Mickell Gray, mother of Shelton Morley, who has been missing for three months, appealed yesterday to both the police and the government to bring justice and comfort to her family.

Gray said her son went missing on May 1 and no search or investigation has been carried out to date.

“[Just] because my child wasn’t a saint [doesn’t] give you any rights to not search for my child. Please bring justice because it’s a nightmare to me,” she said.

Gray was among over two dozen members of Families of All Murder Victims (FOAM) and Rise Bahamas who demonstrated yesterday in Parliament Square against the country’s high crime rate, under the theme “Make Peace a Priority in The Bahamas”.

The group stood on the periphery of the square with placards deriding the government.

Some of the messages read, “Why vote if you’re not listening to us?”, “Where’s Marco’s law?”, “Government you have the power”, and “Is the crime rate really down”?

Activist Terneille Burrows said that in light of the recent gun crimes and deaths of minors, the groups have come together to call on the government to make peace a priority and enforce several laws that would protect victims and their families.

Burrows specifically mentioned a sex offenders registry and Marco’s Law.

“We don’t just want to focus on murders exclusively because there are a lot of other crimes,” Burrows said.

“We just wanted to highlight all of these issues and let the government and the public know that we are going to consistently be raising an alarm on this until we see a plan in effect.”

Burrows explained that the group has made some progress in sending proposals to the government to assist in the regulations related to several pressing issues. She said Minister of National Security Dr. Bernard Nottage has confirmed the receipt of their Marco’s Law proposal. However, Burrows said the process has been stalled as they have yet to receive a response in terms of a timeline to review and discuss the enactment of the law.

Burrows further urged the public to get involved in making peace a priority.

“Demonstrations are just a way to get the public on board,” she said.

“People have been honking their horns, people have been showing their support in others ways online [but] we need the public to be a bit more active and activated and galvanized toward these efforts.

“We don’t want to see another son, we don’t want to see another daughter murdered. We don’t want to see anybody else assaulted. We don’t want to see anybody else raped. And the only way that we can start to make it a priority is to raise the alarm.”

FOAM founder Khandi Gibson, who lost two of her brothers to violent crime, said, “enough is enough” and now is the time to hold the government responsible because only it can amend the laws on the books.

Gibson said either the government steps up and deals with the issues or step down.

The murder count for the year is currently at 90

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