Prime Minister Philip "Brave" Davis speaks during the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) Annual Church Service at New Destiny Baptist Cathedral on Sunday. Photo: Dante Carrer
By JADE RUSSELL
Tribune Staff Reporter
jrussell@tribunemedia.net
PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said he was saddened and shocked by recent murders in the country.
Bahamas Christian Council president Delton Fernander struck a similar tone, saying he is concerned about what the future holds for his children.
The men spoke yesterday during the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s annual church service at the New Destiny Baptist Cathedral after another bloody weekend that saw three people killed, including a 16-year-old girl whose father was murdered two years ago. She was charging her phone when bullets flew through her house.
Eight people have been killed in 2024.
Since December 14, 14 people have been murdered, according to The Tribune’s records.
Mr Davis said: “Yes, crime has been a long-standing issue in our country, but recently, the crime of murder especially, has taken on a horrifyingly new level of brutality and barbarity. Something has indeed gone very, very wrong in our society.”
He invited the Christian Council to hold a National Day of Prayer for healing and comfort.
He said more will be said in the coming weeks about “a strategic initiative to implement a ‘whole government response’ to tackling gang crime’.”
“After all the losses, all the waste of life, all the misery and fear and pain that is part of the criminal life in gangs, those who still choose to pursue the path of crime: understand that we are at maximum resolve,” he said.
“While our arms are open for those who seek a better path, our stance against crime is resolute. We are coming for you. You cannot win. We will reclaim our streets, our neighbourhoods and our homes.
“I feel the weight of every crime. I hear the cries of every tear shed. I hear the echoes of every plea for a safer nation. I am deeply moved, not just as your prime minister but as a Bahamian, a parent, a neighbour, and a friend. Safeguarding our nation’s peace remains at the forefront of my mind.”
Bishop Fernander highlighted the connection between those given bail for serious crimes and those murdered.
He said: “Commissioner Fernander has informed us of the statistics of the number of persons killed on bail for serious offences; also, the number of persons arrested and convicted for these murders of persons on bail, that are themselves on bail or just released from prison for serious crimes. Unfortunately, it is clear that our justice and legal system is in need of a serious review and overhaul. It is broken and needs to be fixed.”
He added: “We must ask the hard question of what kind of nation will be left for future generations? We must all commit today to be an army of one and not settle for a place where the slaughter of young men and women takes place daily.
“I call on every Bahamian to take responsibility for our children. We must each take our place and give our police force the support it needs to arrest this problem in our society. We must endure the inconvenience of roadblocks, the increase of stop and search and the saturated patrols of police and collaboration with neighbourhood watches. We cannot be first world in tourism but third world in community living and nation building. I don’t know about you, but this isn’t good enough for me.”
There were 110 murders in 2023.
Comments
K4C 3 months, 3 weeks ago
PRIME Minister Davis is void of all common sense, he's the PM, he and his administration can't tell Bahamians to turn to prayer to stop the senseless carnage, since because of his and former governments have all paved the road to where the Bahamas is today,
Sickened 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Let's assume that after this clarion call for prayer 70% of Bahamians actually do say a prayer over the next few days, let us see if the murders stop. If they don't stop... what does that tell us???
ThisIsOurs 3 months, 3 weeks ago
When these leaders quote scripture they quite often use it of of context. Does prayer work? Yes? The question is for "who"? Its quite clear:
"If MY people, which are called by MY name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; THEN will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.*
Prayer is a tool for Gods people who are willing to stop giving overpriced contracts to their buddies
hrysippus 3 months, 3 weeks ago
The solution being proposed by government to tackle the county's extremely high murder rate is that people should pray? Ummm, well, OK. Perhaps we need 87 more Assistant Police Commissioners as that might work just as well as these prayers.
ScubaSteve 3 months, 3 weeks ago
This is his grand solution -- to pray????? Praying does NOTHING to stop the actual issue at hand. Hell... I pray everyday that I wished I still had hair on top of my head. Nope, nothing in 30+ years of praying. Still bald. What a freakin' FOOL our "leader" is. What a joke!!!
DonAnthony 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Praying is not a plan. Clearly our PM has no clue or plan or will to tackle this scourge of crime. Murders at a pace of one per day and all he talks about is praying? Tell us in concrete steps what your administration will do to deal with this problem.
JokeyJack 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Hey. I know how to pray. Can I be Prime Minister now?
TalRussell 3 months, 3 weeks ago
When God did not answer to a premiership? --- Praying is not a plan so.said Comrade DonAnthony. ---Whilst prayer is big thing, --- A house riddled with bullets ---- Killing a 16-year-old girl as bullets flew through her family's home---- Demands much more than just a premiership's shout-out to pray.---- Yes?
John 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Praying may not be a plan but in biblical days prayers were said before an army went to battle or before an important event was about to take place. And, of course, those kings who were non believers also consulted their spiritual advisers and sometimes executed them if they did not receive the news they wanted to hear.
birdiestrachan 3 months, 3 weeks ago
The government and the police would have to be clairvoyant in order to know when and where a crime will occur . The heart and mind of people is hard to understand. Only God knows the heart
ThisIsOurs 3 months, 3 weeks ago
And they would have to be strategists to return the country to law and order.
