Those two murder, become the 19th.and 20th. For the year in Belize City, compared with 11 for the same period last year. It is on pace for a record year for murders. The community is gripped by fear and the police are under political and public pressure to do something effective about it. Today the Commissioner of Police hosted a press briefing to say that his department is doing all it can: from added patrols to direct interventions – but they are powerless to stop a home invasion- slash execution – as happened in the MacFadzean killing on Friday night.
Gerald Westby, Commissioner of Police
“If you look at the first one with McFadzean, they went all the way inside the house. It is difficult for us to proactively prevent these sort of murders. The one at Yabra, the police had just passed there. The mobile patrol had just passed there, the foot patrol had just passed there, but these criminals are brazen enough to dodge the patrols and then commit the acts.”
Crispin Jeffries, Assistant Commissioner of Police
“I have been out since five o’clock this morning visiting homes. At the murder scene I spoke to the families, I visited a number of homes in the immediate area. I searched some homes, I spoke to some relatives who are connected to some of the suspects. We were in the area.”
Assistant Commissioner of Police and the officer in charge of a crime-ridden Eastern Division, Allen Whylie said that a large part of the problem is that there’s just too much firepower on the streets. Add that to some dangerous minds – and he says there’s just so much the police can do.
ACP Allen Whylie, Commander – Eastern Division
“We must understand that whilst we are out there, people have free will and people will do what they want to do. We are trying to as much as possible, within all the legal requirements to do our duties professionally but we have to be real that there is a lot of firearms on the streets, there is a lot of immature persons out there, and there seems to be a lot of anger and people basically want to do what they want to do.”
And to limit the proliferation of illegal weapons police have put a temporary ban on the issuance eof new gun licenses. The Commissioner said that a lot of the weapons that end up on the street are stolen from careless license holders.
And while guns are one thing, intelligence is another – and police seem incapable of predicting where or the next retaliation will come from or who will mount it. And if they cannot predict it, then they cannot pre-empt it. And in that regard, we asked the Commissioner, is the embattled Eastern Division missing the presence of Senior Superintendent Chester Williams who was transferred – right about the same time the murder rate started to spike.
Gerald Westby,
“Mr. Williams certainly had his good qualities but I am certain that if you notice our interdiction rate, our arrest rate continues to be exceedingly high. So it is a team effort, my style of leadership is a team – everybody is a part of the team and the team continues to perform. So you have not seen a decrease in terms of the arrests being made.”
Williams has gone to the Supreme Court to ask for judicial review to challenge his transfer to headquarters. He has retained Godfrey Smith as his attorney. the hearing was adjourned today.
