President Luis Abinader announced last week the first phase of his “Comprehensive Strategy for Citizen Safety” plan that calls for the disarming of people. It establishes that by June, all motorcycle drivers need to wear a vest with an ID number.
Most attempts by different administrations to stem the flow of criminal activity have pretty much withered on the vine, and, as a sample, just last August, as the new Abinader administration was coming into power, there were 103 homicides by guns or knives, mostly in Greater Santo Domingo Santiago and the National District.
Plans ranging from Hipolito Mejia’s “Citizen Safety”, to Leonel Fernandez’ Safe Barrio”, are but distant memories. During the Danilo Medina administrations, then Interior & Police Minister Jose Ramon Fadul pushed forward a program known as “Live in Tranquility.”
These flopped after spending over a billion pesos on CCTV cameras and other equipment and even with the introduction of the 911 emergency hotline in many parts of the country.
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Listin Diario
28 March 2021