Addressing Crime and Violence in 2020
Both political leaders touched on the dogged issue of domestic crimes and violence. The unofficial murder count for 2019 has not been released, but it is dangerously close to 2018’s which stood at one hundred and forty-four murders. Briceño says that the Government has failed in reducing crime but going into 2020, PM Barrow says that the police department will be funded at historic levels and the force will be enhanced to effectively fight crime.
John Briceño
John Briceño, Leader of the Opposition
“2019 was not a very good year for our young nation. There was too much crime and violence, way too many road traffic accidents, too little prosperity because of a struggling economy and far too much corruption. One responsibility of the government is to keep us safe from threats at home and abroad. 2019 like the rest of the decade has seen a serious failure by this U.D.P. administration to keep us safe at home from increasing crime and violence. There were over twelve hundred murders in the last twelve under the U.D.P. In 2019 alone there were more than a hundred and twenty five murders. We still have too many missing persons. Over a thousand serious crimes were committed including home invasions, holdups and vicious acts against women, children and worse the elderly.”
Dean Barrow
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“Perhaps the one toad in our garden is the ugliness of our citizen security challenge. Of course the cause of this plague is manifold but we must never give up. We must never exhaust the thinking, action and innovation needed to fight back. We have a will to overcome and in the New Year we are going to make a reinforced push. The police department will be funded at historic levels and in this all out fight against crime we will enlist and deploy every available tool of technology and artificial intelligence. These include state of the art cameras with facial and license plates recognition capacity mount all over but particular in hot spot locations. And so now our scaled up, strengthened and leadership enhanced law enforcement agencies are determined to prevailed and bring peace to our neighborhoods.”
