“We actually don’t have a crime problem, but we have a neglect problem,” were the words Minister of National Security Marvin Dames as he  opened his address  in a  Meet the Minister breakfast held at the British Colonial Hilton yesterday.

Speaking to a room filled with professionals from various backgrounds, Mr. Dames said, “many would ask the question, ‘what’s the police doing about crime?’ and one of my responses would be, what’s happening around us is a manifestation of the neglect over decades in this country.

According to Police Statistics, overall crime is down; arm robberies, robberies, rape, burglary, house break-ins and business break-ins are all down significantly, Mr. Dames indicated.

However, unfortunately, what plagues this country and this region is the problem of murdering your brother and sister.

Mr. Dames said, “what we continue to be plagued with in this country and I dare say too, even within the developed world, is this problem of young men, young black men in particular killing each other.

“Today, we’ve been seeing that now, for a little more than a decade; a continued upward spiral of the homicide rates in this country,” said the Minister.

He  told the audience, “many of us sitting in this room, many of us sitting on the outside are a part of that problem, or responsible for what we’re seeing here today.”

Mr. Dames  spent  23 years  on  the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) and  has witnessed the rise in criminal activity in the  country, which has now become an epidemic.