By SANCHESKA BROWN
Tribune Staff Reporter
sbrown@tribunemedia.net
PRIME Minister Perry Christie said yesterday the government will hold several “special meetings” this week with the Police Commissioner and National Security Minister to decide what can be done “immediately” to stop the escalating crime in New Providence.
His comments came hours after his “friend” Latore Mackey, who was his press secretary and deputy director of Bahamas Information Services, was shot and killed while driving through Market Street around 4:30am Monday.
Mr Mackey was one of five men killed in less than 36 hours after a weekend of violence in the capital.
His killing brought the country’s murder count to 83 for the year.
Mr Christie said the government is “challenged” to find a solution to the recent spate of murders, however, he said, his administration will be “relentless in (its) effort” to decrease crime and the fear of crime before it becomes “uncontrollable.”
“We are going to meet and have special meetings as soon as we are finished with the House,” he told reporters after the House of Assembly broke for its luncheon recess. “We are going to have several meetings this week, specifically with respect to crime and the economy because they are the two major issues. Unless we are able to cause both of them to improve significantly, the country will have a challenge.”
Mr Christie also questioned how illegal firearms were so easily obtained by young men.
“There is something else going on to do with the importation of these weapons. I spoke with Hilary Clinton when she was (US) secretary of state and she obliged the country by sending out high-powered persons to discuss new levels of operations between the Americans and ourselves about how these weapons are coming in,” he added. “When you find young men on the streets can go and find a .45 or a .38 or whatever else and now AK 47s, you know we have a challenge and a problem. We have to be relentless in our effort to find out and dedicate more resources to doing so. It is something that I will have more to say about after I have had in-depth consultations with the commissioner and minister of national security, but from where I sit we have to find a way to do more and do better.”
The Prime Minister said the government’s priority is and always has been developing short-term and long-term policies that will aid in its effort to fight and eliminate crime.
He said: “We have to be able to come up with strategies and provide a greater degree of safety for our people and to try and reach these young men who do the killing and are killed themselves and become victims. There is something going on out there and we have to have a much better understanding of it.
“I am just committed to that and this is something that is both long-term and short-term, but we have to be able to protect our young men from each other. These are the matters that concern us because they are engaged in the kinds of attacks that are beyond reason and we need to find them and address these issues because otherwise we will go down a road that is uncontrollable and that is what we must avoid. When you have spates of killing over a weekend to that extent, we have to be frank in our admission. This is not what we want, this is not what we like and therefore we have to do something about it. As to what we are going to do about it, again it is a technical question in terms of resources and manpower and these are matters we have to deal with.”
Last December, the government held a special Cabinet meeting on crime after a “heinous” drive-by shooting at a park in Fox Hill that killed four people and injured seven others.
The government held a press conference after that special meeting and outlined more than 20 plans that were part of the its efforts to accelerate the war on crime.
Among the plans were increased police saturation patrols in crime hot spots, promises to introduce legislation that will give career criminals stiffer penalties for gun crimes and consideration of legislation to restrict the granting of bail for those charged with violent crimes.
Comments
Well_mudda_take_sic 9 years, 7 months ago
And just what have your special meetings ever accomplished you bloated oaf?
Tommy77 9 years, 7 months ago
What a big mess.
http://s04.flagcounter.com/mini/kfoW/..." style="display:none" />
hj 9 years, 7 months ago
It's time again for the "magic map".
TheMadHatter 9 years, 7 months ago
PM, you cannot have legislation to restrict granting of bail to those charged with violent crimes. It is their (and ours) Constitutional right not to be placed in jail forever without a trial.
People don't seem to understand that the Courts are not letting out on bail any murderers. Not even one. They are releasing "accused murderers" who the Government has not seen fit to bring before the Court for a trial and have simply been languishing in jail for an unacceptable time.
This prevent you and me from simply being accused of a violent crime and then being put in jail by politicians or personal enemies or anyone else. It prevents the judicial system from being used as a weapon of discrimination and victimization.
The Government needs to provide COURTS. Where are the 10 new courts they promised? Where are the NEW judges to sit in those courts. Where are the NEW stenographers to assist the current ones who choose not to show up to work whenever they feel like it and cause the delay of any trial they choose to delay? Where are the remaining support staff to run those courts?
Without courts working there is no way to bring accused persons to trial.
The lack of courts and the lack of jail space for potential criminals is the root cause of the problem in enforcing the Law.
But, if you want to blame it on the availability of guns - go right ahead and give that a try. We can have this same conversation a year from now if you prefer.
TheMadHatter
PKMShack 9 years, 7 months ago
Here is an idea PM, use one of those ideas (plan A,,B,C,D, Etc.) to crime you said you had during election, surely you had more than one solution! You know the back up plan in case plan A did not work. But then again the PLP voters got what they voted for. Don't complain now. ................... Thus far most should not be surprised of there results so far
SP 9 years, 7 months ago
Blah blah blah, change depends order hair dye do nothing but talk crap.
Make long winded speeches using as many words as humanly possible in incoherent sentences that make absolutely no sense.
Appoint more committees that never meet to discuss problems you have no solutions for because corruption starts at the top but only ends at the bottom of what we see now everyday.
Christie IS THE PROBLEM! Getting rid of him is the 1st step to solving crime and every other woe of the country!
Emac 9 years, 7 months ago
You forget to mention that the committee members are highly paid PLP cronies and outcasts who continuously bleed the treasury.
ThisIsOurs 9 years, 7 months ago
Change depends??:)
SP 9 years, 7 months ago
Depends.....Underwear for men
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ThisIsOurs 9 years, 7 months ago
I know:) that's why I was sniggling:)
Honestman 9 years, 7 months ago
How about we cancel all the unnecessary government expenditure lined up for the next three years (including inflated side deals for friends and cronies)? How about we collect all the outstanding Property Tax? After we have paid down some of the national debt with this money, how about we use the balance to fund the establishment of a crack squad of highly trained shooters who will seek out the criminals carrying illegal guns and take them out dead or alive? There would of course be a one week warning to hand over illegal weapons before the elite shooters are given the go ahead. That's the kind of initiative I believe the Bahamian people want to hear, not more garbage about holding more meetings to review crime strategies.
jt 9 years, 7 months ago
Clear out some casino rooms in Vegas! Perry needs some "special meetings".
B_I_D___ 9 years, 7 months ago
Hurry up PGC!! Form up a committee to investigate!! We will expect a report in 2015 as to the findings!!
ThisIsOurs 9 years, 7 months ago
Get illegal guns off the street? Close the webshops. You have NO idea what money is made, how the operations were financed, what money flows through and what the money is used to finance. Wake up or resign
ThisIsOurs 9 years, 7 months ago
Why don't you hold special meetings to understand why and your colleagues refuse to listen to the voice of the people? The "crime is out of control" cry has been echoing for months now while BJ has been getting up in the house telling us what wonderful results UR 2.0 is receiving.
Hogfish 9 years, 7 months ago
but only now that one of their own PLP has been gunned down in cold blood does he decide that crime is bad and they have to do something!!
Pure example of how PLP is NOT for the Bahamas as a whole nation but only for themselves. They've always been that way and always will be.
John 9 years, 7 months ago
Whenever I talk to an aunt on the family island she is say , "Child keep yourself out the way of them crazy people in Nassau. When you see them fightin lock yourself inside an let them kill one another." That is not as simple as it seems today because you can become a target abd a victim of crime and violence in an instant. In war soldiers have on uniforms and can identify who the enemy is. In this Bahamas family members are killing each other and not realizing they are related. Do I have a solution? "Chile lock ya sef in ya house an let them crazy people kill up one another."
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