So, with the Government giving so much more authority to the Police, we wondered if there were any checks and balances to minimize abuse of that authority.
Regularly on this newscast, you've seen persons come here to complain bitterly that police are harassing them, or abusing their authority. It's certainly has some members of the public a bit uneasy that police will be able to lock up persons they deem to be gang affiliates for 48 hours without any charges. They can simply justify it with the explanation that they were trying to prevent that the detained person from participating in any kind of crimes. With the 4-day Easter Holiday weekend almost here, we asked the Attorney General if there is any oversight to the new police powers. He said that everyone will have to trust that the police will be honest:
Daniel Ortis, reporter
"How do you protect the rights of the citizen and hope that the police don't violate that right to liberty?"
Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General
"We have to hope that right now as is. We have to trust that the police who are also Belizeans and who also love Belize will understand that not because they will be given extra powers, means that they are to abuse those powers. If you are a criminal, you will be dealt with. If you're not a criminal you have nothing to worry about. It's that simple. But if you are a criminal and you're insisting on engaging in criminal behavior, then the police will have the powers necessary to deal with you as a criminal. If you shouldn't be 'hello, I am a major criminal' but yet you cry. I mean come on. If you don't want the police to be aggressive and to be in your face and to be dealing with you, then you have to make sure that you stop your criminal behavior."
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