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Hon. Cordel Hyde- Area Rep, Lake I
"According to Channel 7 news of a couple nights ago, there have been 24 murders in Belize City over the last 3 plus months since the start of July. 7 in this month alone over the last couple of days. Compare that to the previous 3 and a half months it was probably 5 or 6, maybe a little bit more. Some people don't like Chester Williams, some people complained about how he talked, how he is on TV too much and that he has a lot to say and some people may not like the style of policing, have some difficulties with it but at the end of the day something was working there. In the months leading up to his departure from Belize City to a desk job in Belmopan, there was a kind of peace in Belize City we hadn't seen in many many years. And then he departs for Belmopan at the beginning of July and the peace is shattered. Now, I don't have a problem with the great Mr. Vidal. I think he is a highly trained cop, very competent, extremely cool under pressure but his style of policing has not worked in Belize City. It didn't work in the years before when he was the head of the GSU and it hasn't worked of late. And even if the member from Orange Walk East was the substantive Minister of Police, there was no way he could have yanked Chester Williams from Belize City, approved a policy where you saw the dismantling of the mediation process, if the powerful cabinet ministers from Belize City did not approve and it begs the question for me madam speaker, what is going through these guys heads? What are they thinking about? Because I don't think anything can be more important than the lives of our residents. It just befuddles me. This is an emergency. We are talking about our security forces."

Laura Tucker-Longsworth - Speaker of the House of Representatives
"However, honorable member, be very careful. You are on the cusp of breaching your standing order 38.8, so please."

Hon. Cordel Hyde
"Madam Speaker you know I am very respectful to you, madam speaker but I am not lying on anybody here."

Laura Tucker-Longsworth
"It's not a matter of lying but you might be impugning against a top cop or a top department in the country. Be very careful."

Hon. Cordel Hyde
"Madam Speaker, I take no pride in this, you know but it's facts and we have to deal with it. And perhaps the members of the Government will have a logical explanation as to what happened, I am hoping. But let me say this in closing, Madam Speaker, the lives of our people, it is our children. You see, perhaps none of us in here, arguably none of us in here has lost a child to gun violence and so we can't begin to understand what it feels like for these mothers grieving on the television and these girlfriends crying their eyes out and these children orphaned or who are left with just a mother to take care of them. But we have to begin to try to feel, begin to try to understand. It's our responsibility. Someone has to explain what went into the thought process to dramatically shift the style of policing in this country that has lead to 24 murders in the last 3 and a half months. Someone has to be held responsible."