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But the commissioner did respond yesterday - he took our toughest questions on the subject for 12 minutes -and then tapped out.
In a commentary on the Compol's performance, Jules Vasquez marshals some new evidence and looks at some troubling inconsistencies in the narrative of the events outlines by Commissioner Williams:
The commissioner stated that Ryan Melendez went into hiding after this beatdown:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"He escaped because when the officer went after the other, to try to apprehend the other, he escaped. And from then to now, he has not even re-surfaced. He has gone in hiding."
But that's not true. Melendez, did not go into hiding - he went to the police station. This is the Belize Police Department's medico-legal form for him.
"It classifies his injuries as harm. It says that he got a bruise to his temple when he was was slapped with Sergeant Devon Makin's pistol."
The police have his name in their internal messages as a victim. Yet the Commissioner offered us another narrative yesterday - one which he must have known to be false - where he paints Melendez as a fugitive:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"So that just goes to show that he knows exactly what he did and he intends to continue hiding from the law."
And then to further exculpate his godson and criminalize the victim, the compol presents this circular and false argument:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"So if it is that you know that you are so innocent and you have done nothing wrong, and you believe that the police have abused you then why can't you come froward and make your complaint and make your case?"
So why should a man who was beaten by a protected police officer go into his same abusers and complain?
Especially after their boss has declared him guilty?:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"He is not an innocent person! And we have to be real."
So, Melendez is to blame. And who else? The media, myself, and the leader of the opposition - all to blame:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Even when the police is right in the eyes of Jules Vasquez, the police is wrong."
"You and Shyne Barrow have pronounced the officer guilty, both of you."
"The alacrity with which he "prounce" on it to gain political mileage is alarming. And here comes the media feeding him with that "cumptiousness" of that meal."
And while everyone has done wrong in the situation - everyone except Sergeant Devoin Makin - the commissioner conceded only the slight but apparently tolerable infraction that he pistol whipped a detainee - who had submitted and was unarmed. The commissioner seems to claim the young man invited this:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"The young man was resisting. He only have two hands, and so he was holding hm with one hand and he had the other, the gun in the other hand, and so he tried to hit him with the other hand, but that's the hand that had the gun. Now, I am not going to condone the issue of the, of the pistol whipping, because the weapon could have gone off and the result could have been different."
That is the only concession he would make though in a vigorous 12 minute defense of an officer who had acted very dubiously in the public eye.
And this is not a commissioner immune to sweeping snap judgements when police act up and it is caught on camera:
(August 16, 2021) Chester Williams,Commissioner of Police
"Mr Griffith will be placed on interdiction today because there is no way you can justify pepper spraying two young men who were handcuffed. And if you look at the video, there is nothing that these young men did other than being a bit a chatty, and it did not warrant what he did."
"I found that video to be extremely disgusting and troubling. And right away upon seeing it, I gave directive that the police corporal, be arrested and charged and interdicted from duty."
But for officer Makin who used a loaded weapon to slap a suspect, there is only defend, defend, defend:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"People would splice the video for their own convenience."
"The young man was resisting."
"We have to look at the situation in its totality. It's not like the sergeant just went and pick on someone for no reason and just beat him up."
And this is the Compol's central argument - that the police officer was acting to protect two minors. But were his actions so pure?
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"On his way home, he was stopped by two minors who were extremely frantic and in fear, who complained to him that the same young man that you all saw in the video with him and about two other persons were chasing them with masks and firearm."
This video allegedly captured shortly after the encounter with Makin and Melendez - shows what looks like a minor in the yellow shirt with police. And you can hear another police officer shouting at the proprietors to shut down the establishment which is known as "Clumsy Club" in the San Mateo area of San Pedro:
Unknown Person
"Lock this down!"
"Lock it down!"
And, in the front of the frame, Ryan Melendez walks right past the police, down the road. This is allegedly after the police hit him in the face.
And after that it sounds like police are trying to get the video deleted:
Unknown Person
"Leggo my hand!"
"Me da wah tour guide you know?"
"I noh gih wah."
"Delete da mada deh!"
"Which phone?"
"Delete da deh!"
"I noh have no phone!"
We'll keep following the story.
