All told between Thursday of last week and Tuesday morning, 13 people were shot – 4 of whom have now died. It is a worrying trend and if you are thinking about blaming the police for not doing enough to stem the escalation of gun violence in the city Prime Minister Dean Barrow says you shouldn’t. He told us today that the crime situation is regretful but that he believes the Police Department is doing the best it can. He says that Monday evening’s shooting on Central American Boulevard in which 7 year old Janay Moguel was shot - hit close to home.
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
“The child, the young girl who I believe is 7 years old, is the stepfather of my driver and so it certainly produced for me a very painful sense of having to deal in a fairly immediate way with this terrible depressing reality. Of course the police visibly have been redoubling their efforts. We are providing additional vehicles notwithstanding our financial circumstances but I want to concentrate on the fact that they have been swarming the streets, the efforts at trying to get at the illegal guns have been stepped up in terms of the stop and search interdiction efforts. Notwithstanding those efforts, we’ve had this outbreak, a matter of serious regret.
It is obviously not going to stop but we have to continue to do our best and in fact redouble those efforts to try to put a damper on this thing, to try to hold it down as much as possible to get a handle on it.”
Keith Swift,
“Do you believe the Police Department under the leadership of Commissioner Jeffries is doing enough?”
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“I don’t think that we can ever do enough. The fact is that as the society continues to grow….”
Keith Swift,
“But do you think he is doing enough, the Commissioner?”
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“I think personally Jeffries has shown that he is completely committed. I don’t think that you will find an individual who has been Commissioner of Police who works as hard as Jeffries does. I have to say that I am completely satisfied with his efforts.”
Keith Swift,
“What about the Minister of National Security?”
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“Well the Minister of National Security is at the helm of the Ministry and I insist that the Ministry has been making efforts to try to get on top of this thing. I confess that the efforts have not been as successful as I would like but I don’t think that we can fault the Minister or the Ministry in terms of any lack of trying.”
Keith Swift,
“Have you considered changing the Minister?”
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“I clearly have to contemplate the possibility of some kind of Cabinet rearrangement at some time during the course of the term.”
Keith Swift,
“But don’t you think a different approach might work, a different Minister’s approach to the crime problem might work?”
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“I can’t rule that out.”
