The police department had its hands full this weekend. Apart from responding to murders and other crimes, officers present at the William Dawson Peace Cup on Sunday at the MCC grounds, found themselves having to break up a large brawl that broke out between rival groups at the venue. The game was between Fort George and Kelly Street - but when some women started fighting in the stands, the peace cup ended far from peaceful. It resulted in a melee and police had to fire warning shots to restore order.
The Compol spoke with us today on how his officers ended up handling it.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I would not venture to say that it is the fault of the police. At the end of the day like you said, the police are engaged in doing interventions through sports. What we have been doing through the William Dawson tournament, as well as the William Dawson piece cup which is the football activity one was a basketball, and now we have the football is to bring the different groups from rivaling areas together with a view to ensure that we can do interventions with them through sports. And yes, of course these are people who have issues with each other, and it is anticipated that things may go wrong or not according to how we expect, and the police will be there to ensure that they keep the peace and neutralize whatever may occur. And I think that the police did a good job and making sure that they contained the issue and prevented it from escalating further. So I must commend the police officers for a job well done. It could have been worse, but again due to the good work of the police it was neutralized."
