So far in this newscast tonight, all the news has been about, crime, sudden misfortune, armed standoffs, a wrongful shooting, and a court case with no conviction for a violent assault. All those are what Mayor Zenaida Moya would call negative news, and if she has her way, in the future that – and so many other things - will be no more. That's because Mayor Moya is trying to push for the kind of broad-based social transformation that converted Bogota, Colombia from one of the most violent cities on earth to one of the most exemplary in 15 years. Moya got the knowledge when she visited Bogota a few weeks ago, and she believes that in a city of 66 thousand residents, compared to Bogota's 7 plus million, change can come.

But she predicts it will take a coordinated effort and that's what today's Violence Prevention Summit was about: getting everyone on the same page.

Zenaida Moya-Flowers, Mayor of Belize City
"This is the start of something great and wonderful for Belize City and I know that the individuals here, a number of them, they do have the commitment to get it done just by them showing up here show that they care and that's a start."

Jules Vasquez
"But at the same time while it may be at the cusp of something great and wonderful it could also be cusp of or it could be something transient and ultimately, meaningless because these strategies in here, Mayor, this takes the coordination of so many bodies, agencies, non-government, government schools, communities. You are talking about a human revolution in these strategies here -- a revolution in behavior and I am not seeing it coming out of this room, with greatest respect."

Zenaida Moya-Flowers
"When Mr. Jermaine McDougal gave his presentation, he said something that really struck a cord. He said when we were faced with the H1N1 the Swine Flu, we felt, ok the Swine Flu is upon us everything get lockdown, everything get lockdown. You understand now we are faced with countless bodies piled up at the morgue dead, their lives cut short, and we have not done enough to address that situation., you understand? To do the same thing like we did when the swine flu scare came upon us."

Jules Vasquez
"Do you all even understand the problem that you are confronting, do you understand for example that the research is showing that male children are being passed from home to home, from auntie to sister to grandmother? That these people are going to school hungry? Do you realize the seed of crime that you are trying to solve is so deep in the soil, in the social fabric of our being, that it is not something you can address by saying that children have to go church everyday. "

Zenaida Moya-Flowers
"We understand those. We understand that the social, the economic factors that are involved, the societal factors, cultural factors that are involved. We understand that, you have to understand that in a collaborative, integrated, participatory approach, these particular areas can be addressed. "

Jules Vasquez
"Is this a sort of song and dance so that we can qualify for an IDB type loan where IDB would lend us money, lend the City money, a grant, give the City a grant so that it can meaningfully impact the causes of crime. "

Zenaida Moya-Flowers
"No, and we have no intension of asking the IDB for anything. If they choose to be a part of it, then fine. The respective sub committees, it would be there decision as to the way forward. But if any donor organization wants to assist and work in these areas we have no problem with it. I don't see why any of the committees would have a problem. "

Geovanni Brackett, Plus TV
"How would you measure your success from today's event? "

Zenaida Moya-Flowers
"The success would ultimately be what we see here this evening in terms of which organization, which person commits him or herself to be a apart of the solution, to be a part of the sub-committee, and to say ok my organization, for example if its the YMCA, that they commit themselves for doing this. Or if its whatever church or business group that they will say ok we commit to do this within this time period alright, and you can hold us accountable. "

And what those organizations will be working on are a list of 100 strategy initiatives which was circulated at today's meeting. That includes everything from "immediate treatment of drug addicts" to requiring media houses to run, quote "one inspiring story of social reform or the progress of a Christian mission," to the enforcement of church attendance by students.

It sure is ambitious, but a proposal freely floated by Deputy 
Mayor Phillip Willoughby trumps all that. He wants to get rid of the presumption of innocence, no less than the bedrock of the justice system in modern democracies. He says, research shows, the public wants, guilty until proven innocent.

Phillip Willoughby, Deputy Mayor
"Our system is one that you are innocent until proven guilty while not the latter, you are guilty please prove your innocent. "

Jules Vasquez
"When I heard some of them I wanted to say you are not serious, because you realize that some of them were kinda out there like you want reverse the entire system of justice where the burden is on the persecution you want to make it guilty until proven innocent instead innocent until proven guilty. "

Phillip Willoughby
"Those were my simple, humble, straightforward input but these were promulgated from within the power point presentation from the youths that have participated in our ongoing sporting activities from the council. We've heard them from people you have interviewed. We have heard them from the various newscasts. We hear these same positions from the talk shows in the morning. We hear them from our constituents, so nothing I said up here was novel or engineered by myself. It was just a culmination of what a cross section of the citizenry has been crying out for. "

Jules Vasquez
"But you are a figure, you are the Deputy Mayor of Belize City, you are a figure of public authority. Not everything that is good to hear is good to talk. I would think you have to say it would be irresponsible of me to even mention something that would require a drastic reversal of our entire system of justice and a constitutional re-arrangement. "

Phillip Willoughby
"We need to look at, find solutions, what is it that we want …or do we continue with the ongoing stream of violence that is plaguing our country or is it a turn on for the media to present these cases night in and night out. Now I am saying to you that it is a buy-in process by all the agencies and partners here present. They can restructure it. It does not have to be a pie in the sky thing. Bring it down to the ground. They have the right to take it out if they choose to but it was only what was promulgated and emanated from the various quarters from within our very own society. "

Jules Vasquez
"If you had your way it would be done. "

Phillip Willoughby
"Yesterday. "

Jules Vasquez
"A lot of people would be saying on the streets, you can't even keep the city clean, you can't even manage your own affairs, the City is bankrupt, do you understand how there would be skepticism or cynicism about the Council's ability to do a convergence of efforts like this. "

Zenaida Moya-Flowers
"Jules, this is not the job of the council only. We are only one of the players in this whole approach, just one alright. And yes we cannot spread ourselves too thinly, so that is why we need and we invited around 200 different organizations and entities and you know what? They are here, you understand, we are just one little drop in the bucket. "

The next action is a public task force meeting to report on the status of the action plans by the sub-committees.