And last night on Channel 7, Home Affairs Minister Kareem Musa took a rain check when we asked him about an age-old practice in the police department – profiling during a stop and search.
It's a widespread practice in Belize City, especially with young black males. But, now, this invasive form of police profiling is being challenged in court, and we challenged Musa on its constitutionality.
And while he says he usually errs on the side of human rights, he'll let the courts handle this one.
Hon. Kareem Musa - Minister of Home Affairs
"People are challenging the constitutionality of stop and search and profile. This unfortunate young man the other day was profiled on the police blog, they took his picture unlawfully, one of the gentlemen in the control room, they took his picture unlawfully. Will you accept that this practice is unconstitutional and invasion of privacy and has to be stopped knowing that there are multiple constitutional case in the court both in Belize and in the region as well about this. I am a huge human right advocate and you're putting me in a very precarious position. Myself and my CEO also subscribed to the human right angle of that and so can I reserve my comment because it's pending before the courts. But based on my answer you know what I feel but let us leave it at that. Let us wait for the outcome in court."
