Prime Minister Perry Christie has announced that several meetings will take place to discuss the economy and crime.

“We are going to have special meetings over this specifically with respect to the economy and crime which are two major issues because unless we are able to cause both of them to improve significantly then the country has a challenge,” he told reporters at the House of Assembly yesterday.

“There is something else going on with the ease of importation of weapons and we need to get to the bottom of it. I spoke to Hillary Clinton when she was US Secretary of State and she obliged the country by sending out people to assist with cooperation between both countries. When you find young men finding all these kinds of weapons then we know we are challenged and that means we have to be relentless. From where I sit we have to find a way to do more and to do better.”

The prime minister was speaking in light of the three homicides committed over the weekend as well as the homicide of 37-year-old Latore Mackey yesterday.

Twenty-two-year-old Nathaniel Moss and 22-year-old Charles Davis were both killed on Sunday in separate incidents in Nassau Village and Wulff Road respectively.

Rickion Kelly, 20, of Pinewood Gardens was also gunned down while sitting among a group of men on Avacado Street.

“The question for me is unless we are able to come to grips with what is happening at the level of the streets we have a real problem in this country that goes to the root of how we react,” Mr. Christie said.

“It’s easy to believe that it is retaliatory where you shoot me and I shoot you because we are all in one group but when it stretches and extends itself to people you least expect to be involved in any kind of underhand activity who may have just been a victim of circumstance then you know we have a lot of work to do and a lot of work to do in the immediate future. We cannot compromise on the safety and security of our citizens. We cannot have a situation develop where people are fearful to be out.”

Prime Minister Christie said he saw several photos of the body of one of the recent homicide victims who was shot by a high powered weapon and was “appalled.”

“The carnage brings home the reality that we have to do more,” he said.

“We have classes of over 60 recruits now and we have given them the equipment and resources to do what they do but there has to be more. For us now it’s going back to the drawing board, reviewing what we have and testing to see whether what we are doing is having any kind of impact and see what strategies we must employ. At the end of the day we need to do all we can as best as possible.”

Mr. Christie said what young men are doing on the streets is of “great concern” to him and citizens need to be careful.
“This is a small world and we have to anticipate that things will happen in The Bahamas,” he said.

“We have to recognise we have a lot of work we have to do because it speaks to the safety of all Bahamians. This is something we have to be totally occupied with. We have to reach these young men who do the killing and who are being killed because they are all victims. We have to be able to protect these same young men from themselves and each other.”