Lack of parental discipline a contributing factor of crime says Commissioner of Police

As the Police Commissioner presented the recent stats on crime, he also harped on the issue of parents who tend to neglect their children, leaving them at the mercy of society and the world.  Commissioner Williams noted that the lack of parental oversight and discipline are contributing factors to the crime situation in the country.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “Many a times the parents are out of the country or sometimes in Belize but they are living a different lifestyle. You know, they’re young mothers they want to be here, they want to be there. And so in terms of taking care of the child, they’re not really present. And in some cases where you do have the parent present they tend to condone the behavior of their children. And again, I’ve always said tough love is good. I grew up with a mother who taught me tough love. I could never come home and said to my mother, Mrs. So-and-so beat me because she would tell me plain Mr. So-and-so isn’t crazy, if he beat you you must have done something out of the way and I get another tearing home. In today’s society we don’t see that. Right, when we had the entire village raising the child we produced better children. Now, not even the parent could raise the child. So what do we expect? And again, I don’t want what I’m saying to be taken that I’m trying to indict all parents as much as there are some people, some parents that tried the child still end up becoming or doing what he or she wants so you cannot fault the parents for that. But I still believe that we can get more support from parenting to be able to inject into our program. And that is what Sister Dominique Norales is trying to do as well as a part of her portfolio as the leader of LIU.”

Police Commissioner made those comments during his appearance on The Morning Show on Monday.