A Murder Most Foul

Today we react to some of the news that came to our attention this weekend past.

As we went about our usual business this Sunday past, we came across information in media to the effect that, "… A young man in his early 20s who lived in the Fox Hill area became the nation's latest murder victim, after he was gunned down between two buildings on Wright Street off Fox Hill Road around 7 p.m.

As we searched for more details, we learned that, "On arrival police found the body of a dark male clad in blue jeans, wearing a yellow striped shirt, lying down with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the back…" so said Superintendent Ismella Davis.

And as the same senior police officer implored, "We're not sure if he had an altercation with somebody, but we are appealing to the residents who have some information for the police to please come forward and call our tips line or the police control room."

We too call on anyone who has any information to share the same with the police.

This tragedy – namely murder most foul – continues to cut a deadly swath throughout this beloved Bahamas that is home to us all.

And that this beloved land of ours is obliged to depend on tourism for the bulk of its revenues underscores the fact that murder most foul is just so much bad news.

Crime has reached epidemic proportions.

We have ventured the view that the rising incidence of crime is but just one specific set of symptoms indicative of the fact that ours is a very sick society; with crime as merely its fever chart.

Today we remain so convinced.

Sadly, those who lead and most who would lead seem to be clueless as to what could or should be done to bring this scourge to an end.

In one telling instance of at least one member of parliament who was honest enough to admit that he did not have an answer at hand, Fox Hill representative, Fred A. Mitchell recently recalled how the people in his constituency reacted to a series of killings in that area of town.

This he did as he reacted to the murder of a young man, whose remains were found on the side of a street in that once peaceful community.

Now, people throughout Fox Hill are scared for their safety and that of their loved ones.

As reported in media, Mr. Mitchell indicates that he is worried about the possibility – and here we add, high probability – of the unleashing of a spiral of more death, as vendetta becomes real.

As Mitchell notes, "We had a whole series of tit for tat murders within the last five years... back and forth. We actually brought Urban Renewal in here to try and deal with [that series of murders]. So I hope it's nothing like that and maybe this is just an (isolated) situation."

As Mitchell mused about the matter, we learn that he said that he regrets the loss of life and that he is also trying to understand why there seems to be no peace among inner-city youth.

As he puts it, "You wonder what life the young people in the country are really going to have if this continues to happen like this. I don't know if we have the answers. And that's the thing that I think is most troubling about this."

Well if Mitchell and others want to know what kind of life we are going to have in the future – if things continue the way they are currently going – he need only imagine that the future is now.

Were he to do this, he would quickly thereafter understand that there are tens of thousands of Bahamians whose lives have already been ‘impacted’ by crime and the fear that comes in its wake.

Clearly, then, there is hurt enough for most of us in this bruised and battered place.

There are very many Bahamian mothers, fathers, siblings, neighbours, other family and friends who routinely aid and abet the criminals in their midst. This they do whenever they share in the loot these people snag.

It therefore follows that there will not ever be peace or tranquility in places like Fox Hill, Bain Town or in any other troubled place in our country so long as so-called quite ordinary people decide that they would feed off the proceeds of crime, or otherwise give aid and comfort to the gangsters in their midst.