Medina must deal with public safety personally, think tank says

Santo Domingo.- Institutionalism and Justice Foundation (Finjus)vice president Servio Tulio Castaños on Sunday asked president Danilo Medina todeal with the of public safety issue personally, noting that the anticrime measuresannounced last week won’t solve the problem.

He said the joint military-police patrols and othermeasures announced by officials have a media and transient effect, recallingsimilar previous actions which haven’t been effective.

"I feel that the president should take the lead on safety;since the president is a person who enjoys a certain popularity, that is, he(Danilo Medina) is the leader to make that decision," Castaños said,stressing that as a "presidentialist" country, his direct interventionwould have a positive and effect against crime.

Cops ‘rent’ guns

"The security problem isn’t solved with individualsolutions, such as a guns or hired security, but with collectivesolutions," he said, adding that, "the country’s gun problem startsat the institutions themselves; we’ve seen the indictments of members of theinstitutions who should safeguard weapons but negotiate with them. We see the samewith police, where many of its members form part of organized crime structures.”