On Monday, bruised, battered, bellicose and bilious members of the George Street Gang went on air and inflamed the nation, making the clear suggestion that the wider, law-abiding society - right up to the Prime Minister - would be made to pay for police abuses against them.
Their unapologetic public appearance and their intimidating tone was a first - and tonight - we have another first to report: The George street Gang along with three other gangs, Supal Street, Ghost Town and Gill Street have issued a joint press release.
The brief, four paragraph statement was hand delivered to our newsroom an hour ago - and to our surprise, it takes a completely different tone from Monday's menacing interviews.
Monica Bodden went to George Street to hear it for herself - where they told her it came from George Street Boss Shelton Pinky Tilllett in consultation with the other gang leaders.
One of the George street gang members read it for us - off camera:...
Voice of member of George Street
"We want to let the public know that we George Street, Supal Street, Ghost Town and Gill Street do not have any intention or retaliation the GSU or harming anyone. We plan on taking up our treatment we receive from the GSU last week Friday through the courts and only through the courts. We also want the public to understand that we will not be causing any trouble during our September celebration and have no knowledge of or possess any grenades as was alleged by this week press release. Lastly we would like for the GSU to try and come up with a way to help resolve the issue between the various areas rather than fueling the problem. Thank you."
Voice of member of George Street
"We all want people to be ok going out for the September celebrations. There is no reason why we want any problem. Actually what we want people to know like for the carnival is that a lot of the kids are a part of this carnival are our kids and we would never want any problem to happen. We would never want any of them to get hurt so we don't want the public or any of our Belizean citizens to be afraid to go out and watch the carnival or any of the September celebration. We guarantee that that's not what we want. Whatever had happen with the GSU last Friday - we will take legal action which is court action - that's the only action we as the community - George Street, Gill Street, Ghost Town or wherever they said are all the groups together - that's what we want; legal action, not any criminal action. We don't want any problem out there. We guarantee that there is nothing, none of us want any retaliation. So there is no grenade, no kind of weapon, no ammunition."
Monica Bodden
"This press release was actually agree on by all these guys?"
Voice of member of George Street
"By every single one of them. This is what came up and we wrote it and this is why I am OK to say it out loud."
So to go over the key parts of the statement again, it says, quote:
"we also want the public to understand that we will not be causing any trouble during our September Celebrations and have no knowledge of, or possess any grenades…"
It also says, quote:
(We) do not have any intentions of retaliating against the GSU or harming anyone."
Indeed, it is a remarkable change of tone - but what matters is does the society believe it enough to let down their guard for the celebrations - and will police buy it - enough to not effect a mass lockdown of all known gang players this carnival weekend?
Well, it's too early to gauge public reaction, but as for the ending where the gangs offer an olive branch to the GSU, head of that unit Marco Vidal told us he had no official comment until he's had time to see and consider it.
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