The past 72 hours have been one of the most violent and traumatic periods in Belize's history. There were 8 murders, 5 of them in the city, and one of them right at the second biggest police station in the country. More than that, three persons lost their lives in traffic fatalities. Indeed, it's a dizzying panorama of violence, and tonight the community, the police and the media are still grappling with it.
The victims range from a 16 year old in Cristo Rey, Cayo, to a 59 year old in Belize City, and, so far, only one arrest has been reported, and that is of the man who stabbed a police officer to death right in front of a whole police station - full of cops who didn't have guns, so they had to knock him out with a cement block.
Indeed, it leaves your head spinning - and the unprecedented rash of violence forced the Commissioner of Police and his senior commanders in the city to hold a press briefing. The main thing the media wanted to know was if the police have a plan to ensure greater public safety. Here's how the Commissioner described the current situation and the police response:
Allen Whylie, Commissioner of Police
"I'd like to start off by offering my condolences to the families of those persons who lost their lives over this weekend. It was a violent weekend across t6he entire country of Belize. We saw 8 murders committed, of which 5 of those murders occurred in Belize City and the 2 regional commanders will speak in terms of those incidents. We also want to reassure the public that despite all these incidents that took place over the weekend, we are not disheartened. We continue to review our deployments, we continue to re-strategize and we've made some changes and will continue to do those things."
"Crime is a revolving issue. There is no panacea for solving it. We've got to continue to be innovative. We need to continue to work with our communities, that they are able to provide us with information."
Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"Mr. Commissioner, sir, this weekend we saw 8 murders, but in late February there were other weekends where there were multiple murders that had occurred. Are you and the head of the command of the police department concerned - looking at this trend at this current moment where there seems to be a spike and how well involved and control of the situation you all are in trying to keep the public safe?"
Allen Whylie, Commissioner of Police
"Well as I said earlier we do have the patrols out. The commanders do utilize the information they have including from their sources. They do look at the incidents of crime where they have occurred and try to strategize in terms of preventing. I think one of the issue we face is that whenever we see spikes in an area and we move to address those areas, then there is displacement where it occurs in other areas and I believe that is where the difficulty and the challenge lies, because there are so many issues on the ground, especially in Belize City that the various commanders are trying to negate, trying to ensure peace, trying to ensure that the public is safe."
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