Setting the Record Straight on Crime and Violence

The United Democratic Party has called for the removal of Minister of Home Affairs Kareem Musa and Commissioner of Police Chester Williams from office on several occasions where the perennial issues of crime and violence are concerned.  Opposition Leader Shyne Barrow continues to echo that call in the wake of the bloody New Year’s weekend. But today, ComPol Williams came prepared to set the record straight and presented annual statistics on the murder rate dating back to 2012. He began by acknowledging the most effective political leaders the Belize Police Department has worked under.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

Chester Williams

“The two most effective ministers I have worked with when it comes to addressing crime is Mr. Peyrefitte, for the time that he was minister and Minister Musa, and if you were to look at the country‘s murder rate per capita, you would see that it is actually the best we have had in over thirteen years under Minister Musa.  So we‘re out of the global top ten.  So how can you justify that this minister under whom the crime trend is certainly going down has failed and when the others were there that were aligned with your party and we were above thirty murders per capita annually, to you they were successful and the one who has kept it below thirty is unsuccessful.  I question what the Leader of the Opposition would regard as being successful.”