January 2024 Saw Increase in Violent Crimes
According to the former Minister of National Security, there have been as many as twenty-one violent crimes committed since the start of the New Year. These incidents have resulted in several murders, including the execution of underworld figure Jose Matus who was buried today. The latest murder, as we just reported, took place in the quiet village of Willows Bank, in Belize District. According to Senator Mike Peyrefitte, the Briceño administration was intent on reducing the number of homicides in 2023, but failed to equally focus on the poor conviction rate.
Mike Peyrefitte
Mike Peyrefitte, Former Minister of National Security
“There doesn’t seem to be any respect for law order coming into 2024 at all. I know the government wanted to celebrate a lower murder count than the previous years, but that’s not just the only figure you should look at. You should look at burglaries, robberies which they, themselves, had to admit is out of order at this point and they want to deploy people to the rural areas. Deploy which people? Deploy which police officers. They’re already stretched thin. You also have to look at the fact that when these people, when these murders occur what is the conviction rate? When these burglaries and robberies occur, what is even the arrest rate? For every hundred robberies or burglaries that occurred there is less than twenty people who are even arrested for these crimes. So it’s not just them occurring, there is no solution to these issues. Nobody is paying any price for their criminal activity. So when you have, for example, like January second, shots fired in the St. Martin‘s area. January eighth, shots fired in the Mayflower [Street] area. January eighth again, shots fired in Ladyville. The tenth, shots fired in the Iguana Street area. January eleventh, Shemar Smith shot on Iguana Street. January eleventh, Joseph Leslie shot on Dunn Street. Shots fired on Kelly Street. The twelfth, a man is running down Douglas Jones Street with a knife out of his chest and the police had to take him to the KHMH. Martin‘s area on the thirteenth, shots fired again. Dis da policeman di tell me dis, yoh know. On the fourteenth, Adrian Noh is shot in the leg in Guinea Grass.”
