In his Facebook post, the Police Commissioner also pointed out what Belizeans already knew: that the States of Emergency, those lockdowns only provide temporary relief from crime and violence, which eventually returns to a worsening status quo several weeks or more months later. This, we note, is a reality he denied many times when he was alongside Peyrefitte.
At today's press conference, 7News challenged Former Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte on the former Barrow Government's crime playbook, which prominently featured those states of emergency. Here's that back and forth:
Jules Vasquez
"You said that you feel that the Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams, needs to resign. You will know that you and he have spearheaded many failed states of emergencies and other misbegotten suppression attempts, crime suppression attempts."
Michael Peyrefitte - UDP Senator/Former Minister Responsible For Police
"On the premise. I disagree with you completely. It's not that we failed at all in our attempts. We were very successful in our states of emergency, to the point where when we had the meeting with Buju Banton, many of the complaints by the so-called local influencers was that I was not easy with them. They said that once my presence is there, then they know that we don't play games. So, I don't think that it was unsuccessful. It's just that that can't be the only thing that you do. Kevin Arthurs and Kareem Musa had all the ideas of things that you could do along with that. And even though they were against states of emergencies, they themselves implemented one but they don't seem to have the plan that they said they had."
