NASSAU, Bahamas, CMC -Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell has brushed aside a call by former prime minister Dr. Hubert Minnis for a Commission of Inquiry (COI) into gang activities in the Bahamas following the release of voice notes that purport to capture a financial quid-pro-quo arrangement involving a senior police officer and a murdered gang leader.
“I am extremely concerned about the trajectory we are headed in concerning recent and disturbing events involving our Royal Bahamas Police Force and the vexing increase in criminal activity in our country,” Minnis said.
“As gang violence spills over in our streets, as civilians and even children become casualties of these wars, we are doubly burdened with the revelations that our trusted Police force could potentially be involved in the obstruction of justice that families and the citizens of our country need and deserve.
“This is a call for transparency, accountability, and one that will remove the veil of secrecy from the individuals that are trying to keep our country and its citizens in fear; those who believe they are above the law,” the former prime minister said.
But in a voice note accompanying a press release, Mitchell said that the country is now faced with allegations that go to the root of law enforcement capabilities.
“We have gone down this road and know that to achieve justice and equity, you don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. The government has been looking into the force’s performance since its office. Looking at its management, future, and where it’s headed.” Mitchell said.
On Monday, Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander said a selected team from the Security and Intelligence Branch (SIB) would lead the investigations into Chief Superintendent Michael Johnson, the head of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), who went on “garden leave” last weekend.
Johnson has consented to proceed on garden leave in the first instance, as the authorities investigate several voice notes that purport to capture conversations involving him, a well-known lawyer, and Michael Fox, Jr, a man police described as a prominent gang leader when he was killed in May.
Another person, identified as Dino Smith, who was killed in January, is also featured on the voice notes, which spread rapidly last week.
The leaked voice notes feature conversations seemingly about an arrangement that would allow the police to drop their investigation into Fox and his associates.
Police had issued wanted posters for Fox and Dino Smith concerning the theft of $1,475,000 from an unattended security vehicle transporting cash for the Bank of the Bahamas to a private airport on November 2. However, the men were never charged with the incident.
Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said on Tuesday night that he found the voice notes “terribly disturbing.”
In his statement, Minnis said that the country has been told that law enforcement teams from the United States and the United Kingdom are willing to assist, “and we have been told that a team from the Security and Intelligence branch of the RBPF will lead the investigations of the probe into the actions of the CID Chief Superintendent.”
But he maintained that a COI would consider violence perpetuated by gangs, leaders of gangs, the influence gangs have in communities, gangs’ involvement in illegal activities relating to firearms and drugs, the relationship among gang leaders and senior law enforcement officers, and allegations that undermine confidence in the RBPF.
Mitchell said the country’s leadership is taking the claims seriously, adding, “Our friends in the FNM (Opposition Free National Movement) always have this knee-jerk reaction to call in foreigners to clean up the mess. But we may say this: this is The Bahamas.
“When we accepted the responsibility of independence, we took on managing and solving our problems. The rules in this matter have so far been followed, and they will be followed. The decisions must be evidence-based and not by some cockamamie suppositions and conjecture.”
Mitchell reiterated that the government and the RBPF are taking the matter seriously.
“The police have been read the riot act. The reputation of the force and the confidence of the Bahamian people in the force rides on the ability of its managers to navigate these issues with justice, equity, truthfulness, and [letting] the chips fall where they may and without damaging our only law enforcement agency,” he added.
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