Crime Stats Show FNM Has Not Made Any Difference
Well the Minister of National Security Marvin Dames the man with the dark shades wanted to crow about the fact that crime is down. He did so saying that overall crime is down 22 per cent so the stats say from last year over 2016. But guess what the murders went up by ten per cent. Uh oh! But isn’t that what his predecessor Dr. Bernard Nottage told the country, God rest him, just a year and half ago or so? Crime was trending down, but murders were up. The adoring media laughed at the PLP for saying it but now praise the FNM for their “success” and say that the PLP have no credibility on crime. The adoring media are a joke. They do a disservice to The Bahamas because of their biases. Anyway, dems the facts. The PLP Chairman issued the following statement:
From The Office Of The Chairman Of The Progressive Party
Responding to The Crime Statistics: No False FNM Crowing
For Immediate Release
17 January 2018
There is an old saying that there are lies, damn lies and statistics.
So we don’t want the adoring media doing any false crowing about how crime is down because of the efforts of the FNM.
The previous Minister of National Security Bernard Nottage under the PLP said crime was trending downwards, even though homicides were up. The Minister of National Security Marvin Dames today is saying the same thing. The release of the current statistics for 2017 show exactly the same thing as under Dr. Nottage. Crime is trending down in some categories but homicides are up.
In this morning’s press, the Minister made light of the comments of the Leader of the Opposition when he indicated that the FNM was failing in crime, but it is now clear that the Minister did not have a handle on his own Ministry and the stats with regard to homicides or deliberately sought to mislead the public on them.
The FNM and their adoring media made fun of it and said it wasn’t so. Now the adoring media in the same circumstances and their FNM friends want to cry foul at the PLP so they can be free to boast that crime is down. No such luck.
Compare the first week of the year in Grand Bahama last year and the first year this year. Three murders this year. None last year. So tell the families in Grand Bahama this year that crime is down.
It is all childish in a way if it were not so serious.
Our point is that the PLP put in place the programmes that the country is now benefiting from in seeking to lessen violence in the society. No one party can therefore lay claim to any success singularly.
We wish to thank the Commissioner of Police and all law enforcement officers for their work in accomplishing this downward trend. We must not rest on our laurels. The PLP pledges to work with the Police and all persons of goodwill in the society to fight the scourge of crime. In that fight we are unremitting.
Finally, we are also concerned that Marvin Dames seems to want to be both Minister and Commissioner of Police. It is for the Commissioner to reveal his plans for the year, not Marvin Dames in the House. That is what the legislation intends and that is what should ensue. We have raised this issue before about his interference in the Force. We raise it again.
End