SOE Criticised as Being Ineffective, Following Good Friday Murder

As we said, fifty-two-year-old Belize City resident Carl Uter was murdered three days into the state of emergency. Uter’s murder led many to criticize the effectiveness of the SOE. Well, today we asked ComPol Williams if it is unrealistic to expect that no murders will occur during a state of emergency. Here is what he told us.

 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“How did you get there? I really and truly can’t understand how one would even reach there. We have seen that since the SOE has been declared the violence in Belize City has subsidized. The violence in the Roaring Creek Camalote areas have subsided. How is it that we are going to say it is not effective? I cannot agree with statement?”

 

Paul Lopez

“Is it unrealistic to expect that no murders would take place under a state of emergency?

 

Chester Williams

“Of course Mr. Lopez there are certain things that will not be able to be prevented by the work of the police. You look at a country like Jamaica. Almost the entire Jamaica is under an SOE for the entire year for the past four to five years now and when you look at the number of murders in Jamaica it is still high, but again for us in Belize wherever we have a state of emergency we always see the violence in the declared areas go down. I think that as Belizeans we should be happy to see that that happened.”