By PACO NUNEZ
Tribune News Editor
THE body of a young man was lying face down in a dusty, garbage heaped alley, surrounded by barricade tape as police waited for the hearse.
He had been shot several times in the head by another young man, barely in his 20s.
All around, his neighbours stood watching the show with a look of indifference that seemed to approach boredom.
Some treated the death of a boy they’d known their whole life like it was a joke. They had seen this too many times for it to make an impression.
A boy of about nine years old wheeled up on a rusty bike, older and taller than he was. He glanced at the body, gave a short laugh and said, “That’s Bain Town for ya,” before riding away.
Covering this murder scene last year, the result of a petty dispute between street corners, was my introduction to the new form of violence that today haunts this most iconic of Nassau communities.
Life has never been easy in Bain Town, and over the years tough social conditions and the stigma of being born in the ghetto have led many young men into a life of crime, driven young girls to prostitution and pushed both to hard drug use.
But what is happening now is something different, something more dangerous, and even some of the established hard men are becoming afraid.
People in Bain Town tell us that the new gunman is young, sometimes only 14 or 15, and he is ruthless, blood thirsty.
“These boys, they killers, stone cold killers,” one resident told us.
“Back in the day, drug dealers, gangsters, they would have their gun near them, or in their waist.”
But now, when the sun goes down, these boys go stalking through the narrow Bain Town streets with gun in hand.
They are becoming a common sight – brazen, ready, daring anyone to challenge them or just be too slow to get out of the way.
Unlike their predecessors, who used violence as a tool to protect or avenge the important things in life – friends, family, business, money – these boys seem to hurt or kill for fun.
This generation is much more numerous than the one that came before it. And they are slowly taking over.
Bain Town residents told us older established drug dealers are being forced to retire by teenagers, sometimes their own relatives.
One verbal warning, then it’s a bullet in the leg for the former boss. Or maybe he wakes up in the middle of the night to find his car on fire.
For many readers, the suggestion this chaos is developing right under their noses, steps from Bay Street and within a few miles of the glitz of Atlantis, sounds like a piece of fiction.
But Bain Town really has become a separate reality, and long time community activist Rev CB Moss believes grasping this fact is key to understanding what is happening to the area’s young men.
On an island where the majority of households complain when their garbage isn’t collected for a few weeks, nearly every street in this neighbourhood is permanently defiled by abandoned lots piled high with refuse, derelict vehicles, human and animal faeces.
As Rev Moss explained, in a country where water interruptions of a few hours lead to angry outcries, the many in Bain Town who lack indoor toilets and clean water to wash with, feel basic rights and normal standards of life are not available to them.
It is the same for Bain Town’s scores of elderly shut-ins, forced to live in rotting ply-wood structures without electricity or running water, whose only source of help is Rev Moss and other concerned residents.
The same for those forced to feed their children the cheapest kinds of processed food, little better than garbage, and never enough. Who apply to Social Services for regular assistance and in response are offered a single ticket for a plate of food at a charity located in another constituency.
And, it is the same for young men who can’t get a job because both their family and the public education system has failed them. Because they carry the stigma of the area they are from.
Young men who feel the sharp end of the government’s crackdown on crime when the police pull them off street corners, seemingly at random, for “questioning”.
With police tactics becoming tougher as pressure for results trickles down from the politicians, through senior command and down to officers on the beat, they say teenagers are disappearing indefinitely more and more.
Once in police custody, they are completely at the mercy of officers. No one can pay for a lawyer. No one in their family knows anyone important enough to intervene.
These young men have come to feel the system is against them, that it both abandons and persecutes them at the same time.
As we walked through Bain Town last week speaking to residents, the sense of injustice was palpable.
It was clear the entire neighbourhood feels cut off from the rest of the country, discriminated against.
Speaking to unemployed young men, who say they are all willing to work and just want someone to give them a chance at a job, it is easy to see how anger and resentment can turn into crime and violence.
Especially as the lack of opportunity for them is daily compounded by the spectacle of easy jobs for others – others just like them, but with the added benefit of good connections.
“Its not what you know, its who you know,” is a truism among Bahamians, but it never means as much as it does to those who have literally nothing.
Rev Moss explained that through their own experiences and observations, many of these young men have come to believe none of the ‘haves’ in this society earned their prosperity fairly, but rather got it by unprincipled means.
Is it really so surprising that looking at their hungry children, their terrible living conditions, they would decide to get some of it for themselves by the only artificial advantage at their disposal – the barrel of a gun?
But as much as the rest of us fear the “criminal element”, the truth is, most of the victims of this predatory mindset are other young men just like them, who die senselessly almost every day.
And the rest of us shrug and say, ‘Thats Bain Town for ya.”
Comments
banker 10 years, 7 months ago
Wow -- an accurate picture of the disenfranchised Bahamians.
dahasamo 10 years, 7 months ago
Disenfranchised? On the contrary, these are the voters who always select the representatives who treat them with contempt and neglect.
