And while Compol Chester was inspecting his officers like the GG today, last week the UDP Shadow Minister of National Security called - once again - for the resignation of the Minister of Home Affairs Kareem Musa and - for the first time - he also called for the Commissioner of Police, HIS former commissioner to also resign.
On Saturday we asked the Prime Minister to respond - not surprisingly, he offered a stout defense of both:
Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister
"When you compare what our minister of police presently Hon. Kareem Musa is doing, comparing to what the previous ministers including the chairman of the party, that big person of a man was done, it's between night and day. Kareem has been doing an excellent job with the hand that was given to him. There are many systemic problems that we have to address in the police department. The police department we know that during the UDP times for you to become a police officer, you had get a written note from one of the UDP ministers, that is no longer in effect, so there are a lot of police officers that should not be in that department. Now, if we were to go and just let go a lot of people, you in the media are going to be the first to say it is political victimization, when it would not be. So, what we have been doing, anytime that a police officer is active within his responsibilities and behave in an illegal fashion, we put them in interdiction and we try to get them out of the system. So, that will take time to be able to clear up. As to the issue of the commissioner and the people around him, I mean when you look at it, the commissioner is the person who has the most experience at this time to be able to help us. He has gone through under a UDP government and now he is going through our government, we could have taken the position, oh you worked with the UDP so we are going to fire you, we were not doing that, we were saying okay, let's use your experience not only as a police officer but also as an attorney that we can use his knowledge of policing, his experience and his ability and experience, that is something we have to use. Working together with him openly and transparently, we are starting to see some results, in the numbers when you compare them to what we had under the UDP is improving."
