The PLP press office have been drinking the Kool Aid again:

While the media may prefer to focus on manufactured “controversies,” the PLP Government will continue to focus like a laser beam on combating the crime crisis.

Seriously, at what speed of spin does your head actually fall off?

On the crime issue, the PLP has very little credibility.  They have been so busy playing politics that they have neglected the essential tasks of government.

Not much word from Dr. Brown on Bermuda’s sudden violence, furthering his reputation of only stepping in front of the cameras when there’s good news to spin.

However, Col Burch is finally saying the right things, including addressing the perpetual problem of small communities where people are hesitant to call the authorities with information that can stop wrongdoers and wrongdoing.  He says:

We have to be willing to identify wrong, to stand up and denounce evil. We have to be prepared to draw a line in the sand determining what we — as a community — will not accept …

Our community is under siege because we didn’t want to get involved – but it is past time to get involved …

Of course, there is more that can be done, Bermuda is too small not to have all our citizens playing their full role in society.

He’s right, and I give him credit for trying to claw back some of the authority that the PLP has wasted away on law and order issues.  It’s not easy because on one side he asks people to act as witnesses … and on the other acknowledges these are our sons, cousins, nephews … and for some parliamentarians that’s not just empty talk … some of whom are carrying weapons.  It is even harder to ask for the community to be accountable when the PLP itself has been so evasive on the issue of accountability.

I don’t think I am being too uncharitable in pointing out that this same community inertia has protected the PLP through their own 10 years of misadventures.  The voters have given the PLP the “he was a nice boy who was turning his life around and loved his kids” treatment time and time again when the evidence has been clear that not everything is working as it should.  We witness the lapses, the defiant evasions, and the lame excuses … and we quickly change the subject and pretend that everything is platinum.

Ceola Wilson sums it up well in her editorial:  silence is consent.  That goes for bad public behaviour as well as bad political behaviour.

UPDATE:  Politics.bm expands on the subject of how the PLP used crime as a political lever both during the last election and more recently in their squabbles with the Governor over control of the Police – allowing the problem to escalate untended.

The truth is that the Governor and the Bermuda Government do hold frequent meetings with the Commissioner of Police to discuss policing matters.

It does make me wonder if the recent Cayman constitution may have an improvement on this setup.  Section 58 of their 2009 Constitution forms a National Security Council which includes the Governor (Chairman), the Premier, two other Ministers appointed in accordance with the advice of the Premier, the Leader of the Opposition or his designate, and three ex-officio members: the Deputy Governor, the Attorney General, and the Commissioner of Police.  It also includes two persons “representative of civil society” appointed by the Governor.

With this setup, the different competing players have a role … hopefully diffusing any politicisation of the Police.

“We can’t lock the country down and protect every house on every street.”

True, but if you know who the bad guys are, you can sure make their life difficult.

Bermuda does have a culture of “not telling authority” that is nearly Sicilian.  It’s sad really, as the rumours of who did what seem to percolate across the island faster than a Facebook meme.

This impulse is reinforced by the repeated failures by the Office of Public Prosecutions to secure convictions, or the Courts providing only token punishments.  People are afraid to stick their neck out if it will be to little avail.

The Police have to start somewhere – and a visible “squeeze” on the violent offenders would begin to restore some of the public faith in the system.

Update:  I am glad to see some progress being made here.

• to avoid being blamed for the catastrophic growth in crime during the PLP tenure
• to fuel resentment against the UK as a proxy for the independence issue which has very little public support
• to try and draw the UK into taking a more active role locally, enabling the PLP to cry oppression (which also appears to be the strategy of the discredited Turks administration)

The fact is that political control over Police operations is not good governance.  Yes, there should a solid consultation environment (which is already provided for under the Bermuda Constitution), but direct political oversight of the routine  management of the Police will inevitably lead to tampering and interference.

Don’t believe me?  Here’s an example:

In the 90′s Bermuda commissioned a report into the reform of the Police, leading to the hiring of non-Bermudian Commissioner Colin Coxall to aggressively implement change.  One of his efforts included bringing in Scotland Yard and the US DEA to conduct Operation Cleansweep, an intensive investigation into Bermuda drug dealers leading to mass arrests.  Although popular with the public as crime rates fell dramatically during his tenure, Coxall was politically disliked by the UBP and the PLP who engineered his early termination.  There was political control over the Police.   As a result, the reform efforts, and crime control, were negatively impacted.

Political interference and police operations are rarely a good marriage.  Don’t be fooled.  Dr. Brown’s fights have little to do with good policing.  They are political posturing.

He says Dr. Brown won’t attend meetings with the Governor and Police Commissioner because he must have direct operational control so “we have complete responsibility for policing and Bermudians can hold us accountable for how we spend their hard-earned dollars.”

Further, he says that Bermudians should demand more than the same old endless “conversations and lip service.”

Oh the Spin!  The Spin!  You couldn’t spread the sarcastic irony any thicker.

It is the beginning of April and we already have had 5 deaths on the roads.  It looks like we will hit last year’s gory record again this year.

It’s absurd.  It’s outrageous!  Where are the Police?  Speed and carelessness on Bermuda’s roads are out of control!

Stern words from politicians will not solve the problem.  Strong Police enforcement is the only way – 24 hours a day, island wide.  Not just East Broadway during rush hour!