The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

NATIONAL Security Minister Myles Laroda has warned against “vigilante justice” following a viral video showing a nine-year-old boy hanging from a fence by his shirt after stealing a man’s bicycle.

Mr Laroda said the theft should have been handled by the Royal Bahamas Police Force. He acknowledged the community’s concerns about the child’s behaviour but cautioned against taking matters into their own hands.

“We could do the wrong things sometimes for the right reason,” he told reporters. “From what I saw, you know, that could have gone in a different direction.

“While I support discipline, I support respect. I think it should be proportional. I discourage vigilante justice. We see what is happening on our streets to our young men, and that is not a direction I would like us to go to.”

Mr Laroda’s comments come after a series of videos involving the nine-year-old and the bicycle theft went viral on social media last week.

The incident began on Monday when a video showed a man riding his bicycle to a corner store, parking it outside and entering the establishment.

Several boys were gathered nearby on bicycles. The nine-year-old was seen sitting on the handlebars of another boy’s bicycle before getting off and waiting for the man to enter the store. He then took the unattended bicycle and rode away with some of the other boys.

A second video, titled “Culprit caught”, showed the group being confronted by a man who was recording them and demanding to know who had stolen the bicycle.

The other boys pointed to the nine-year-old, identifying him as the person responsible. One boy smiled and shouted while pointing at him.

The man then grabbed the child by the arm and told him he was getting “locked up”.

Another video showed the boy hanging from a fence by his shirt and crying as the person recording questioned who had placed him there.

The footage prompted debate online, with some arguing that the boy should face consequences for stealing, while others condemned the decision to hang him from the fence and record his distress.

In an interview with The Tribune, the boy’s mother condemned the public humiliation of her nine-year-old son. She said he deserved discipline but should not have been treated that way. “They never should have hung him on the fence,” she said. “They should have brought him to me and let me know what he did instead of hanging him on the fence and recording it and posting it like it's a joke.”

The single mother of eight added that she had disciplined her son over the theft but believed he was being influenced by older boys whose company she had repeatedly tried to keep him away from.