And while, as you saw, the Commissioner became quite agitated by that particular line of questioning, the opposition is demanding change in the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Police senior command.
Leader of the Opposition Shyne Barrow in a statement says, quote: "The Briceno Administration must do everything to ensure no other Belizean will ever perish while in the custody of those charged with protecting our citizens and administering justice."
We pick up that statement with the former police minister's discussion of the systematic issues in the police department that he feels ultimately cost Derrick Uh his life.
Michael Peyrefitte, Chairman, United Democratic Party
"The police department is demoralized. The police department needs restructuring. The level of micromanaging and the level of lack of belief by the rank and file of the police department in their leadership has never been lower and changes need to be made to send a message. Now, it is reported to me that several times you would have police officers drinking on duty doing things, we don't know what happened and from the original reports that we are getting
people in the medical field and telling me that while certainly if you are locked up in a van for. about 10 15 hours you can stifle and you can die but from the looks of it, it seems that there may be more than just that. What happened? we don't know, we have to investigate but at the very least, at the very least whoever put that person in a van they. are to face the fullest extent of the law."
"Hopefully this will be a tipping point for the Prime Minister to realize that Kareem Musa and Chester Williams and Kevin Arthurs are not going to cut it as the leaders of the police department it's not going to happen it's only getting worse and worse and worse and a part. of the problem I am told that why this happened was a lot of people having responsibilities and lack of having deliverables that they have to produce for their commanders because everything is micro-managed. So, you have a situation where changes have to be made or I don't know what else can happen that will shock us."
Peyrefitte urged government to bring in international partners such as the FBI to assist in an impartial investigation.
