The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Almost a week ago, eight people were attacked by hitmen in a well-coordinated shooting, only two people survived, and six others killed, marking this incident as the second recorded mass shooting since 2013 and a similar incident that was reported back in the early 1960’s when the Bahamas was under the British Crown.

When it comes to the response of the police, the populace has been let down yet again as we hear another halfhearted statement and flimsy set of excuses. The RBPF has promised to investigate the flow of automatic AK rifles and AR-15 rifles that have been seen with gangs and lead an island wide manhunt for the people responsible for the murders, but the public is not being informed on the progress of both of those investigations.

In fact, if the manhunt isn’t making much progress on arresting the suspects, then the public support of arms trafficking investigations won’t work. Meanwhile, another man has been stabbed to death over the weekend; whilst reports of police brutality, corruption and the political witch hunt against other political figures is increasing in frequency, causing public support to crumble further and further for the officers.

One has to look inward and say this harsh truth: Is the RBPF only good for writing traffic tickets and charging people for minor offences rather than defending the streets against serious crimes of smuggling guns and saving lives? Unfortunately, this appears to be the case. Arms trafficking and drug trafficking is a very lucrative business in the Bahamas’ local black market.

Apparently, this grim statement holds true in the Western Hemisphere and certain parts of the world as well. In fact, with the exception of Canada, every police department from America to Argentina and Brazil is only good for handing out parking tickets and handling domestic disputes and never for serious crime fighting. Worse, it is claimed that some police officers are committing some of the injustices by unjustly killing people for racial reasons, excessive use of force and working with criminals themselves.

For Americans, if you do become a part of NYPD or any police department in the big cities then you’re stuck with pulling someone over with DUI violations; domestic disputes between disgruntled couples or friends, booking someone to the station for other misdemeanors. When it comes to more serious offences like gangs, murder, political corruption or smuggling, it’ll never be approved for you to investigate and be solved by those who are willing to clean up the streets.

If someone became an FBI agent or joined any other federal agencies outside of the CIA, then you’re also facing the same issues except on a national scale. You’ll be writing national security reports to your supervisor in the office space, monitoring individuals with various small-time offences and giving out PSAs at your local community or schools about drug abuse or cybercrimes. Once again, you’re not allowed to go after major crimes or to stop domestic terrorism, as it usually happens with mass shootings when the FBI and ATF fails to intervene before the suspect can carry out the attack. The only form of arrest they can get right is stopping foreign terror groups from carrying out attacks but that’s just it. Groups like the Neo Nazis and other associated extremist militia groups are constantly ignored and put on the back burner while they plot out potential targets.

If you’re a Mexican citizen or any country south of the USA and want to fight to protect your communities from the Drug Cartels, then you’re better off joining the military rather than the Police (or not at all). If you took the chance to join any Municipal, State or Federal Police branch; not only are you stuck with extreme corruption but being a police officer is virtually a suicide mission for not just you, but your family.

You’ll be outnumbered, outgunned and ill-equipped almost daily in your service against multiple fully equipped and well-established paramilitary drug trafficking organisations and run the daily risks of being betrayed by your own officials. The worst thing you’ll ever have to deal with is Plato o Plomo, which simply involves taking the cartel money to bribe you or they’ll kill you and your entire family. It’s no different in certain parts of Colombia, Venezuela and in Brazilian favelas.

Generally, being a police officer is one of the worst jobs that anyone can have in the Western Hemisphere. People join up to aid their communities and safeguard their homelands, but what is the use of protecting others at this point? Any form of corruption and bribery can instantly negate any progress against crime or terrorism and put innocent people at great risk.

Drug trafficking and illegal arms trafficking are two of the biggest killers in the big cities and the money from the black market are also the reason why law enforcement in almost every country in the Western Hemisphere is in shambles, both in police policies and in logistical support in the fight against serious crimes and national security threats.

Now compare our broken law enforcement to Europe and most of Asia. Most of these issues we see in the US and Latin America doesn’t exist there.

That’s because those countries both have a mostly stable and orderly society with a properly organised national police force rather than hundreds of smaller sheriff departments whose standards and policing vary from state to state.

For example, France and many European nations have a Gendarmerie, a military police branch that retains both traditional law enforcement with military training and strict standards and operating procedures. This usually results in a highly professional force that holds people far more accountable, but the one thing that makes European law enforcement effective in controlling violent crime today in that region is that the policy makers will allocate the necessary resources and allow the officers to combat the threat without the fear of being compromised most of the time.

Law enforcement is even more effective in most of Asia, not just because of the higher social standards and policing practices, it’s because some of those nations aren’t afraid to issue death sentences to people that committed some of the worst crimes anyone can think of. As a result, policing Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul and almost all of China, Saudi Arabia and most of Indonesia and Malaysia is significantly easier than most places because many criminals are too afraid to break laws or if they do and they end up getting a very long prison sentence or face the death sentence.

Maybe it’s time to admit that our Western brand of law enforcement is a living testament of failure in enforcing laws and protecting the public against serious crime and domestic forms of terrorism. As for the Bahamas, the only way to abandon this destructive path is to change both the culture and the police system to high standards and zero tolerance to failure and corruption.

AMMAKA RUSSELL

Nassau,

April 20, 2021.