NASSAU, BAHAMAS — St Barnabas MP Shannendon Cartwright lamented the public is becoming tired, frustrated, and angry in the face of escalating violent crime despite the government’s promise to implement strategies and tactics to get the matter under control.
“A government’s number one priority is to keep our communities and its citizens safe and in this respect, sadly the government has not done that,” he said on Friday.
“We have consistently said we have made 14 recommendations to the government, we’ve consistently said that while there is no politics or that crime should not be a political issue what it is, it’s a national issue and the government should lead.”
Cartwright added that the public has not seen a clearly mapped out plan from the Progressive Liberal Party on how they will address the crime issue as the murder rate continues trending upward. He says a comprehensive, collaborative plan can be the solution for an incremental reduction in the crime rate.
“We would have consistently noted that in March there was a record number of murders, 22 murders since that time we are now in November, since that time we have not seen any real comprehensive plan for the government to tackle this issue and the Bahamian people quite frankly see that the government is failing in this regard,” he said.
“It’s a multifaceted problem, it stems from a number of issues, economic challenges, education challenges some would even suggest, some overall national security issues relating to immigration, so we need to come together as a country and what we’re asking that the government do is to bring the various stakeholders together.
Cartwright added: “Civic organizations, NGOs, churches, anti-crime groups, let us come together and come up with a comprehensive plan, to arrest this problem.”
