The Police Commissioner says the swift arrests are the product of effective policing but one community is up in arms over what it calls plain old harassment.
After the Sunday night murder of Robert Flowers, police detained as many as 20 individuals from the Rocky Road and George Street areas of the city. All 20 were held at the Queen Street station until this afternoon when the 48 hours was a little past and their families started to agitate for their release. We took their complaint directly to the top cop who said nothing was illegal about their detention as they were all under investigation and some were charged criminally.
Jose Zetina, Commissioner of Police
"The only thing is that names have been called from the 'Rocky Road' area from the George Street area and we have detained them and we are questioning them in respect to the different murders."
Keith Swift,
"Is it right to detain an entire neighborhood which is what they are claiming?"
Jose Zetina,
"I don't think it came from within the neighborhood. It came from the entire area of George Street and Rocky Road area."
Keith Swift,
"Were any of these people detained charged?"
Jose Zetina,
"As far as I know 4 or 5 of them have been charged in connection with the murder and in connection with a robbery that happened...I think it is the Belize Bank Robbery."
We were unable to find out which 4 were charges. The detainees who weren't charged were released during the course of this afternoon.