People want to know why the police can’t figure out who the shooters are by looking at cctv footage. The cctv footage is a great tool and helps tremendously. But if its dark or persons are concealing their identities, the footage is only good for direction of travel and descriptions of the bikes (which are likely to be stolen anyway).

The police imo, have performed remarkably well in the past few years to curb the shootings. Lets be real, violent crime is inevitable worldwide. We can’t completely stop it but we can try to curb it. We have seen people put before the courts and convicted. We have seen a huge decline in shooting incidents in recent years. It is only over the past few months that we have seen a spike in gun violence, and I applaud this commissioner for being man enough to step up to the plate and reach out to the community looking for their input on solutions. This is more than what I have seen us as a people do. We are quick to get up and protest same sex marriage and immigration laws, but yet we sit silent or point fingers when it comes to violent crime. When will the church start to pray over the House of Parliament to stop violent crime in this country? When will workers down tools because they have gang members working in their places of employment?

As far as I’m concerned, the lady at the end of the video seemed confused. at first she praised local police, who are managed by the commissioner, then she calls for him to stand up or resign. And where did she get her figure of 10k as a bounty on someones head? From what I have been made to understand, buy a man who was in attendance at this meeting and is no stranger to the drug world, that figure has been grossly exaggerated. And if this were true, does she really believe that a black man is not capable of securing such finances on his own? The drug trade is a big business. Has she not seen some of the cars they drive or gold they wear? Maybe back in the day the white man was the driving force behind major drug crime in this community. But not today..
We as blacks need to stop trying to find someone to blame for our social problems and come together to solve them.

And lets not take on the perception that gang activity is mostly due to lack of education. Many of these young men are well educated, some at university level. I’ve seen some of the instagram posts from these guys holding the average persons annual salary after a few hustles. They appear to be good businessman with a bad moral compass.

I believe we need to start in our homes. We need to regain control of what we allow our children to do or who they hang around. Teach them right from wrong and get involved in their lives. Lets take away the cellphones and computers for a few hours a day and connect with our children.

Also, what did the young lady mean by “Gentrification” being the order of a chain of command by the white man? I was curious about this word so I looked it up in the urban dictionary. (see attached link)
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Gentrification&utm_source=search-action
Somehow I don’t think gentrification is really affecting the Bermuda working class or the driving force behind violent black on black crime in this county.. I don’t see too many rich people rushing to buy up properties in our “urban” neighbourhoods. Further to this, many of these shootings seemed to have been over personal issues. So I don’t believe that there is a big bad white boogieman out there paying young black men to shoot the guy who slept with his girlfriend or shoot the guy who killed his boy in an act of revenge.
It simply does not make sense that a white man, would pay a black man to kill a person that the black man has a problem with.
In closing, I really would have liked to hear more on what the people had to say rather than listening to the panel or Mr. Caines thoughts and opinions on everything. On a more positive note, It was nice to hear some of the good ideas that people had last night, which did not require police intervention. We need more meetings like this to generate some enthusiasm about taking back our beautiful community!
One Love Bermuda!

Well then, if your figures are correct then there with in lays the solution. Save money by sending them all to private schools. Open up specialized schools that cater to each given students strengths. Makes no sense trying to teach fish to fly when their natural gift is to swim.

That’s Bermuda for you.
Bermudians will vehemently protest calls for human rights/equality. Demand jobs they are not qualified to perform. Completely ignore the state of education, pointing fingers at others ….but if their cable tv isn’t performing at 100% they will be ‘up in arms’ about it.
The idea that pink sand and warm water will carry them into the future, is just another example of ignorance.

Notwithstanding these challenges, the Commissioner has continued to juggle his depleted resources to produce the most professional Police Service of modern times. The Service currently deals with more calls for service, and successfully detects and prosecutes more crime than ever before, whilst it’s successful strategies keep crime consistently trending downward.

Those calling for Commissioner Desilva’s resignation do so from a position of ignorance and have no comprehension of his achievements.

So what else do you suggest?

I’d suggest that for the most part we take government and unions out of education. Education (like tourism) is a long term project and cannot be subject to the vagaries of politics or the election cycle.

We spend more per student on public schools then private schools charge in tuition, which is simply absurd. Government, no matter what party is in power, has a proven track record of just not being good at providing education, and yet we continue down this path like zombies, and then wonder why our kids can’t get jobs and fall into the gang culture.

Its high time to face the problem with bold leadership, not chipping around the edges. Privatise all public schools, remove all restrictions on who they can hire as teachers, and have government cut each family a cheque for $20k a year per child to be spent on education, either here or abroad.

Government can then operate a single remedial school for those kids facing special challenges that can’t keep up in the main system. Government can then focus all efforts at turning those kids around at that one school. Of course parents of those kids suddenly also have the money to send their children overseas for special care that they can’t get here. Suck it up junior or you’re off to the New Mexico Military Institute (annual tuition $12k).

Education is NOT broken in Bermuda. The family unit IS broken in Bermuda. Until this is understood and identified as a reason which exacerbates the gang culture and inequality on this island, I’m afraid little progress will be made.

Want to improve the quality of public education on this island? Start by improving the quality of student… and that starts in the home.

What does it matter to the elected officials? Their children (whether black or white) all go to private schools. Have you ever asked an elected official why they send their child to the private schools in Bermuda? I know the answer.

Any money spent on the public schools is for paint and morter (if that!). We need to FIX our EDUCATION system so that every child succeeds with the same opportunities whether they go to public or private schools. Right now there is not a level playing field which is further dividing the haves and the have nots in Bermuda.

How do we fix our crimes in Bermuda? Fix our EDUCATION system first! We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Why can’t we copy some kinds of proven school system like that of Finland? And start now! Within 10-20 years, Bermuda will be renewed with highly educated, successful candidates for international jobs coming out of both our public and private schools.

Thirty-five years ago Finland was considered middle-of-the-road or worse educationally. The country eliminated its education inspector and rethought its educational system. They turned it around to produce the best eduction system in the world. All teachers have a masters degree and all classrooms have few students (10). They learn quickly and then get to play a lot! No testing and no stress!

Yes, a lot of crime comes from bad environments (families who neglect or teach their children wrong). However, a lot of it is due to lack of a proper education. Do you know they even teach Ethics in Finland?

Read more here:

http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2014/06/24/ctq_faridi_finland.html