The New Year 2019 started with a shooting incident where a young man was shot in the head. Mercifully, he is still alive. In a matter of days, we believe, we will start counting the dead bodies again of young people who are being slaughtered on our streets and in our heartland communities.
Sadly, there are people in our country who routinely flout the law of this land.
They do so not only when they do their retaliation killings, but also when they reach out and intimidate citizens who know them.
This is part and parcel of a far deeper process which –if left unattended-will undermine the legitimacy of the State Authority.
This is precisely why today, we insist: No matter the spin put on crime statistics and for that matter on the incidence of murder on this island and throughout the country, the fact remains that there are men and women ‘out-there’ who routinely set up their own kangaroo courts and from which death sentences are tendered certain street-level thugs.
In this regard, recently two men, one of whom was being electronically monitored by police, were found shot to death in Jubilee Gardens early two weeks ago.
These killings came shortly after a man and his fiancée had been shot dead during a morning ambush at Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre.
Gunshots were reported in the Jubilee Gardens community sometime after 11.45pm that Tuesday; responding officers later discovered the bodies of two men with injuries in a car parked in the driveway of a residence in that neighbourhood; EMS personnel were called to the scene to give assistance, but were unsuccessful in reviving the two men; and then [as we learn] the two men were pronounced dead at the scene a short time later.
The two men were reportedly cousins.
When –as it were- their paths cross, what happens next is invariably packaged in with that ominous phrase; dead at the scene.
All Bahamians in this new year should take note about what seems a war going on out-there between men and women who are armed, angry and intent on wreaking havoc on each other.
In evidence, we need only cite the cases of two sets of killings which, for as much as we can guess, are directly related to how certain street-level disputes are settled.
There are any number of people whose business dealings routinely expose them to having their matters dealt with where – they who would exact their feral kind of justice- routinely turn to guns, their deadly report and for them, instant gratification!
To say, the least, this is intolerable, posing as it does a direct threat to the perceived legitimacy of the work done by state authorities like the police or their Defence Force counterparts.
We understand that one of the men was Hastings “Tweety” McQueen, 28, and the other was his cousin, “Sheddy” Bain.
McQueen was reportedly out on bail for a serious offence and was being electronically monitored.
Of some interest is that factoid which shows that in 2012, McQueen was charged with the murder of Owen Hanna. To date, the outcome of that case is unclear.
And in addition, we have information [perhaps emanating from deep within the murk of some of our crime-ridden heartland communities that Hanna was shot dead near his home in the Redland Acres Subdivision in August of that year, 2012.
And thus it would appear that –as in the world of legitimate state authorities- the hand of that law which governs in those dark realms, reaches far and deep!
And as is to be expected in the circumstances, we need only rest as we wait for the baying crowd to shout their demand for even more killing, by way of state-sanctioned capital punishment!
In this regard, we know that as this barbarous cohort froths and bays for its share of blood – the troubles on our streets, in our homes and in our minds shall continue apace.
In truth and in fact, then, capital punishment is no panacea for the ills we face. If this nation needs one resolution for the New Year, it should be to reduce the level of violence.
