It is a story that has sparked outrage: armed police officers rounding up and detaining a dozen or so hair braiders, all women, from the Tourism Village for not paying their monthly license fee of $25. Tonight in a rare about turn, City Councilor Marshall Nunez says the Council made a mistake and owes the women an apology. Nunez admittedly didn't know about the operation until our story aired but he told us that it was an overreaction to call the police and have the women arrested.
Marshall Nunez, Belize City Councillor
"What I heard unofficially was that for the past couple of months the hair braiders haven't been paying the agreed $25 monthly that they should have paid. And of course we have to be sensitive to the economic conditions facing these people out there and so I think yesterday must have been a great reaction (overreaction) on somebody's part. $25 owed by the hair braiders is not an arrestable offense so I think somebody overreacted. I am here now and because of the commitment I have here at the court, we are not out there with the hair braiders. But we will definitely go out there and dialogue with them. That is unfortunate the way that went yesterday."
Keith Swift,
Is this what it has come to? That the City Council needs to be running down people for $25?
Marshall Nunez,
"Of course not. The thing is that yes they want to go out there and enforce that they need to pay but the level of force that you use to try and collect $25, that is not warranted. I called at the office this morning and I was told that yes there were making efforts to collect the money but its not an arrestable offense. You don't go and arrest somebody because they can't pay $25."
Jules Vasquez,
So what went wrong? Why were they arrested?
Marshall Nunez,
"I don't know. Like I said its some overreaction on the part of somebody and I mean definitely we need to get to the bottom of that and those people who used that additional power to embarrass those hair braiders need to get back to them and apologize."
Jules Vasquez,
Will you apologize to them?
Marshall Nunez,
"Definitely. I think it was not warranted the amount of force that they used to try and collect $25 from them."
Nunez committed to personally visiting the Tourism Village and meeting with the hair braiders. We note that the hair braiders were not charged, they were only held at the station for questioning and then released.
