And while there's Chester's justice for the GG's dog, there's no justice for Nipsey - the dog who got shot in the face by the cops.
6 months have gone by since Nipsey was clinging to life after being shot by a police officer. And since then her owners say that they have not received any of the compensation that was promised to them by The Belize Police department. We followed up today with the owners and here's what they told us.
Last year in June we showed you The nightmare that the Riverol family on Supal street endured after a police officer shot their family dog who had just delivered puppies 2 weeks earlier. While Nipsey may have physically recovered from that incident her owner says that their sweet girl hasn't exactly been the same, and they now need to exercise caution when entering the yard so as to not startle her.
Royann Riverol, Resident, Supal Street
"Since the incident happened in June with Nipsey, Nipsey isn't the same like before. She is very protective now of who is in the yard, you know, over here and over the next yard. Very protective of her surroundings. She is not that familiar with faces as much even with me. I can come outside or come in the yard and she's going to growl, you know, because she's not recognizing the face, you know."
"You have to acknowledge her before you enter the yard. Then she will know, okay, that's my owner, you know. So she is like a bit scared and, you know, when she sees officers coming around or anything like that, you can see that she has up her defense, you know."
Riverol says that in addition to Nipsey's recovery the hardest thing they have had to deal with is trying to get compensated for their loss as promised by the commissioner of Police.
Royann Riverol, Resident, Supal Street
"They told us that they will reimburse us and that they will get in touch with us, but nothing."
"We went and we spoke, we went to get in touch with Chester Williams, nothing. We have to go to Belmopan in order to see him pertaining to Nipsey. Apart from that, we cannot see him. We cannot speak to him."
"I tried calling Mr. Musa, Mr. Kareem Musa, because he gave us his number so that I can contact him about Nipsey. I messaged him, I called him, nothing. Absolutely nothing. It seems as though they are sweeping everything pertaining to her under the rug."
"We have a lot of expense that we paid with Nipsey, and we cannot even get that back, you know, and it's a big toll on us, really a big toll on us, because it's like we lose everything. I lost all of my puppies, you know, all of my puppies because of that shooting."
And since then they've been left in the dark and given the runaround. But the problem of cops and canines has repeated itself, only this time the victim and owner is our head of state.
Royann Riverol, Resident, Supal Street
"This one with Governor-General and the one that was before when they shot the lady's dog and nothing got dealt with that with hers, but Governor General's dog, she got compensated with dealing with the officer. That made me very pissed off, I'll be honest with you. I was so angry about it because nearly a year and my dog hasn't fully recovered."
"We haven't fully recovered and we want justice, we want to see something happen because animal cruelty, we can't have that in this country. Everywhere else you see that people get penalty for animal cruelty so why can't we do the same?"
Riverol says that they will continue to reach out to the BPD until they receive the compensation that was promised to them.
Royann Riverol, Resident, Supal Street
"We are persistent and we want something to happen. We want justice for our little pups that's gone, we want justice for Nipsey, we want justice for ourselves, you know, because I mean, just like how they can do for the Governor General, with the officer they can do for civilians as well, regular people, I mean it seems as though we have to be high up in ranks or so in order for our name to get across them and I think that is highly unfair."
