Free National Movement (FNM) Leader Michael Pintard yesterday labeled Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis a hypocrite over his recent criticism of newspapers’ front page placement of murder stories.
“It is hypocritical for him to have used the shock treatment of these issues to benefit himself and his political ambitions, but now all of a sudden he has found religion and he’s a social scientist and knows what is contributing to the negative profile that we’re getting as a country,” said Pintard in an interview with The Nassau Guardian.
He was referring to the Progressive Liberal Party’s (PLP) decision to erect billboards broadcasting the murder count ahead of the 2012 election as a criticism of the Ingraham administration’s handling of crime.
“The prime minister, when he initially participated in putting up billboards that not only sullied the Free National Movement but also sullied the reputation of the country, he was not at all thinking about the potential impact that those billboards and the range of statements he was making during that period were going to have on the heads in beds or the potential for cancellation of reservations or advisories that could have been issued against the country,” Pintard said.
“And it did not matter to him because his interest was in convincing the public that he and his team were the better choice to lead the country.
“Now that he is in the chair and has failed to provide the quality of leadership required to coordinate stakeholders to fight what we have termed in the opposition as a common enemy – crime in general violent crimes in particular – he wishes to again give the impression that everybody else is contributing to the surge in crime, except his poor leadership.”
Davis told reporters on Monday that printing murders on the front page of the papers has led to international news reports and a travel advisory from the U.S. Embassy in Nassau.
He also claimed that newspapers in other Caribbean nations do not regularly carry murder stories on their front pages.
Pintard said yesterday that Davis’ comments ignore the true issues at hand.
“Whether it’s on front page or the third page, what is true is that people are losing their lives and that this is newsworthy, and it can have a potential negative impact on the profile of the country,” he said.
“But the fault is not in those who carry the story and seek to do so in a responsible way.
“The fault is in the perpetrators. The fault is in all of the social conditions we permit to develop that actually produce the circumstances where people are losing their lives.
“And what Mr. Davis should occupy himself with is how to prevent this carnage so that it doesn’t make the paper.
“How do we create good news stories of community centers being opened up to attract young people so that they don’t descend into the kind of behavior that is now causing death and mayhem among our young people?”
Since the start of 2024, there have been 25 murders reported in The Bahamas – 23 in New Providence, one in Abaco and one in Grand Bahama.
Last year, there were 110 murders and in 2022 there were 128.
