Dear Editor,
 
The Bahamas is on pace to break its 2011 murder record of 127 this year.  We have recorded 21 homicides so far in just two months.  Last year many opposition party supporters were touting Jamaica's so-called success at combating crime and reducing its high murder rate.  Jamaica recorded 1,125 murders in 2011.  In 2010, there were 1,442 murders.  2011 saw a modest drop of nearly 22 percent or 317 murders from the previous year.  The Free National Movement (FNM) government was admonished to take a closer look at Jamaica in order to learn how it was able to reduce its murder rate from 1,442 to 1,125.
Mind you, we are still talking about a staggering 1,125 murders for a country with a population of just 2.8 million.  But how can anyone consider that murder rate of 2011 to be a success?  Even a mentally dull person can tell you that 1,125 murders are far too many for a country even the size of the great United States of America.  Yet we had persons in this country bragging about Jamaica's successful strategies in reducing its high murder rate in 2011.  It was hoped by many that Jamaica was on the road to solving its crime problem.  Unfortunately, the killings of the first two months of 2012 have dashed that hope to pieces.
Also, what is disturbing about these murders is the fact that Jamaica recorded 165 slayings by February 21 of this year compared to 135 murders during the corresponding period last year, according to an Associated Press report.  Jamaica's National Security Minister Peter Bunting recently told the press that Portia Simpson Miller's nearly two-month-old government intends to fast-track anti-gang legislation and is crafting a new security policy meant to reduce crime to First World levels by 2017 when she hopes to have a maximum of just 321 murders.
Three hundred and twenty-one murders?  What kind of goal is the Jamaican prime minister setting?  I believe that the People's National Party (PNP) government should strive to get the murder rate down to zero, not 321.  It appears as if Jamaica government officials have resigned themselves to the fact that their country will always be a bloodthirsty nation.
According to the same report, Jamaica had the world's third highest murder rate over the past 10 years, with about 60 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.  Jamaica has been rightly dubbed the murder capital of the world.  The reason why Jamaica's murder rate is so astronomically high is because violent gangs like the Shower Posse are fighting for control of drug trafficking and extortion rackets.  Making matters even worse is the fact that certain parishes have been literally taken over by these violent gangs.  Both the governing PNP and the official opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) are partly to blame for Jamaica's high murder rate.  During the turbulent 1970s, both major political parties supplied their goon squads with guns during the political season and told them to shoot the opposition.  After the elections, however, the goon squads kept the guns and have continued to wreak havoc throughout the Caribbean country ever since.  The PNP and the JLP have both helped to create the monster that is presently destroying their country.
It was recently reported in a popular down-market tabloid newspaper that many of the killings throughout the streets of New Providence are drug and gang-related.  Many of these hoodlums are bumping off their hated rivals for trespassing on their turf in order to sell illicit drugs like cocaine and marijuana.  Oftentimes after a murder has been committed in Nassau, you would hear the police spokesperson reporting to the press that the slain victim was well-known to police.  In most cases this means that the victim was a jailbird.  Furthermore, in several instances the victim was either out on bail for murder or had been acquitted by a very good solicitor in court.  Or perhaps he had served his time at Her Majesty's Prisons for his violent crime.  More often than not, the murder was an act of revenge by either a criminal associate of a family member who is disillusioned with the judicial system.
In any event, there is a school of thought that says that many drug dealers in Nassau are struggling to make a decent profit nowadays.  It has been said that their Latino drug barons are no longer paying them cold, hard cash in order to traffic their contraband to their suppliers in the United States.  I understand that the drug barons were tired of being ripped off by greedy Bahamian drug traffickers.  They are now being paid in drugs instead; and are being told to make their own money.  This can explain why so many drug dealers are broke.  Back in the 1980s many drug dealers were awash in drug money, millions of it.  With such a small market in Nassau, is it any wonder why so many killings have occurred in the past several years?  The drug dealers are fighting tooth and nail to protect their turf throughout the inner city communities of Nassau.  They can ill-afford to have a rival drug dealer sending his goons into their area to sell their cocaine and marijuana to their valued customers.  They just cannot afford this to happen.
While some of the murders are a result of persons not knowing how to resolve their disputes in a civil manner, it cannot be denied, however, that the illicit drug trade is fueling the high murder rate in Nassau.  What frightens me is the thought of powerful Bahamian drug dealers controlling certain parts of Nassau.  Such a scenario would be eerily similar to what is currently happening in Jamaica and Mexico.
I also fear the thought of persons fearing to join the police force or running for high office because they would be targeted by the goon squads of drug lords.  If the government does not get a handle of the situation, then this could certainly become a reality.
Just 10 years ago if someone would have said that The Bahamas will record 127 murders in one year, he would have been shouted down as insane and immediately admitted to Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre for a mental evaluation.  I think that the time has now come for the FNM government and the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) to admit this.  We need to stop kidding ourselves and start calling this situation what it is: a murder crisis.  Furthermore, I think that it is high time that the people of Nassau stop saying that The Bahamas has a murder crisis.  It is New Providence that has a murder crisis, not the Family Islands.
Whoever wins the general election must move 'heaven and earth' in order to dismantle the violent gangs in Nassau before the capital city ends up like the murder capital of the world, Jamaica.
 
- Kevin Evans

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