Today in Belize City, a group of youths led hundreds in a march through the streets. They didn't have the muscular mobilization of mass parties like the PUP or the UDP, and they didn't have committed membership like the labor unions, but they did have a cause. Our 7NEWS Team was there every step of the way and we have the story of how the streets were taken back from the criminals, even if only for a little while this morning.
Keith Swift Reporting
It was a gloomy morning and a gloomy start to today's "Y-Focus Anti-Crime March." The demonstration left the Yabra Green shortly after ten am led by the BDf's Cadet Corp Marching Band. A gaggle of primary and high school children, some of them holding placards, others just walking, filled the middle of the moderately sized crowd. The rear was taken by a smattering of political, religious, and media personalities. They were joined strangely enough by senior officers from the Police Department.
Twenty minutes later the march was on Dolphin Street. The crowd was bigger and the energy stepped up a notch or two. The placards were now held high and there were chants to boot. And along with those chants was the grim reality of crime - the victims and their families left holding pictures. This morning behind all those pictures was a story.
Protestor #1,
"Stop the violence. Gilbert Phillips, better known as 'Ginger'"
Protestor #2,
"Something has to be done because we cannot continue with this kind of madness because this man is a child of God."
Protestor #3,
"I am here for my son who got killed and Faber's Road on the 23rd of April. They shot my son down and I don't know yet why they shot my son down and they kill my son. We need justice and we don't want to hear that anyone got off because of a lack of evidence. We need justice."
Protestor #4,
"They murdered my nephew, my sister's child, and we came out morning in memory of him."
It is a frustration and near desperation shared across the spectrum by those who say they've all been affected by crime.
Protestor #5,
"I work as a tour guide in the tourism industry and that is one of the big incomes for Belize right now and the way how crime is going, most people out there won't want to come to Belize and most people will be out of jobs. So instead of crime going down, it will get worse. So I think it starts from the Prime Minister. It has to start from the top for anything to happen at the bottom, so we have start from Musa. Let him come in, do what he has to do and then everything will just trickle down."
Carlos Perdomo, Politician
"I am a father and we have family that have been involved and many of us marching here are victims and it seems like today we don't have any protection for victims, we only have protection for criminals. So I am giving this support as a family man."
Keith Swift,
This is a march against crime, why is the police participating?
Supt. Yolanda Murray, Police Department
"Yes it is our job to prevent crime but we must show solidarity with the people of Belize because we are all against crime."
Mark King, City Councilor
"The crime situation has escalated to an unacceptable level and I believe that we need to join together, we need to set politics aside and come together. We need to completely work together."
And the group that was able to bring all this together, all these political and social personalities was a set of young people in their early to mid-twenties. They are called the Y-Focus Youth Group which is led by Dylan Williams and Troy Williams. Troy told us what led them to the street.
Troy Williams, Y-Focus Youth Group
"Basically to make a stand because the violence in this country is really getting out of order so we need to make a stand so that everyone follows."
It's a stand Dylan wishes more people would have taken. He is pleased with the turnout but says the many who stood on the sidelines should have been marching instead of just watching.
Dylan Williams, Y-Focus Youth Group
"I still believe that people still haven't asked themselves the question
what are they doing home or what are they doing instead of being in the march that would give hope for a better tomorrow."
Keith Swift,
I've spoken to those people on the sidelines and they say this march won't change anything.
Dylan Williams,
"Well I guess that is their belief but the better belief is that if you stand up today, things will change tomorrow. People say the government and the government but if we look in the mirror and look back, you can see us. We are the government, the people are the government, so that change will come from us. We want everybody to not just change their minds on this topic, but change their hearts to work together so that we can stand today as we are doing and prevent another crime from happening tomorrow, or hope for a better tomorrow."
A stand today and hope for tomorrow. One is a dream and the other is the sobering reality of this city without pay.
Police say the crowd was over a thousand, but our estimates, notoriously conservative, put it at somewhat lower than that figure.
