Former gang member turned Crime Fighting Activist Carlos Reid spoke on the escalating crime recently and he says it’s obvious the country is in turmoil.

“If we try to tell people we are not in a crisis, then we will be misleading people,” he said yesterday.

Mr. Reid’s statements come shortly after the Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade stated the country is not in a crisis, after a weekend of more than six people being murdered.

“It is a falsehood to tell Bahamian public and the world at large that The Bahamas is in a crisis.” Mr. Greenslade said at a press conference held at the Police Headquarters on Monday.

Mr. Reid said, “I have the utmost respect for Commissioner Greenslade, despite what other people may think. I can’t say why he would say that, but sometimes when we are asked these questions we don’t always answer the way people would expect us to answer. Maybe his viewpoint is different from a Carlos Reid.

“We have a live war going on in our streets, it’s not like these gangsters are targeting anybody, they’re targeting the persons who feel like they did them wrong.

“My concern is in the process of this happening, it won’t be long before some innocent person ends up taking a bullet for somebody else.”

Mr. Reid also stated he thinks all Bahamians should share the opportunity to being armed for the defense and protection of themselves and their homes.

“Guns are a big problem. I’ve done some work with national security and that’s one of the things that was high on the agenda – how do we kill the supply of guns and ammunition into this country?” Mr. Reid said.

“To our knowledge, there are some high profile people who are providing these guns and these ammunition. The average young person going away, they won’t be able to come into our ports unless they are closely searched, so it has to be somebody with sound clout that are bringing in these guns.

“ It doesn’t make sense to stop the supply of guns coming in, that the criminal element avail themselves to do, but law abiding citizens can’t protect themselves against intruders and the likes.”