AN “INCIDENT” took place at Government House on Tuesday afternoon, but it was not included in the crime report because, according to the police, it was “minor”.
This is where the police are wrong. Often an “incident” might not make news, but the place where that “incident” takes place can turn it into big news.
And Government House, the nation’s state house, heavily guarded by the Bahamas Defence Force and the Royal Bahamas Police Force, is not a place where violent crime, no matter how minor on the police blotter, is supposed to happen.
The same incident happening in Grants Town today might be brushed aside as minor, but when committed at Government House, it is major.
Government House is where the Governor-General resides and receives ministers of state — yesterday it was the Finnish ambassador presenting his credentials for the first time — various groups of important people, both local and international, and many Bahamian children, who are guests of the governor and his wife. If there is one spot on this island that should be safe from the crime closing in on our communities, it should be Government House.
We certainly have not heard the end of this incident, no matter how minor the police might consider it. What happened at Government House would never have happened if the rules had not been broken, and standards of employment had been maintained. However, procedures are breaking down in many of our government departments today because slackness has taken hold — a slackness that is corroding every section of this island. Of course, no one is supposed to notice, and certainly no one is expected to object, because didn’t you know? – “Man, dis we country, and we Bahamians do as we like… chile ye jes don’t mess with us!”
Instead of moving forward, we are slipping back into our slothful ways of the Pindling era.
At around 2:50pm on Tuesday, two Government House workers were embroiled in an argument over the state in which one of them had left the staff toilets.
Valentine “Boxer” McPhee, on the regular Government House staff as a general worker, decided to take the matter up with the unofficial worker. This 28-year-old man, who will not be named, had been assigned by the Ministry of Works to the Ministry’s electrician responsible for maintaining the electrical needs of the state house.
The result of this encounter with the electrician’s helper was that “Boxer” had to be rushed off to hospital having been stabbed with a screwdriver in his head, shoulder and neck. He was released from hospital yesterday.
It is understood that Government House staff are very upset.
Said one: “If Boxer hadn’t been a strong young man, who pushed the other man off, or if this had been a woman or older staff member, and if the weapon had been a knife instead of a screwdriver, this attack would have been fatal — plenty blood would have been spilled.”
The staff at the big house are particularly upset because all of their security rules have been breached — and by another government department.
Before anyone can be hired at Government House, they have to go through severe security checks. Not only do they have to have a clean police record, but they have to be of sound mind.
If what we have learned of the second man is true, then many questions have to be asked and answered. How could he have got under Government House’s security radar in the first place? And how could he have been sent to Government House without being subjected to the mandatory checks?
As for the safety of other employees how could the Ministry of Works have considered employing such a person on its staff?
Surely, these are not the type of persons that Immigration expects the private sector to accommodate.
Apparently, alarm bells sounded for some of Government House’s staff when they once spotted the “electrician” climbing over Government House’s high walls.
Someone now has to explain how a person like this could have been employed by any government department, particularly if the safety of other employees is considered important.
We hope this man gets the help he obviously needs. But questions have to be asked, and answered as to why Government House’s security was treated in such a cavalier manner.
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