The Tribune

A RECURRING question behind the police investigation into death threats against the Save the Bays environmental group comes from Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade who wants to know why there were no complaints to police about the death threats before now. And, why was a private investigator brought in from Fort Lauderdale to investigate allegations that Canadian fashion designer Peter Nygard had hired two “hit men” to harass and intimidate four directors of the environmental group, the pastor, who heads the Bahamas Against Crime Movement, and The Tribune’s Business editor.

The answer to his question seems as obvious to us as it should be to him. However, we shall outline the sequence of events and let our readers decide what their decision would have been had they found themselves in the same position as the environmentalists.

It is true that as time wore on and angry threats against the group not only continued, but had become more threatening, the decision was made to take the matter into their own hands and try to find their own solution to protect themselves.

Behind the walls of Lyford Cay, the Bacon and Nygard quarrel over their environmental differences had been going on for sometime. However, it became public when we received a complaint from Mr Louis Bacon’s lawyer informing us that The Tribune was being used to spread untrue propaganda against his client. Of course, one could guess the instigator of this dastardly act. We discovered that our vendors were being paid to stuff the Klu-Klux-Klan propaganda against Mr Bacon into our newspaper. This happened on two occasions. We wrote an editorial each time, alerting the public, and warned the vendors of the consequences of their actions should they continue. We soon got the problem under control.

And then there were the hate rallies — one paid group even had the audacity to become part of our New Year’s junkanoo parade on Bay Street in January last year. They wore Nygard shirts, declaring Save Nygard Cay – one carried a placard that declared that Rev CB Moss, executive director of the Bahamas against Crime, and a member of the environmentalist group, was a “paid fraud”, Lyford Cay resident and noted US environmentalist Louis Bacon was a “terrorist” and lawyer Fred Smith, QC, was a “Haitian infidel”, questioning whether he was a Bahamian or an illegal Haitian. The placards and hostile attitude of the crowd, was menacing. It was later learned that they had been paid to demonstrate.

Members of the environmental group complained to police that they felt threatened. “The intent of these reprehensible displays was clearly to demonise and strike fear into the hearts of those advocating for greater individual rights, government transparency and respect for the rule of law. We urge the prime minister in the strongest of terms, not to let such heinous behaviour go uninvestigated and unpunished. Above all, we urge him to intervene immediately to ensure that our members enjoy the same level of safety.” They pleaded to deaf ears.

Earlier in July 2014, a highly-publicised hate rally by a “rent-a-crowd” in downtown Nassau was composed of several thousand young Bahamian men carrying placards and wearing T-shirts with derogatory and defamatory descriptions of the plaintiffs.

Mr Romauld Ferreira, a director of Save the Bays, testified that several days after this rally there was a break-in at his law office, followed by acts of vandalism at his home and confrontational verbal attacks on the street which included explicit death threats. Despite four separate requests to the police by Mr Ferreira, “no authorities investigated the acts of vandalism against him, and no meaningful action was taken to investigate the source of the hate rallies despite four letters written to the police by Fred Smith over seven months,” a court document reported.

Two paid “hit men” poured gasoline on Rev Moss’ car and set it on fire to frighten him from his environmentalist leanings. Also, according to court documents, lawyer Fred Smith complained that he was surrounded and attacked on Jaws Beach by about six men armed with various makeshift weapons, including crowbars, before managing to flee in his car.

In a letter dated May 15, 2015, Mr Smith, QC, of Callenders & company, wrote to Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade listing the number of times one of their associates had complained to police about criminal threats, intimidation and harassment over a nine month period with no help from any member of the force.

“On 25th March, 2015 (in or about a month after lodging the Complaint and not receiving a response),” he wrote, “some of the victims subsequently met with Acting Deputy Commissioner of Police, Stephen Seymour where they provided him with an oral account of the Hate Rallies and the fear and anxiety they now live with as a result of the same. The victims confirmed that they required police investigation and police action. They also asked the Acting Deputy Commissioner of Police to keep them abreast of any development in the investigation.

“In response, Acting Deputy Commissioner Seymour undertook to review the Complaint and to conduct an investigation in respect of the same. We enclose a letter date 26th March, 2015 from one of the Victims, Diane Phillips (on behalf of the Victims) to Acting Deputy Commissioner Stephen Seymour briefly detailing the meeting.

“To date, the victims have not heard anything further from Acting Deputy Commissioner Seymour or yourself in relation to the complaint.

“Consequently, Diane Phillips has made numerous attempts to contact you and has left countless messages following up on the status of the investigation against the perpetrators of the Hate Rallies. She has yet to even receive the courtesy of a reply.

“Two months have passed since the lodging of the complaint and we have yet to receive a formal response and/or any indication from you as to whether an investigation has commenced against the perpetrators of the Hate Rallies.”

And so the letter continued. The only conclusion to draw from this was that the police were not interested and had no intention of doing anything.

The group was on its own. And so they took their own counsel and started their own investigation. Michael Pintard, an active member of Save the Bays, who was also the FNM’s chairman, started to ask questions to find out who was behind all the threats. Slowly and painstakingly — as a reporter does in checking out information for a story — he kept digging for answers when suddenly out of the wood work appeared two characters – criminals Livingston “Toggie” Bullard and Wisler “Bobo” Davilma— and what a hair-raising story did they tell! It was at this point that the group learned that their lives were indeed in danger. Had the police investigated when their help was first sought, they could have uncovered this for themselves. They chose to ignore the complaints.

And so, the group, realising that not only was the threat real, but had been allowed to go on for too long by an indifferent police force, turned to outside experts for help. This we are certain is what our readers would have done in a similar situation. It is certainly what we would have done. And, as for the Commissioner, the answer to his questions should be obvious. It is now up to the Commissioner to proceed with the investigation, and bring those who have a case to answer to the Bar of Justice.

Already too much time has been wasted, and even now the investigators seem to be dragging their feet.