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Sr. Supt. Mediates Madness In Ghost Town
posted (July 13, 2015)
And while the violence continued this weekend - police say that the most dangerous zone of the city - which is territory controlled by the Ghost Town Gang has been cooled down because of a police led mediation session. It happened on Friday - and Chester Williams - the new boss of the Eastern Division southside is the one who brought it together. Today, he told how it will promote peace:..

Sr. Supt Chester Williams, Commander Eastern Division South
"I met with the two groups from Mayflower. As we all know that the situation on Mayflower is an internal issue between one gang: the Ghost Town gang. I met with them and their parents. I also brought in two counselors, Mrs. Diane Finnegan and Mrs. Anne Palacio and I also have Mr. Douglas Hyde who himself is a mediator and we discussed with them. We had the parents speaking to them first, let the parents know how exactly they are feeling about tension that exists in the Mayflower area. After the session with the parents, I then had the counselors, each having a session with them or a talk with them, to try and see how best they could assist them in calming the situation that exists between them and after the two counselors, then Mr. Hyde spoke to them and I just basically give a closing as it relates to what the three presenters have done or have said."

"At the end of the meeting I must say was successful. They all agreed that they will put aside their personal issues and they will try to live together in that small community. They agreed and as part of that agreement they hand in to us one AR15 brand new rifle and I think 15 live rounds of ammunition for this same rifle."

"What we want to do Jules and the other rest of the media is to give these young people an opportunity to change. If it is that they are serious changing, we will provide the avenue for them to make that change. The thing is that the problem has been going on for quite some time now and it needs to come to a stop."

Jules Vasquez
"Does this encourage a kind of impunity and how do you maintained the balance between mediation and a strict enforcement of the law?"

Sr. Supt Chester Williams
"There is a strict enforcement of the law Jules, but like I said before if you have full scale policing, it has been tried for many years. It has not work. We need to have a different approached on fighting crime and my approach is to have a dual approached. We have a soft side and we have a tough side and if we want to see change in Belize City, we as law enforcement and the community on a whole must give these people who are involved in these crimes, an opportunity to try and make that change that they say they want to make. Now, if we are giving them the opportunity to make that change, and they go out and commit crime, then you have the tough side that will kick in and deal with them."

"For far too long we have had situations where oh because a person is involved in gang, we believe that they are no good for society. Each of us were born innately with something good in us and we want to see that we could help these people bring out the good in them."

"My brother, time will tell. I am here like I said to try and facilitate a process. My interest is to ensure that we bring some level of safety to south side Belize City and if sitting down with them and mediating and try to see how we could mend fence between them, if that is the solution to the problem, I am willing to do that. At the end of the day, we, the community, we as police officers, we must not try to stigmatize too much. Because if we continue to look at these people as only being worthy of committing crime, then that's what they will continue to do."

Coming out of this Ellis Meighan - who was under accusation for attempted murder after a shooting on Thursday was not charged. Police say the men he allegedly shot at, Kendis Flowers and Raph Martinez said they didn't want to press charges.

To further promote peace, Police have a social event planned this Sunday in Mayflower Street - which is the heart of Ghost Town. There will be a bar b que and games.

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