By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement leader Michael Pintard said Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis resembled a dictator when he urged the press to be more careful reporting violent crime. 

He also said the prime minister’s past words have come “back to haunt him”, noting Mr Davis strongly defended the Progressive Liberal Party’s decision to erect billboards highlighting the murder rate ahead of the 2012 general election. The banners said there were 490 murders under the FNM.

Mr Pintard said yesterday: “The truth of the matter is if you had compared the period that he was referencing with the period when they served, if I recall correctly, there were some 601 homicides during one iteration of the PLP regime.”

 “Unfortunately, the two times that we’ve had the highest murder rate, it’s been under their administration.” 

 “So they ought to be very careful about them politicizing crime in the way that they have because the statistics show how lacking they were in designing a comprehensive plan, working with other stakeholders in order to address crime in general, the violent crimes in particular. So he ought to be very careful. His words are coming back to haunt him.”

 The prime minister urged the press to understand their role in maintaining the country’s reputation and called the press to be sensitive.

 Mr Pintard chided Mr Davis for telling the media what and how to report murders.

 “The prime minister has been a member of the social media long before there was social media by putting up billboards,” he said. “So you don’t get to be a social media specialist when it’s convenient for you.”

 “Years later, you have come back now saying that listen, you ought not print the fact that some mother, some father have lost their child on the front page, you should bury that deep in the paper as if the public still would not be aware of the carnage that’s happening in our homes, schools on our streets.”

 Mr Pintard disputed the prime minister’s argument that what shows up on the front pages of local dailies determines international press coverage.

“The prime minister is also mistaken to presume that by having images or messages about homicides on the front page, that that alone accounts for what the international press sees or how they characterize us as a country,” he said.

 He noted Mr Davis has had a national address highlighting his administration’s approach to crime.

 “The question is, and others have asked the question, where did he expect his national address to be broadcast?” he asked. “Which page did he hope that his national address would land on? I would think it’s the front page and then what it was that he was talking about? He was talking about the carnage in our homes and our schools and on our streets.”