As they dont seem to be able to do that, which is achievable, they are clearly neither clairvoyant or strategic. Stop one person from running a red light, ...please
John 3 months, 3 weeks ago
For prayer to be effective, the other requisites must be met; people ( Gods people) must humble themselves and pray, then turn away from their WICKED ways!! So if you still doing wicked things, the prayers are in vain. . . BUT the threat The PM made to the bag boys; ‘we’re coming to get you!’ This doesn’t phase them. The bad boys ain’t scared of jail and they are not afraid to die. In fact the Commissioner or the Minister of National Security revealed that at least 40 percent of murder victims are out on bail for serious crimes, mostly murder or attempted murder.
So how do one punish someone who is not afraid of jail or not afraid to die? Some argue that capital punishment is not a deterrent, for the same reason. But the Bible says ‘thieves and murderers have come to kill and to destroy and should be taken out of society.
TalRussell 3 months, 3 weeks ago
@ComradeJohn, pray tell , --- Exactly, how use think to spell out the “Wicked Ways” of The Colony's Churches'?
John 3 months, 3 weeks ago
First off the PM’s call for prayer was to the nation and not to the church. And secondly, I am not God so it is not my duty to judge the church, so you do that by yourself. But remember God says judgment will begin at the pulpit but until such time… and don’t forget the many, many preachers and pastors who have fallen to shame and scandal and even crime especially in the past few years.
K4C 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Best you educate up John
It's 2023 not 1823
John 3 months, 3 weeks ago
And your point
ThisIsOurs 3 months, 3 weeks ago
I dont like to use scripture too much to a non christian audience, I personally think its the wrongly placed. Im particularly put off by the abundance of preachers looking for national relevance through talk show appearances.
But, since the PM brought up prayer as a solution, I also responded with thats not how it works, my message was not to the "secular", but to the religious and semi religious ones who say "just pray". God gave guidelines for how to prayer, for not praying foolish prayers and the prerequisites needed for him to answer... this message only for the Christians "turn from your wicked ways" thats the prerequisite.
Sickened 3 months, 3 weeks ago
How to stop a gang? There is only one way. Kill them ALL!!! Gangs either choose to disassociate themselves or they die. How many gangs have ceased to exist in The Bahamas?
John 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Gangs are tge product if the US. From time immemorial, ( white) motorcycle gangs travelled across the country, raping and robbing and abusing drugs and alcohol and beating or killing members of opposition gangs. And then being fugitive ls of the law. Other gangs originated in prisons where minority inmates had to form themselves into gangs to protect themselves from the majority inmates. And during the Clinton administration when prison’s became a business in the US and the Clintons sent thousands of Black and Hispanic men to jail for long periods of time for minor crimes. Prisons became a business and as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton did her own thing, using inmates for experiments. Predator drugs development being among them. And, of course Bahamians were caught up in the US prison system and when they were released and deported, they brought the American gang culture here, to tThe BaHAMAS with them. Fast forward now today.
ThisIsOurs 3 months, 3 weeks ago
That will never work. Gangs are given life by disaffected people. Thats all we gat. Solution make no one disaffected.
LastManStanding 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Prayer is wonderful, but as Scripture says "faith without works is dead". God gave us (some of us at least) a functional brain to diagnose problems and develop solutions.
TalRussell 3 months, 3 weeks ago
There are 'NO EXCUSES' to be seen as The Colony of Killers'. --- Whilst private and popoulaces' sector thieving is too complicated a mix of circumstances. ---- Murders' turnaround to zero killings' is a reach. --- Over a 10-year period. --- Returning The Colony to one of the world's supreme safest places to live and vacation. --- Yes?
John 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Maybe this government of The Bahamas needs to take a visit to Britain/ England and find out how they were successful in stemming the murders in London, where dozens of young men were being knifed to death. Guns are not readily available in England as they are in the US or in this country so knives were the weapons of choice. Did these killings eventually wean themselves out, or was some effective policing and justice system put in place?
Sickened 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Unfortunately the knife crime in the UK is back with a vengeance. Idris Elba just had a plea about banning these 'zombie knives'. It's a crazy, violent time almost everywhere.
John 3 months, 3 weeks ago
That’s sad to hear, but there were warnings/predictions that crime and especially violent crime would increase after Covid. There are reports that in the US, they are having to re-open some of the prisons that they were able to close because of low occupancy before the pandemic.
TalRussell 3 months, 3 weeks ago
The government won't but the media can become involved to achieve zero murders' --- By separately reporting on the ---- Number murdered on and about The Colony's capital Out Island of Nassau. --- Yes?
