We've shown you the comments that Police Commissioner made on several issues of national interest today. But, he didn't have to take any tough questions on weekend crimes. That's because Belize City and the rest of the country experienced a peaceful weekend with no reports of gun violence.
When the Commissioner was asked about that, he suggested that it is the fruits of labor from the Leadership Intervention Unit, the Police Department, and the Ministry of Home Affairs:
Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"Well, certainly there is a lot being done by the police. And as you know, we have the multi-sectoral approach to fighting crime, where we now have the input from different organizations, particularly on the Southside of Belize City. We also have the ongoing basketball tournaments for the different groups in Belize City, and the Belize District, by extension. And we believe that the efforts of everybody on the ground, including the police officers who are policing the different areas, are bearing fruits. We're not going to celebrate as yet. There's still a lot of work to be done. There are still many ongoing tensions with different groups in the city that we try to deal with. But what we try to do as best we can is to utilize the LIU in conducting interventions. As we hear of some issues between two different parties or a group, then we would normally send LIU to bring them to the table, see what the issues are, and try to resolve them. That along with the basketball tournament, which is a form of intervention through sports, is helping. We have the efforts being done by the Department of Youth Services and even the Ministry of Education in terms of looking at providing educational opportunities for those youths of Southside Belize City is helping. In the near future, we're looking at taking some of these guys to Punta Gorda Town for somewhat of a retreat. And then, we're also going to sign very shortly the MOU between the police and a private citizen with respect to twenty-five acres of land by the Rhaburn Ridge Area, that will be used for farming by these young men again. And then we have the activity we were planning for Mountain Pine Ridge with them. So, there's a lot we're doing with these youths with a view to see if we can bring them to the table and try to diffuse their issues in a way that is not going to bring violence, as opposed to them taking a gun and try to resolve issues, when in fact that only make the issues is worse. I've always said that we're going to work with those who show interest that they want to change and for those who do not want the change, we'll come down hard on them. And I maintain my position."
According to the Commissioner, the department and its partners have several activities planned soon that they hope will positively impact the youths who say that they want to leave the street life behind.
