Bernard Timmons became the 6th murder this month - that is, by our count. And while that is a lot - the fact is that the murder total for September will likely be in the single digits - less than the 11 recorded in September of 2021. And, so far for 2022, by our count, 82 murders have been recorded, while at about this time last year, there had been 91.
So, why did the Prime Minister tell the UN General Assembly that, quote, "homicides are up."
We asked the Police Minister if his own PM was badmouthing his police department:
Reporter
"I know the Leader of the Opposition once again called for the removal, and I don't expect you to respond every time he calls for the removal. But his point is that you don't have the answers as you once trumpeted, as you trumpeted while in Opposition. Are you ready to concede that you, in fact, don't have the answers?"
Hon. Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs & New Growth Industries
"You know, I like you said, it's almost every week that they call them for that, and that's something that I would wish they would understand, that crime is not a policing issue. Crime is everybody's issue. It starts from where very young children, in terms of families, our upbringing. It starts with what we are doing now as a government, to get free education on the south side of Belize City and hopefully expand that. At the end of the day, education really is one of the great equalizers in ensuring that we have a crime-free country. And so there are different strategies - the LIU that we've implemented, so many different things that are in place that are preserving a relatively crime-free year. Yes, - it doesn't compare to the years of the UDP, which were disastrous. If you look at 2012, I believe it was 148 murders for the year. And so what you have now is more highlighting of the crime by the media. And that is something positive because it forces us to do our work. It forces us to be answerable to the country. We can't just hide whenever a crime is happening. And so, I take that duty upon myself, and I'm sure the Commissioner of Police does as well, that we have to look at each and every life lost in this country as an important life loss. And we have to make sure we solve those crimes and do our best to prevent them from happening. But in terms of his call, they can continue to call for that as long as they want. But at the end of the day, I have a job to do, and I will continue to do that job. Unlike I said, it might not be where we want it to be. But crime is certainly - violent crime is certainly a lot less than it was under the UDP."
