The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

ACP Anthony Ferguson's comments to the press as reported in the dailies today on why the police hid the violent rape reports from the public, only makes the Force look worse.

The police hid the information to "protect the victims"? Really? Okay. So then when you finally gave up the information to the media after being pressed by the media to do so, that means you were no longer concerned about "protecting the victims" at that point then? If you tell the island a number of violent rapes have occurred in, let's say, Cable Beach as an example - how are you revealing the identity of the victims by doing that? Does only one woman in all of Nassau live in Cable Beach, hence your report making her identity automatically known? Don't insult our intelligence please, sir. The Force has already insulted and offended our sensibilities by withholding this information. You say "the police cannot do it alone" in the fight on crime. Well, how do you want me and other residents in the country to help you and the Force if we do not know what is going on, when it's going on and where? I cannot imagine how the victims must feel. Rape already sentences a woman to a world of mental incarceration, with fear being its prison doors, and so they have every right to both know and expect that a nationwide manhunt with the help of the public is being conducted to catch the perpetrators of this heinous crime. Had the public been made aware, women who are now victims today, may not have become victims. Just please own up to the wrong that what was done by the Force, Mr Ferguson, and I trust that the COP will ensure that such a practice on the part of the Force ceases to continue.

SHARON TURNER

Nassau,

June 20, 2012