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And the work of the LIU and the ministry is reflected in the decrease in murders. They're down 22% so far this year, while other major crimes are down by 2%. Still, it may not feel like that on the ground all the time, and Musa repeated a familiar chorus: that while the trend is going down, social media can make the situation seem worse than it already is.
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"It certainly is encouraging. And of course, you can't just listen to the noise in the market. Yes, the opposition will always get up. That is their job. Whenever there is a flare up in crime. But at the same time, we have to continue to grind. It cannot be that every time that they make noise, we have to believe what it is that they are saying."
"The one thing that we do recognize is that every time they speak, it is a reminder and it is a comparison of what crime used to be and the positive direction where it is going now. Under then we had the most violent years. In 2012, we had 148 murders. Again, we see where that is going down. So we want to continue along this positive trajectory and certainly hope that we have encouraging results over the last 15 years or so."
"We have seen an evolution in social media in the way that we receive information. All of the news outlets, including including plus TV, have a social media presence. And what you will notice is that a lot of the crimes in all, whether it is caught on CCTV camera, whether it is caught on your phone, it is now uploaded onto the World Wide Web."
"And so we see it on a daily basis. And so many people who are viewing this actually position themselves, put themselves in the shoes of the victims in these situations. And that certainly has a psychological effect, not just on the individuals viewing it, but the overall population. And so while it is that the numbers are down, I think that we can see the effect that social media is having in terms of how it is that you feel."
