Police week continued today with a visit to hotspots.
Now, seems to us the GSU visits many those hotspots on a very regular basis - but that is not on a friendly basis. Today the visits were about goodwill - and we followed the police into the Lovely Lane area of Pickstock in Belize City where some of the reviews were less than lovely.
Here's what the police and a few residents said:..
Gilbert Sebastian Nunez, Area resident
"Well I like it, I like the opinion because the come around and interview people to know what time it is and what is going around the neighborhood."
Cpl. Gildon Rivers, Police meet and greet
"I believe once we could hear their concerns and their opinion at least we maybe we could reach to some kind of agreement or a suitable idea of how we could try work along with each other."
Area resident
"I am on the streets all my life and I can't deal with this police thing."
Cpl. Gildon Rivers, Police meet and greet
"Some people that I meet voice their opinion. It is a matter of trying to work along with them and see what we can get out of them but most people are drawn back to give certain information as that they feel their life could be threaten over it. I was talking to a youth and he was explaining his plight about being picked up by the police - the GSU crowd, but he explain that he was picked up and locked up for over 48 hours without any kind of charges and then he got his jaw broken and up to this point he is still suffering pain from the jaw problem."
"We advised him that there is a complaint board with the police department that he could go and lodge his complaint."
Jason Belencio, Area resident
"For this police week, this is what I like - I like that they come around and get to meet people because the society put it that everybody in the streets in a bad person and it's not like that. Watch me, I am 24 years old without a mother and father. You can look
up my records and not even a stick of weed I got charge for. If you mind is set, you can do anything out here. I want to join the force, If you can help me out, I want to join the force."
Similar visits - hopefully with better results - were made in other areas including George and West Streets.
