The national coordinator of Citizen Participation, Joseph Manuel Abreu, warned this morning that the militarization of society is a factor that cannot be maintained for long because it sends a bad signal to tourism in the Dominican Republic.
Abreu affirmed that the presence of soldiers with long weapons in the streets and the placement of checkpoints creates an atmosphere of anxiety in the population.
He considered that if the Government of Luis Abinader does not plan and implement long-term security policies to solve the problem of citizen insecurity and crime, launching the military into the streets could become “a lot of foam and little chocolate.”
He believed that mixed patrolling, that is, police-military, is a palliative that temporarily improves security, but that it cannot be maintained permanently over time, and he stated that we must go to the root causes of the increase in criminal acts.
The executive of Citizen participation He said that he welcomes President Abinader’s decision, but that if this is not accompanied by measures and long-term planning in terms of security, “that will make more foam than chocolate.”
“The issue of the militarization of society also generates a certain level of anxiety among the population because every time you go to work or from work to your home and every once in a while you find a checkpoint of people with long weapons and sometimes you go with your family and with children, that generates an impression, a state of anxiety. That is the cost of having a militarized city, there is also the cost, there is also the cost that when you see a militarized city, mainly tourists send a bad message, this type of measure, although as I indicated, has a temporary palliative effect, it is neither they must be sustainable in the long term,” said the civic leader.
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He added that “as we have sustained on other occasions these temporary palliative measures that have a good effect because criminals, when they see the checkpoints and mixed patrols, hide because they understand that they are hot, but they know that as has happened on other occasions that this is temporary and eventually they come out again and we have seen this in the different years and efforts when the authorities see that crime is increasing, they resort to mixed patrolling and the militarization of the city”.
Abreu considered that even though it has its value to control the wave of crime in the Dominican Republic, the mixed patrol does not have a long-term effect.
He said that the Government has to implement long-term citizen security policies, attacking the sources and causes of crime and working with the security table in each of the localities, which is the way to attack the delinquency.
He also asked the authorities to move forward with the issue of police reform, which is the main tool that the State has to guarantee the security of citizens.
Measure
The President of the Republic yesterday announced the deployment of the Armed Forces to the streets, together with the Police to combat the crime that plagues the national territory.
Abinader acknowledged that in the last three weeks crime in the country has experienced a “significant increase” and attributed it to the effects of the reopening after confinement due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“This government is working and will continue to work so that there is true peace and tranquility based on respect for human rights, but also on the firmness of our law enforcement forces,” said the president.
The mixed patrols, made up of police officers and members of the Armed Forces, began this Thursday afternoon in the province of Santo Domingo and the National District.
