On September 19, 2011, after the murder count in The Bahamas hit 100 for the first time in recorded history, Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Leader Perry Christie thought it "absolutely appropriate" to call an urgent press conference noting that the past weekend had marked "an historic moment in the life of our country for all the wrong reasons".
Flanked by then PLP candidates who now make up his Cabinet, Christie said,
"This is an intolerable state of affairs and one that demands immediate and sustained attention from all of us, from the government right down to the ordinary citizen and resident.
"Action is what is needed, not indifference or protestations of helplessness."
Christie added, "Until such time as we see in our country recognition by the government that it has to do more than just rely on equipping the police force but that it has to involve other strategies, we feel we have an obligation to our country to speak up and to speak up loudly."
But in the days after the country recorded a new murder record a week ago, there was silence from Christie and from his government. Apparently, they no longer see a need to speak up and to speak up loudly. There was no sign the government has any sense of urgency about the crisis gripping the country. The prime minister's focus in Parliament last Wednesday was on a National Honour's Bill.
National Security Minister Dr. Bernard Nottage did answer reporters' questions on crime and the new murder record that day, but his comment was among the most nonsensical he has on record to date.
Nottage said, "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...The fact that you all are calling it a record is really unthinkable."
That the minister of national security can look into a camera and make such an asinine statement should concern us all. This is a man we look to for leadership on anti-crime policies. But he is clearly lost and comes across as frustrated and angry at his government's inability to do anything about the problem. We wonder who these elements are who have apparent "glee" at the new murder record. There is not glee in our communities, minister. There is fear, and a great deal of it.
Not long after Nottage's comment, a photograph of a 2012 PLP murder billboard was reposted on social media sites and shared repeatedly. In 2012 when the billboards were torn down, supposedly by the then government, the PLP reacted with apparent outrage.
"These billboards which have been torn down in numerous locations, and found in trash bins at government buildings, represent a larger pattern of strong-arm tactics normally associated with dictatorships," said PLP Deputy Philip Brave Davis at a press conference.
"Mr. [Hubert] Ingraham has always been a bully. Now he seeks to be a dictator. He is crossing lines that have never been crossed before in the history of our democracy. His doing so signals his desperation and the desperation of those who require his continuation in power to keep their stranglehold on the Bahamian economy."
Ironically, the one enduring image of the infamous murder billboards is that of a gleeful PLP supporter who was about to erect that billboard. The smiling supporter does not seem bothered by the message on the billboard. The supporter is being assisted by Jerome Fitzgerald, the now minister of education, whose facial expression is also not one of a man disturbed by the murder record the PLP was advertising at the time. These days, Nottage is averse to using the word "record". It is "unthinkable", he says.
Christie, Davis, Fitzgerald, Nottage and their colleagues are nowhere putting up murder billboards. They are nowhere promoting their message of "free speech" and the failure of "Papa Clown" to keep us safe. This band of hypocrites wishes us now to forget their disgraceful and sickening actions on the campaign trail.
Shameless
Bernard Nottage is shameless in seeking to sweep under the carpet the PLP's ignoble tactics that had one purpose and one purpose only: winning the seat of power -- at any cost. He now stupidly blabs on about people being happy about a new murder record. Within hours of his statement, the sense of fear we all feel about the high rate of violent crime was magnified when Queen's College teacher Joyelle McIntosh was shot to death in her car while at Parkgate Road and Village Road. Her brutal murder stunned and saddened many.
While any murder is cause for alarm, hearing of the murder of an educator, who is a mother of two sons, was a different kind of story. From all reports, McIntosh was widely loved. She was described by many as a dedicated and caring teacher. She coached last year's national spelling bee champion Prachi Kondapuram. Her father said McIntosh had been like a second mother to his daughter. After she won the competition in March 2014, we asked Prachi about her work ethic.
She said, "It has been tons of work, especially for Ms. [Joyelle] McIntosh who had to tackle tutoring and made us stay two hours every day after school."
McIntosh was also an active member of Bahamas Harvest Church. Pastor Mario Moxey was too stunned and grief-stricken at the scene to even speak. For the church, McIntosh is a significant loss. Within the hour after her tragic death, word went around that she was set to be a witness in a murder case and was thus targeted. Police said they had no evidence this was the case. Perhaps that was a story created by someone to provide comfort from their fears that this was a random murder.
Many had bought into the narrative that what we have been witnessing is criminals killing criminals. Random murders create a whole other level of anxiety in societies because we can all see ourselves in that car on that tragic night. We all could be McIntosh, going about our routines, becoming victims. It is a new kind of frightening. This killing has inspired terror among our people. No one in his or her right mind was gleeful when we heard of this shooting death.
Our hearts broke at the news.
An entire school community has been left devastated. Parents and teachers struggled with difficult questions from children in the aftermath of the crime. One child asked whether Ms. McIntosh will be safe in heaven. Innocent children should not have to process what McIntosh's students and other children have had to deal with upon learning of her death.
This was a chilling and completely senseless act and many are left wondering who is next.
Many New Providence residents fear being out their homes at nights. We were invited to a dinner event this week and are learning that it might be changed to a luncheon event. Some people who would ordinarily come out are saying they prefer to be in their homes at nights.
What kind of life is this? This is the town we live in today. If current trends continue, we would see 250 more murders before the next general election. Who among us would end up in that count? It is a completely chilling thought. We are not safe, none of us is.
Prisoners
Following McIntosh's murder, Dr. Reg. Eldon, a member of Queen's College's Board of Governors, said, "We are really prisoners on our own island. We don't have the freedom to do as we please. We cannot go about as we like because our lives are at risk."
Eldon also said, "We are so concerned that we don't seem to be getting a handle on the senseless violence in the country and every time something like this happens the group that's affected are the ones concerned and then it moves on to somebody else."
Rev. Christopher Neely, president of the Bahamas Conference of the Methodist Church and chairman of the QC board of governors, said something must be done about the senseless violence gripping our communities.
"We are destroying ourselves and our future," Neely said. "We think -- the board of governors and the Methodist church -- believe that tackling the problem of crime needs to be the number one priority. We need to drop everything else and focus on this one thing that threatens to destroy us."
While everyone knows that crime is an issue that must be addressed on multiple levels, many Bahamians and others who reside on New Providence are anxiously awaiting clear signs that their government gets that the crime problem must be the single national priority item. We are being destroyed from within. We need the kind of urgency we heard in Perry Christie's voice on August 15, 2011, when the then opposition leader made a nationally-televised address on crime calling it "a major crisis facing The Bahamas".
Christie said, "An important reason for the escalation of crime in The Bahamas is poor governance."
He said, "This government has been paralyzed, unable to lead on this crucial issue and their determination to put politics first, not Bahamians, has made a terrible problem much worse."
The PLP had the answers and the will to address crime, he said. The plans Christie outlined in 2011 made headlines. They were intended to convince the electorate that the Ingraham administration lacked the will to "break the back of crime" and had failed to keep Bahamians safe.
Christie said in that 2011 national address on crime that "people are afraid, and they are angry".
"They are afraid that the violence is going to continue to escalate, and they are angry that the government has offered no meaningful response," he said.
But the "powerful set of ideas" put together by the PLP "in consultation with experts, clergy and community activists" has come up short.
The "tough, innovative plan to stop the violence" has not made us feel safer. If ever there was a moment that demanded strong leadership, that moment is now. With the crisis worsening, the quality of life of Bahamians and others who live here is worsening by the day. We are weary of politicians who either lack the competence or the will to do what they claimed they could do.
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