More Bahamians have been murdered this year than any other in our modern history. The murder record of 2011 was surpassed early this month and the high rate of killing continues.

A man was executed in Nassau Village on Tuesday. In response Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade dispatched officers with machine guns and balaclavas to the streets. He also spoke with the media.

Greenslade said he is not surprised that the murder record was broken and warned that the murder count will continue to rise unless there are legislative and policy changes. He maintained that a big part of the problem is repeat offenders getting bail after being charged with serious crimes. He has repeatedly called for tougher bail laws.

"My frustration that a young Bahamian man is able to commit an egregious crime in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas and can thumb his nose at the system and say, 'so what, if you don't like it I'll do it again'... That's a problem that every police officer has," he said.

To Greenslade, the problem is largely the backlogged criminal justice system. He is blaming others. He thinks crime will continue to rise if others, not him, don't act. We guess there is nothing else he can do, in his view.

Minister of National Security Dr. Bernard Nottage expressed "shock" at the apparent "glee" which, he claims, some people have at the country marking a new murder record. This was after the 128th person was murdered. Nottage also took issue with the media's characterization of the current murder count as a record.

"I am really surprised and shocked at the glee that some elements have with the fact that there has been an increase in the number of murders beyond the record," he told The Nassau Guardian.

Nottage's remark that people are gleeful at the number of murders is offensive to the Bahamian people. Right-thinking Bahamians are horrified at the levels of crime and violence in this country, especially in New Providence.

Bahamians want the government to be successful in the crime fight. We are all disappointed that the Christie administration has not been, and that it has no new ideas or policies that could help.

We don't know what Nottage meant by taking issue with the media's characterization of the current murder count as a record. He confused us there. And then there is the prime minister. On Monday, Perry Christie said the country cannot allow the "mayhem" to continue and pledged to roll out new crime initiatives in the coming weeks.

Christie said he met with Greenslade on Friday to go over the prospective crime plan.

"I told him... under no circumstances could we allow mayhem to happen on our streets, could we continue to allow with major mobilization to have young men killing young men for whatever reasons and then straying out and killing other people," he said at the Urban Renewal Foundation National Symposium at Holy Trinity Activities Centre.

"Everyone in here knows this is not The Bahamas that we grew up in; this is not The Bahamas that we want to have, therefore we must not let this happen in our country."

We have been very critical of Christie for various reasons. Despite that, we do think Christie wants to see the crime rate go down. The problem is he doesn't know how to make that happen; nor does Nottage; nor does Greenslade; nor does Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson. While these policymakers struggle to figure out what to do, the judiciary stays silent and we are unaware of what reform measures are taking place there, if any, to make our justice system more efficient. It would be good to hear from Sir Hartman Longley, the chief justice, from time to time.

Confusion has descended on The Bahamas. Our leaders do not know what to do. Organized crime groups are carrying out assassination campaigns against each other and the state simply collects the bodies. We know which groups are at war. We just haven't been able to figure out how to stop it.

Real leaders are elected and selected to take on the biggest problems of their times. They do not blame others for their problems. They do not make idle and meaningless statements just to seem tough. They find the people and the resources necessary to make progress in difficult situations.

Order has broken down in our commonwealth and the current state of affairs is unacceptable. Those charged with leading our response to the crime problem seem not in synch with each other. Some seem to have given up. New energy and new leadership are needed across the criminal justice system. That is quite obvious.

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