today meaning no one else in active politics have the experience of serving 40 years plus and being a two time prime minister.

Do you realize that Perry Christie is the most experienced politician today? Yet despite knowing how ailing this country is financially he continues to practice cronyism. Because of this Bahamians are not only Not getting value for money but they (ok we) fine ourselves having to pay for the same items in the government's budget over and over. And the same set of people are being enriched off the sweat of the Bahamian people. They never had the intention of delivering the goods and or services for which they contracted. Yet they continue to receive government contracts and live lavishly while the average Bahamian struggles to buy noodles then have to eat them in the dark. The gold Rush like to point to the red shirts and talk about the cost over runs on the road development project. But despite this project costing double what was budgeted, Bahamians received value for money, there was no shoddy or defective work and Bahamians can get to most destinations on the island in 1/3 of the time it took prior to the roadworks. Imagine the man hours and fuel that is being saved every day. And all major roads are well lit and more safe. Maybe the time has come for Perry Christie to bring his cabinet and his misinters and his permanent secretaries together and say there will not be any more political patron ism. We will protect the money of the Bahamian people and ensure we get value for money. Contracts will be awarded on a persons ability to fulfill them and persons who do not complete works in a satisfactory and timely manner will not even be allowed to bid on any government contract until he/she redeems himself/herself. Imagine what this can do for the quality of work being delivered to the Bahamian people. This will instantly weed out those who get government contracts but do not deliver. But guess what some of them is also the same set who borrow money from BoB and Bahamas Development bank and ain't pay it back. Them is the same set who ain't paying no taxes or no other government bills. Time to stop them from living off (or on) the backs of the Bahamian people.