Prime Minister: It’s Challenging Dealing With Retaliatory Killings

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NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Prime Minister Philip Davis says these latest murders are “retaliatory” and those are “challenging” for the government and police to deal with.

His comments come following Monday’s triple homicide, which brought the country’s murder toll to 102 for the year.

Davis, who was attending the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transportation Association Forum at the Baha Mar Convention Center, was pressed by reporters on the government’s plan to address these troubling statistics.

These latest killings come nearly two weeks since the introduction of the ‘Clear Hold and Build’ crime fighting plan that’s intended to reduce violence and restore stability in high crime areas. 

Prime Minister Davis says his administration is doing all it can but there are challenges.

“Police are indicating is that these are retaliatory killings and whenever it’s retaliatory, it’s very challenging to prevent,” he said “The saturation patrol is out there. A number of these areas and posts are being disrupted, but yet still they find a way to, to do exactly what they want to.”

Now, according to Commissioner of Police Clayton Fernander there are currently 178 people out on bail for murder. 

Something Davis describes as  overwhelming.

Opposition Leader Michael Pintard releasing a statement after the murders criticizing government saying they appear lost and  unable to act alone or work with community partners to stop the violence that’s devastating our communities.  

But the prime minister thinks otherwise.

“We’ve added more judges to the system,” Davis said. “We have, we have removed the necessity for jury trials. So we have done some things to try to rein in the time and period. But again, change takes time to take root. And all those changes have, are in place. It’s taking a bit of time to get, to take root.”