Minister of Home Affairs compares crime stats

The debate of the National Security Bill carried on in today’s house meeting for an estimated fifty minutes.  Minister of Home Affairs with responsibility for the Belize Police Department, Kareem Musa, expressed solidarity with the Police Commissioner Chester Williams.  He also made a comparison on the crime data and the accountability when compared to the previous administration.

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs: “Our a commissioner of police who he says is talking, talking that’s what transparency, accountability, being open with the media looks like. I can count on my fingers, Madam Speaker, on one hand how many times John Saldivar in 12 years went to address crime on the media when it was 148 murders a year. I can count. They were not accountable, not transparent. And so yes that may have its drawbacks and disadvantages because then it becomes the spotlight of the media and Jules Vasquez and his likewise obsession with the ComPol, but it’s what transparency looks like, something that they do not understand. That we will always grab crime by the horns and we will always address crime because it is a serious issue. And Madam Speaker, like I said, we never want to go back to the days of the UDP statistics, never. And so we will continue to make improvements at our police department and we will continue to fight crime in the best way possible using innovation and technology, using DNA and using CCTV cameras everything in our toolkit to ensure that the citizens of our country remain safe.”

Collet’s Area Rep, Patrick Faber was seemingly prepared to debate today as he did dnot hold back when it came to remind the government of when they were in opposition and had all the solutions to solve crime.

Patrick Faber, Area Representative, Collet: “But he defended vigorously the PUP’s administration’s handling of crime. Let me remind you, my friend, you were the one, it appears to me that long before the PUP won the election that you were tagged to be the person who would be the Minister of Home Affairs or the Minister of Police because you were the mouthpiece. In fact, you were one of the members in the honorable house, maybe that is why, but you took on those matters. You were the one who, sir, every chance you got criticized the efforts of the UDP running them down. You were the one who got up on the TV and in this honorable house and criticized the administration for preventative detention. You were the one who criticized the administration for declaring states of emergency. You were the one who said, sir, it would be really easy for the problems of crime to be solved. And now that the shoe is on the other foot. I think my friend from Freetown hit a gold mine earlier when he spoke about opposition expectations. Because clearly, when he was in opposition he felt it was so easy to do. Back then you and Chester da neva bally like unu da bally now. Used to run him down. Used to say that he’s a UDP licky and you criticized every single measure that the UDP put in place in order to curb the crime. And then when you became the minister, what happened? You put in place some of those very same measures. In fact, I accuse you sir of not having an original thought of how to deal with crime. You basically agreed with us just now that the National Security Council has been non-functional under your watch. Well, certainly we have not seen any kind of reports.”