"The PLP told us crime was down. Was it an outright lie? -  Stuart Hyaward in the Sun.

Most of us in Bermuda have felt that crime has been increasing, particularly over the past several years. There seems to be more frequent reports of muggings of locals and tourists, more break-ins, more robberies, more shootings - more crime all round.

So I was surprised and somewhat baffled when, during the election run-up last December, the PLP issued a statement that declared crime had gone down. "Violent crime is down," the statement said; "theft is down." 'Burglary is neither rising nor falling,' the statement trumpeted and "total crime incidents are down."

I didn't believe it at the time. It seemed to me that the statement declaring 'crime is down' flew in the face of the reports we were hearing in virtually every Monday morning's newscasts. But that statement was released barely two weeks before the election and the chance of gathering and publishing any statistical challenge was lost in the flurry of all that was going on.

We now know from just-released police statistics that:

In the past year,

n robbery has gone up 48.3 percent;

n bodily wounding has gone up ten per cent;

Since 2006,

n residential burglary has gone up 75.5 per cent;

In the last seven years,

n violent crime has increased by 44.5 per cent.

The PLP's declaration that crime has gone down is also disputed by an analysis of statistics from the police service web page; www.bermudapoliceservice.bm by a police officer in a now-suppressed blog, which showed murders were increasing at the rate of 50 per cent every two years. Comparing 2006 to 2005, the officer's blog-site information, which has not been disputed, showed:

n 24% increase in reported theft;

n 11% increase in unlawful home invasion;

n 19% increase in unlawful school invasion;

n 73% increase in unlawful shop invasion;

n 47% increase in unlawful office invasion;

n 20% increase in unlawful unclassified premises invasion;

n 34% increase in assault causing grievous bodily harm;

n 22% increase in sexual assaults on children of both genders.

How is it that the PLP's pre-election statement and the Police Service statistics are presenting two very different stories about local crime?

The public knows from its own experiences that Bermuda is presenting as a less safe place almost daily. And we find our experience reinforced from the police statistics. Could it be that the PLP pre-election statement was at best a distortion of the truth, and at worst a blatant lie? Were PLP supporters misled yet again to serve purely political interests?

The real question is when will the PLP family decide they've had enough? When will they look through the veil of doublespeak, and press conferences timed to overshadow bad news, and trick answers to questions asked in Parliament, and realise that their leader and his coterie are doing damage to the original dream of the party, which was to dismantle a ruling elite and introduce an era of more open, honest and truthful politics?

While Bermuda's level of crime is low compared with most other places, it is high compared with what it was not so long ago; and it is increasing. The community deserves to know the truth about what is happening.

Attempts by the government to deceive the public about crime are indicative of an arrogance that has taken over at the helm of Bermuda's ship of state. The crew must wake up and regain control before the ship is run aground."

Who was that dude who said something about vile lies...? I fully expect a certain Senator to chime in claiming the statistics proving otherwise were not available at the time....

Hang on, the PLP lie and manipulate figures, but the public don't care? Shock! Horror!

Acceptance. Sadness.

Was anyone actually deceived?

"Was anyone actually deceived?"

Good one Reality. K2U.

Let me fix this for you....

Woohoo! Go Bermuda! - go with the need to obtain material goods, the expectation to be given everything based on entitlement, the collapse of the family unit, the need to drink or use drugs to the extreme, the disregard for anyone else’s rights or feelings and the need to commit crime to achieve any of the above.....yeah woohoo….go Bermuda…..

Piglet

PS and some slacking on behalf of the Police....based on some strategies that may have not been useful in the Bda environment……much more fair and balanced now..... .....

Personally I think it's time we tried out a few of the Singaporean methods.... we need a new sharif in town.

What a shock....

The Premier could walk into some people's houses,take the wallet off their dresser,remove the money from it in the owner's face,then slap the owner upside their head.And 5 years from now,that person will still vote the Premier and his party back in.

What am I trying to say?This goverment can seemingly get away with daylight robbery and blatant lies,and the majority will still vote for them(as evidenced in December 2007).You can now expect another 5 years of half-truths,in your face corruption,and you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours deals.Funny thing,that's what we had the past 5 years,and by voting them in again,that's saying that we are ok with that behaviour.

Never happen.  If she moved to Zurich her employer might actually expect her to come to the office once in a while.  Given her current government schedule I can't imagine she does now.