4renbahamian 10 years, 7 months ago
So you are saying neither party never cared about Bain Town, the stigma of bain town was created by those who never lived in the area, a lot of good people came out of that area. The lack of social and area development = getto. Who is at fault? We all are.
SP 10 years, 7 months ago
Bring Hubert Ingraham and the FNM back so they can sell another $40M in work permits to blue collar workers.
concernedcitizen 10 years, 7 months ago
your right these fine citizens should be sent to work in the reef on paradise island and in the high end homes of Frankie Wilson and the Williams family and for Nygard and other rich investor , or better yet they should be giving the keys to the country to run the public utilities ,BTC included ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,of course i,m being sarcastic
John 10 years, 7 months ago
Unless and until government comes to realize that crime driven by impoverished, economically disadvantaged people will not be solved by the police putting more burden and pressure on them, then the saga of increasing crime rates will continue. Rather than spending more money on police cars, that have a life time of less than 3 years, and sending a clear signal that they want to lock up people who only want to get something to eat, government must create or cause to be created jobs for these people. Or in the alternative, provide social assistance to these people. This is the third of fourth decade running that whenever there is a spike in criminal activity politicians and law enforcement officers launch an all out assault on the Bahamian public and more specifically, the motoring. So what happens: A young male going back and forth to work and to other legitimate destinations is repeatedly, stopped, questioned and searched by the police. So one day he gets tired of the,' harassment". So he quits his job and before even he realizes what is happening, he is either on the street corner selling drugs for a dealer, or he becomes a member of a street gang and is on his way to commit his first serious crime. Why can't the police sit down (maybe they don't want to mash the crease in their uniforms) and plan specific strategy to focus on and deal with the criminal element? Then work with the courts to get these people off the streets? A hungry man is an angry man and the bible says, "the poor will always be with us.'' but a good proportion of the crime element resides within the police force, from constable, straight up to the khaki uniform, that is no rumor, that is a proven fact. Government must learn to offer the impoverished a cup of clean water (even if it ain't cold) and a slice of bread, rather than a handcuff and a police billy. Many people are willing to work, but they cannot find jobs. They cannot find jobs for which they qualify. Many persons who are caught up in drug use and abuse are victims who need help. One suggestion that may put some people back to work and help communities like Bain and Grants Town and similar communities...never mind..no one is listening
jlcandu 10 years, 7 months ago
For God sake, you reap what you sow! Residents living in this area have voted for the same tired old politician all their lives -- got nothing, can't get nothing, and still continued to vote for him. You may not want anything for yourself, but shouldn't you want a better life for your children? If you want something different to happen, you need to do something different!!! Why aren't the residents storming to the MP's office or the House of Assembly? It's only the power of the people that can get the worthless politicians to actually do something.
And what about Urban Renewal 2.0 -- the PLP's answer to everything??!! If it's not working, the residents need to mobilize against the worthless MP. The squeaky wheel always get the grease!!!
John 10 years, 7 months ago
Ok so the spirit led me back to this page.
here's a suggestion, it may be as simple as it appears but it is a matter of taking Urban Renewal to level 4.0:
When you pass through Bain and Grants Town and Nassau Village and parts of Englerston do you know persons are not protected from the elements? They have households with babies and small children and when it rains as much water comes into the home as pours outside. Why don't the government get a team together and do an assessment of these homes and undertake and effort to get all leaking or collapsing roofs repaired? Hire the unemployed in the area to do the work and seek donations for the material and government may need to supply some of it. Some residents may be able to supply their own material and have government pay for the labor to get their roofs repaired. Then take the program to the family islands, Eight Mile Rock and West End n Grand Bahama, Deep Creek and a number of southern settlements in Eleuthera, then to Cat Island and so on. Some homeowners may be able to enter into low interest or interest free loans to purchase materials for their repairs even.
banker 10 years, 7 months ago
Everything that you say resonates with sensibility. Unfortunately, the sensible voices are squelched first in this Clockwork Orange of a country.
letstalkaboutit 10 years, 7 months ago
NO matter wat is said, what is been dun why cant thay start big projects, and try to employ as much bahamian as possible,why is the so hard for the PLP govment to get investors to invest, what is there intrest afew high paying jobs for afew, or work for as many of us as is possible, time is running out for some of us we do not know who the next funeral is for.
letstalkaboutit 10 years, 7 months ago
ok the spirit lead u back, i work for nama here in Freeport for a couple of months repairing roofs that was damage by hurricanes, most of the people were senior citizen,it is a good thing for them to do, but the engine of accountable and transparency with dependency was not in it, so thay stop it.
leeza 10 years, 7 months ago
If there are no jobs then why not create work for yourselves buy a case of water for under ten dollars at least 24 comes in the case sell that and then keep turning the money over. Stealing and prostitution are excuses there are a lot of persons out there that aren't working but they are not committing crimes and have no intentions of doing so. I was out of a job for a long time, but I now have a little business which I started with under three hundred bucks so I say stop looking to people to give you a job and use your God given talent and watch God open doors for you.
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