The Tribune

By PACO NUNEZ

Tribune News Editor

pnunez@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas, it seems, made history last week.

It is now the only country in the modern era – and as far as I can tell, the only one ever – in which the supreme political figure of the day, acting or substantive, was successfully held up and robbed in his own home.

History is littered with countless coups, civil wars and invasions in which leaders have been threatened and even killed.

And there are many countries today where the crime rate is far worse than it is here.

But, it seems, we are the first where the rise of a violent and lawless under-class has been coupled with so monumental a failure by our security apparatus to adapt to its rise, that three scrubby hooligans could manage to stick a gun in the face of the nation’s leader and demand cash.

Congratulations to us.

The government seems intent on pushing the line that the incident was a random home invasion and the Acting Prime Minister was not specifically targeted, the robbers only realising their mistake when they barged into Mr Davis’ bedroom.

But far from diffusing the situation, I think this scenario actually makes it worse.

It would mean that on an island this small, there exists a segment of the society so entirely cut off from the mainstream that the address of a figure as prominent as Philip Davis turns out to be a total surprise to them.

Meanwhile, our National Security strategy apparently treats the presence of these angry young men in our midst as just as big a shock.

Ask yourself, could such a “mistake” have happened at the US Embassy, or the American Ambassador’s residence?

The response of many regular citizens to the robbery has been: “Good, now Mr Davis knows how we feel”.

But if the Acting Prime Minister has been revealed to be so vulnerable, we must ask how defenceless the rest of us really are.

The fallout from this gross underestimation of our crisis surely flows downhill.

I blame the failure to recognise its extent on the civilian leadership, not the police. Those on the front-line are well aware of how dire things have become.

But the truth is, law enforcement is overwhelmed.

A new Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) study – the same report that deemed our violence to be near armed conflict zone levels – noted that a major obstacle in the fight against crime is that we lack sufficient police officers in proportion to the size of the problem.

Yet the Bahamas already has one of the highest officer to citizen ratios in the world, with just under 10 per cent of the population working for the police force.

And while it takes time and money to add to the ranks of police, the under-class in this society is growing every day, fed and watered by poverty and neglect.

Coming as it did just as the murder rate, that great indicator of our social deterioration, approached last year’s count, the Davis robbery serves as a potent symbol of what is happening to this country.

But you wouldn’t know it from the official response. While National Security Minister Bernard Nottage has promised to review security protocols for high ranking officials, it will be business as usual on the general crime fighting front.

“We have in place a number of initiatives that are having some impact and (the public) ought not to be alarmed,” said Mr Davis himself.

At the same time though, the governing PLP’s spin on crime is undergoing a marked evolution.

In early 2012, they said the then government had failed to police crime, a fact highlighted by lurid murder count billboards erected all around Nassau just in time for the election, in what was probably the most politically motivated exploitation of crime and the fear of crime ever seen in this country.

There needed to be changes and the PLP promised their anti-crime plan would start showing results within 100 days.

But today, more than 500 days later, as yet another year of +100 murders winds to a close, Bahamians are more afraid for their safety than ever.

And so now, the billboard crew are chastising the opposition for making crime a political issue.

Back during the campaign, as one government MP recently explained, the PLP wasn’t actually attacking the FNM’s approach to crime, but rather the lack of an approach.

They, the PLP, at least have a strategy, the argument goes. At least they are trying, and that’s why they deserve immunity from criticism.

Nevermind that the results are more or less the same. The outcome, apparently, is not as important as the intent.

Truth is, neither administration has been able to stop the steady increase in crime since around 2005. Nor did they every really stand a chance at success.

Our crime epidemic is part of a region-wide, and to a certain extent world-wide, phenomenon fed by many factors outside our control – the global recession, the explosion of new forms of human trafficking that open the way for increased gun and drug smuggling among them.

What the PLP is actually guilty of, is selling false hope.

Of making promises they were unable to keep, of taking advantage of that most basic of fears – fear over the safety of one’s family – just to win an election.

What both parties need to admit now is that they have no idea what to do about crime. That we need help, urgent, comprehensive help, and that we need it now.

We have been declared a war zone; we need an international peace keeping force.

This need not be a drastic cry for help that will raise international alarm bells. It could take the form of an officer exchange programme of the kind suggested by psychologist Dr David Allen, who has spenf years studying the roots of crime.

Dr Allen said the Bahamas should approach close allies like the US, and countries that have special expertise in the recovery of firearms.

“For example,” he said, “5-10 Bahamian police officers would go to Israel and Canada and 5-10 of their officers from Israel and Canada would come to work in the Bahamas for a defined period of time to help eliminate the number of guns in our midst.

“This programme would enhance training, cross fertilisation, informed dialogue and decrease the incestuous nature of law enforcement so common in small countries.”

Long term, we need to introduce interventionist schooling strategies of the kind that have proven very successful in communities with problems and contexts analogous to our own.

That way, we can intervene in the tragic lives of today’s urban poor before another generation of children turn to violence.

National pride makes us unwilling to admit that we don’t have all the answers, that we might need the help of a foreigner who has successfully navigated a similar crisis elsewhere.

But unfounded self-belief is just another form of false hope.

It is exactly this kind of near-sighted arrogance that leads nations off a cliff, while a more mature and enlightened attitude may be the only thing that can save us in this late hour.

As Dr Allen said, “Asking for help is not shame and does not mean ineffective. On the contrary, it defines a vibrant spirit which is willing to face reality regardless of the obstacles.”

If an assault on the very symbol of civil authority in this country is not enough to prove this to us, nothing ever will be.

What do you think?

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