There's a very ugly video depicting a cruel act of sexual coercion which is being circulated right now - and it's making news tonight. That's because the man seen coercing a woman to perform graphic acts on another has been arrested by police. He is a notorious gang figure and the commissioner of police discussed why the police are intent on charging him:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Yesterday the police investigation led them to a house in the St. Martin's area. At the house the police came across the narrator in the video who I can say now is Kenneth "Big Tom" Flowers. The young woman in the video who was forced to performed that gross act of indecency another male person. That male person was also found and the owner of the house. They were all found in the same house in the St. Martin's area. Since then we have interviewed these persons and I can say that the young woman do not want to cooperate with the police. She is more concerned about Big Tom than her own self. We have brought her mother into the picture to see what kind of support she can offer to her daughter and we are hoping that she will be able to get additional support maybe from the Women's Department to look at the issue of counseling and emotional and moral support. I had looked at the criminal amendment that deals with sexual offences and we have identified 3 offences for which Big Tom, the owner of the house and another person who was present can be charged. Let me also state that southside Belize City remains under
a gang state of emergency and when you look at the whole issue surrounding this video and the activity of Kenneth "Big Tom" Flowers there is some gang correlation there and so based on that we have also prepared detention order for Big Tom, the proprietor of the house and the other person who was with them at the house and they will be sent to prison under the state of emergency. Now we are hoping that the time that he will be at prison it would give the young woman and the other individual the courage to be able to speak to us more openly and cooperate that we can lay additional charges against these individuals."
We had a much broader conversation with the commissioner about gendered humiliation involving a senior cop who publicly berated and humiliated a woman on the street and you can hear that later.
