Sidney Sweeting, DDS
It is impossible to live in any country where there are no complaints about the way the country is being governed, the quality of service at the utility companies, the unpaved roads, the dirty beaches, the malfunctioning traffic lights,etc. We could however, have streets paved with gold, pristine beaches and every traffic light on the island working all the time but the time has come to take the gloves off and let Government get real serious about crime in the country or everything else will be for naught.
It has become common for criminal cases to make it to court and the lawyer acting for the defense requests a postponement which is granted and the people who were called as witnesses are told that they will have to appear on a new date. At the new date another postponement is requested, it is granted and the witnesses are told again that they will have to appear on a new date. If it is postponed a third time the victim has lost patience and drops all charges. The defending lawyers and the defendant know that this is a possibility. So, they have won and the criminal is free to rob again. I have been told of several cases where this has been the scenario in Harbour Island. I am sure that this is very common. This nonsense must stop. Now.
When a man rapes a 6 year old girl (a true case several years ago) and after being convicted of the crime the pervert is sentenced to 7 years - because that was his first offense. The real crime here is Goverment did not see this as criminal negligence on their part - Change the law so that degenerates like him could be removed from society for the rest of their lives. He ruined the life of a 6 year old girl.
A man is sent to jail for 50 years for killing his girl friend. He was recently released because a judge considered that he had served sufficient time. Did the honourable judge consider that the girl is still dead?
It is long past time to remove the revolving door at the prison so that the criminals who are terrorizing us are not back on the streets doing the same thing in a couple of months.
This blog could go on for many pages but I want to make the point that unless Government wakes up to the urgency and realize that the clock is ticking toward the hour when crime will destroy our country if the gloves are not removed in dealing with crime. The time to act is long overdue.
