The time is nigh for the current administration to be up and doing with implementing a raft of changes to the Penal Code that would end with rules in place that give magistrates wide latitude in the imposition of fines for any number of life-style related ‘crimes. Such a move would go a long way to clearing out the system thus giving the administration the resources needed to deal with men and women convicted of offenses like rape, murder and arson.

There are all kind of things a government can do when it wakes to reality that things can collapse; that things can go awry – and that they can fail utterly.

This point we make against a social background where [as things now stand] more guns, more police, more police equipment, more burglar bars, more bed-room sized security cages and for sure, more prayers will add nothing to the fight that has not already been thrown into the struggle for peace on our streets, harmony in our neighbours and love in our homes.

More of the same can only produce more of the same waste of time, money and human resources.

Perhaps [and here just perhaps] the time has come for a cash-strapped administration to understand that there is no wisdom in pursuing policies that have demonstrably failed.

Highest on this list would be all those road-to-hell proposals that would send the so-called law-breaker to jail-with-no bail.

All that can happen is what has already happened: – More and more people are given custodial sentences; more and more people find themselves on remand; the government finds itself hard-pressed to meet its spiraling bills – and the system finds itself chock-full of cases. And at street-corner level, the garbage piles up; kids get sick, their idle parents teeter on the edge of distress – and woe of woes, there is no longer money enough to send in the clowns. While things may be bad, there is still space for hope.

As the old saying so rightly concludes, necessity is the mother of invention; and there is that other nostrum which holds that there are certain types of people in the world who while they may know the price of everything in the shop, have nary a clue concerning their real value.

Such a regime might finding itself swearing to high-heaven that things are not as bad as they seem – thus succumbing to the lure named ‘denial’.

Another response could well be that of hoping and praying that things could or would – with prayers – turn out differently.
And again, a wise government would hunker down; understand that human problems can and should be met [in clear face-off] with corresponding human designed and human-implemented solutions.

Evidently, therefore, it is at this juncture anybody’s guess the path that will be taken by the current administration.
As far as we are concerned – is that the Christie administration must be up and doing not only for the sake of its own survival and continued viability, but also for the well-being, safety, health and protection of the Bahamian Nation.
Indeed, yet again – we today insist that the street-level trade in guns and drugs; street-level smash and grab operations and any number of other nasty instances of chronically nasty gun-play and the now ubiquitous street-level sale of sex – when added together – now run the risk of becoming a god-awful toxic social mess. Living in and with the mess are some of this nation’s most innocent men, women and children. Is there no life-line for them?

Perhaps, there is; but for the moment, imagine this scenario: – You are steadily employed; you have a wife and you also have with this love of your life, three truly wonderful children; you have a house and so, you also have a mortgage. You also want the best for you, your brood and their truly wonderful mother.

And so, you pay dearly for their health, education and safety.

Alas, your neighbourhood is ‘infested’ with young thugs intent on ripping you off; and quite possibly raping and abusing wife and children and stealing the one car that is transportation for the family.

As paterfamilias, you spend more and more on security bars and more and more on dogs-as-security.

Right away, you have less to spend on the education of the children; the well-being of their mother and your own health.
This story is real-life, real-time story of what is currently happening to so very many people who could have – once-upon-a-time described themselves as being ‘solidly’ middle-class.

Today, these people are crying out for help.

Please help them.