Police Minister Dough Singh clarifies his statements about grieving mothers

doug singh

But Minister Singh is not recanting. He told News Five this afternoon that the comments he made on the morning show were misconstrued.  While he apologized for the tactlessness of his remark, Singh remained steadfast in saying that there needs to be dialogue about the reality of the crime and violence that is affecting Belize City.

Doug Singh, Minister of Police

“In context of the Lewis though, the Lewis family, if I offended them, it wasn’t meant to offend. I think I was trying to make a point. At the end of the day you don’t shoot the message, you shoot the messenger. It’s unfortunate, I think any circumstance that involves a very young man like Mr. Mahler, an eight year old,, I have very young kids,  there has to be a tremendous amount of pain. It’s a tragedy that occurred. There’s no easy way around that and it was never meant to intentionally hurt the family. The bottom line is though; I don’t think that I believe this is the right time to face the issues that confront us. The circumstance that this child lived in is not a secret to their neighbors, all their neighbors can confirm some of the activities that happen at the residence and to have a child in that kind of environment is to put them at risk, and for me to say that parents have to take responsibility for that kind of environment, that they put their children in, and to be held responsible of that and to be accused of being insensitive, then I have no problem with being accused of being insensitive.

Isani Cayetano

To revisit Elizabeth Longsworth, I know you did not mention her name in the comment you made yesterday as well; but she has come forward and say, well I am the person he is talking about and quite frankly she took her position on that as well, where do you stand in regards to the comments that were made yesterday?

Doug Singh

“Well I didn’t make any specific reference to Ms. Longsworth and I don’t know really what she said so I can’t really respond to what she said. Once I get that information, I’ll be happy to respond. I haven’t seen any response or heard anything on the radio.”

Isani Cayetano

She issued a challenge, in an interview that I conducted with her earlier today; she issued a challenge for you as the Minister of Police, to get more involved and active in assisting her and other mothers on the Southside of Belize, to deal with the issue of crime and violence.

Doug Singh

“If Ms. Longsworth is serious, I will be one of the frontrunners in that operation. Ms. Lonsgworth just returned back to Belize, I think she was living abroad for about two years. If she intends to stay in this community and to get involved, to make a difference,  we want to be there with her.”

Singh says that even though he may have rubbed both Lewis and Longsworth the wrong way, his Ministry remains committed to working with grieving mothers and by extension the wider Belizean society to address the issue of crime and violence.