For a week now we've been telling you about the rulings on the constitutionality of the July 2020 State of Emergency declared in parts of Belize City.
On May 15th, Justice Nadine Nabie ruled that the SOE was unconstitutional, saying it was used as a crime-fighting tool, not a response to a true national emergency.
But just two weeks earlier, Justice Rajive Goonetilleke reached a different conclusion. He found that the spike in gang violence - including what he called seven murders in one day - posed a serious enough threat to justify the emergency.
Well, you can imagine which one the Commissioner of Police supports. He spoke about it today on Sunup:
Dr Richard Rosado, Commissioner of Police
"We have been in discussion with the Attorney General because we do believe that there is a need for clarity from the High Court so we do intend to appeal the decision of the second judge. And that will basically set the guidelines for us moving forward. But notwithstanding that I do believe that the rise in violence within the streets in some instances and I would use the words of your news director to a proportion comparable to a civil war. And hence the reason we need to act urgently and we need to act strategically and with a targeted approach to ensure that we restore back normalcy to the streets, that we restore public safety. And while the state of emergency to some extent do help us in assisting in terms of returning normalcy to the streets, we do believe that it does not suffice in terms of strategic intervention, and I say that because the strategic intervention we are looking at in terms of not only the detention but also in terms of the rehabilitation, in terms of protecting the vulnerable communities, in terms of also ensuring that it is more focused."
