STATEMENT BY BRADLEY B. ROBERTS_PLP VERY DISAPPOINTED IN FNM SPOKESMAN ON CRIME, MARVIN DAMES
Press Statement
By
Bradley B Roberts
National Chair Progressive Liberal
3rd December 2016
PLP very disappointed in FNM spokesman on crime, Marvin Dames
Clearly Marvin Dames has emerged as the opposition spokesperson on crime when one reviews the various statements he has made about crime.
BUT WHAT HAVE WE HEARD? TO DATE, WE HAVE NOT HEARD ONE NEW IDEA, NO NOT ONE. IN FACT, HIS SO CALLED RECOMMENDATIONS ARE EITHER ALREADY EXISTING GOVERNMENT POLICY AND SETTLED LAW OR ARE MERE REITITIONS OF INITIATIVES PRONOUNCED BY POLICE COMMISSIONER GREENSLADE IN THE POLICE FORCE’S ANTI-CRIME PLAN.
Mr. Dame’s leader, Dr. Hubert Minnis, is prancing up and down in the media complaining about how the government needs to produce a crime plan and lamenting about how the government is not serious about crime. On the eve of the 2017 general election, Dr. Minnis now has his “in house crime expert” to deliver the plan he keeps complaining about and the best Minnis’ ‘in house crime expert’ could muster is to repeat the anti-crime policies of the PLP government and the crime plan of his former colleague who beat him out for the top job at the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
THE BAHAMIAN PEOPLE THOUGHT MINNIS COULD DO BETTER THAN THIS.
Instead of rolling up his sleeves and working with Commissioner Greenslade as the consummate goal oriented team player and public servant, Dames left the police force in a huff for more money in the private sector only to return to offer nothing to the national dialogue on crime. His appointment by Dr. Minnis is a best dubious and questionable.
Perhaps former Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham did in fact make the correct choice in selecting Greenslade over Dames in light of the report received from Canada after their training. This decision was made notwithstanding political partisan pressure and support for Dames which could not overcome the veracity of the Canada assessment.
We also remind all that this was one decision that Ingraham did not rush.
My advice to Dames, Minnis and the FNM is to support the existing anti-crime initiatives in the public interest. Urban Renewal 2.0, the Citizens Security and Justice Program, Sandy Bottom, Swift Justice Initiative, prison reform, the youth tracking system and saturation patrols are just some of the meaningful anti-crime strategies that Dames and the FNM can throw their full public support behind because these initiatives have proven beneficial in building a safer Bahamas.
In closing I invite Mr. Dames to join me in a public show of bipartisanship and political maturity in calling for the re-establishment of the National Youth Restorative Program in partnership with Y.E.A.S.T. and the Roman Catholic Church. This too is yet another program that will prove to be beneficial in building a safer Bahamas.