HAS MURDER BECOME ROUTINE IN THE BAHAMAS?

viagra usa sovaldi sale times;”>Within minutes of the death of the man in the photo in Freeport on Tuesday 20^th July, best cialis salve the image of the dead man’s body was broadcast across the web by someone from the scene.  His wife has now been charged with his murder. Our best guess is that it was someone on the scene who published the image.  It is wrong.  It is a violation of the dignity and privacy of the individual killed.  It is meant to titillate and sensationalize.  The authorities have said they are exploring ways to ban the use of these photos.

We perhaps are also part of the problem by publishing it ourselves but our excuse is that of the news value of the point we are seeking to make.  The point is that last week in addition to that murder in Freeport there was at least four others in Nassau and shooting as well.  The headlines appear in the newspapers and on the television and radio.  The pictures and videos are spread across the web and the pubic moves on.  There is the scream and griefs of the victim’s families, and then there is the silent revenge because it appears that within days, weeks months and years, the victims’ families kill those they suspect have killed their loved ones.   The authorities seem unable to stop it.

We are good at commentary, we are good at outrage but nothing that we have said or done has stopped one killing.  The slaughter keeps going on.

The sharing of the gory videos and photos portrays a kind of immunity to the death and it has become a form of entertainment.  The police report instances of people who step over bodies on the scene, grab the money out of the hands of victims who died with it in their hands and walk into the shop to buy fried chicken without missing a beat.  Such is the insensitivity to this whole matter.  Death it seems means nothing and the body which the Catholics say is the temple of the lord is disrespected in the worse way.

The question is what do we do?  No one knows the answer to this.   What has happened though is that the society has settled into a kind of routine over this.  We seem to have come to the point where we hunker down within our own walls.  First we make sure that the tourists don’t suffer.  Then we make sure that the Americans stay off our backs in their silly reports about crime in the country.  Then we say to ourselves, it’s the bad boys killing the bad boys.  The fact is most of the murders in New Providence are confined to three of the constituencies in New Providence.  Rarely does it come outside of that.  There is a kind of routine then and comfort zone that settles in.  It’s them not us.

The problem is that is no comfort at all.  The stray bullet can hit the innocent.  Further, who wants to be living in a country that is known for mayhem and murder?  We must find a way to bring it under control or eventually it will swallow us all up.