Chester chastises the media

Since the entire story of the tainted sweets hit the media, many have been calling for the resignation of the Police Commissioner.  In an editorial piece done by one of our colleagues in the media, it was indicated that this situation is a result of low morale in the Belize Police Department, and that Chester Williams is to be blamed.  The Commissioner responded to those comments saying that the statements made had gone too far.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “I think Jules Vasquez wants to be Commissioner of Police maybe I should go and be the director of Channel 7 and he be the Commissioner of Police and then we see how it goes. But again sometimes you see the movie Bruce Almighty when the man plays God for a day and he did what he had to do ? Maybe if say Commissioner Almighty with Jules he might be able to just draw everything and everything falls in place. But to equate what happened to whether or not the commissioner is effective I think he had gone too far. What should be defined as being effective? We can compare before Chester Williams was commissioner to the time that Chester Williams is commissioner we can compare. The questions that I would ask 1. Is crime down ?”

Reporter: Seems so.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “2. Are more police officers being held accountable for misconduct ?”

Reporter: Recently yes.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “Third question. Aren’t we seeing more police officers getting convicted before our courts for breaking the law or whatever ? Aren’t we having less police brutality accusations compared to before ?”

Reporter: No.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “Really ? You can check the PSB report or the Ombudsman’s office and they’re going to give you the stats that when you compare police brutality reports from 2019 going back to 2019 to present it is tremendously down by over 50%. So with all of this coupled with the fact that even in the criminal courts where civilians are accused of committing heinous crimes such as murder don’t you also see an increase in the murder convictions in our courts? It has a lot to do with police effectiveness and investigation. So do you see  an increase in convictions ? You no longer hear 3% conviction rate am I right ? And that’s simply because there is a very strong cooperation and coordination between the police and the Director of Public Prosecutions’ office where the police are getting the proper guidance from the DPP in carrying out investigations making sure that these files are well put together and presented before the court. Now with all of those are we still going to say that the commissioner is ineffective ? You might be afraid Cherise but you must be honest to yourself and your director can’t be vexed with you for being honest.”