As we noted earlier, last night’s murder of Jermaine Smart was the fourth murder since last week Thursday night when Mark Emmanuel Flowers was killed on Newtown Barracks – and in addition to those murders – there have been three other shootings. The spike in violent crime is giving the Eastern Division a bad name. And that’s why today acting Eastern Division boss Chester Williams today said the fun is over for criminals. Coinciding with the September celebrations, Williams says his officers along with back up from the BDF will sharply step up patrols. His message to criminals today was that the time for talk is over.
Sr. Supt. Chester Williams,
“I believe that we have dialogued enough with these people, trying to give them the opportunity to change. It is time for us to stop dialogue. We need to go into some more swift and severe actions in dealing with them and that is being done as we speak. I must say that since yesterday we have intensified our police operations and we will be going much into it again today. We have solicited some assistance from the Belize Defense Force and they will be utilized to join the police so that we can stretch our human resources to a greater extent.
The Police Department must play a very integral role in order for the success of the various activities that will occur throughout the month of September. We will be using the recruits who are in training as a part of our deployment. We will also be getting some assistance from Police Headquarters in Belmopan in the form of senior police officers and likewise other ranks to complement our effort in Belize City so that we could maximize, stretch our human resources and again high visibility is very very important and that is what we want to show. We want to show a sign of force.
It is not a threat. Dialogue time is over. We need to get down to business and be serious and I am darn serious about it. We need to send a message to them and we will send a message loud and clear. And as I said, we will operate within the scope of the law. We will not go out there and brutalize people or work as a criminal organization. We are police officers. We will maintain professionalism in executing our duties.”