John 3 months, 3 weeks ago
According to police reports, the mother of the 16 year old girl, who was shot dead, was harboring the suspect of the country’s second murder of the year in the home where the girl was shot. Police know this because they chased the suspect in the area just the day before. So police are assuming that whoever shot the 16 y/o mistook her for the suspect who committed the second murder of 2024. Cause and effects.
ExposedU2C 3 months, 3 weeks ago
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
SP 3 months, 3 weeks ago
So maybe we can ask Kenya's President William Ruto to bring his gang busting task force here instead of Haiti?
Sickened 3 months, 2 weeks ago
Yikes!
John 3 months, 3 weeks ago
BRAVE DAVIS and others who are involved in the fight against crime and especially violent crime and murder MUST, must remember that crime is only a symptom of something else gone wrong in the society. And you can continue fighting the symptom until the cows come home and the situation will NOT get better. Going after the bad boys after they have already become bad boys or having to take someone off the streets and lock them up after they have committed a violent crime or murder is not fixing a broken system. It is simply dealing with someone who has fallen through the cracks. . . So to fix the problem of crime one must dig deeper. Violent crime and murder had been a costly and vexing problem in this country for four solid decades and more. And the persons who are committing the crime today are not the ones who were committing the crimes in the 1980’s and the 1990s Many of them have died or otherwise moved off the scene. So the question is why is this country continuing to breed criminals. They start off at 26, 17, 18 years old and by the time they are in their mid 30’s, many of them are dead. Shirt life span, short criminal career but one that seeks to destroy the very foundation of this country. And you can list these young men as ‘aliens’ to The BaHAMAS, because before many of them can get to know this country or even know themselves, they will be dead. Is the country failing them?
John 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Why we must pray: ‘ Ephesians 6:12
NKJV
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against mprincipalities, against powers, against nthe rulers of 3the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.’ ESV For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.‘
ThisIsOurs 3 months, 3 weeks ago
That "we" is an instruction to the church, a real church, not a marketing junket. Its not to a nation. It would be great if everyone in the bahamas subscribed to the christian faith and upheld the bibles moral standard... but they dont. The pastors need to get off the talk shows and go talk to their membership. We keep up this farce of a christian nation, I dont know who we think we fooling, certainly not God, not when we was partying with all kinds of Colombians right after writing the constitution
birdiestrachan 3 months, 3 weeks ago
What can any one do when people are hiding criminals . What can the mother say now the shooter knew the man was in the house . Unfortunately the young girl life was lost so blame the police blame the government. It is the criminal mind at work
ds
ThisIsOurs 3 months, 2 weeks ago
This sounds eerily like the Commissioners statement maybe 2 years ago(?) May have been the former commissioner.. Paraphrasing, "Bahamians dont need to be afraid, only those known to police are being targeted"... and then the collateral damage started.
What if the criminal hides in a movie theatre where his girlfriend works?
sheeprunner12 3 months, 2 weeks ago
Harbouring criminals is the country's biggest problem.
There are reasons for that, whether familial, financial or strategic. This case is just another sad example of collateral damage in this sick society, where the criminals seem to be able to always find willing partners in crime ...... whether they are politicians, police, pastors or sex partners.
Until this harbouring mindset changes, there will be NO decrease in 242 crime.
John 3 months, 2 weeks ago
‘ Rattled, gang members appear to be in survival mode. Deprived of territory and revenue, regrouping is not an immediate option. They have also suffered from an apparent collapse in communication between cells following the onset of the state of emergency. Gang members that have stayed out of jail have largely been left on their own, according to gang sources interviewed by InSight Crime. ’ Drastic times calls for drastic measures. So has the time now come for the government to follow the example of El Salvador, where police rounded up thousands of men suspected of gang membership or gang activity and jailed them? Of course there will have to be a housing facility separate from Fox Hill Prison and once a y male is arrested and put into this ‘camp’ lawyers will not be allowed to intervene. The men then go through rigorous physical and mental exercises and are only isolated from the program when it is determined that they are not gang members, not involved in gang activity or show signs of reform. Those who are found to be steeped in gang activity will eventually have criminal charges brought against them and serve life imprisonment. The positive effects of this program are clear is the crime and murder in El Salvador has declined exponentially. And even though estimates are that some 21,000 gang members are still free, they are on the run, keeping a low profile and avoiding crime to avoid being captured. Remember this all started when the US released thousands of inmates , many suspected of being members of the deadly MS-13 gang, loaded them onto jets and returned them to their home countries in Central and South America and in The Caribbean. They caused murder and mayhem in these countries and El Salvador had taken the most drastic and effective measures thus far to stamp out gangs and eliminate violence in that country. Crime been serious in this country long time. Time for government to get serious and stop the talk, talk, talk!
John 3 months, 2 weeks ago
Still a lot left to be done: ‘ The government does not appear to have a comprehensive plan for addressing these root causes of gangs. This places a disproportionate burden on community, and civil-society and religious organizations to fill these social and economic needs, something they have not been able to do in the past.“The government chopped down the tree, but left the roots,” said Estuado Escobar, a Salvadoran lawyer and outspoken critic of the state of emergency.’
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