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Those trappings are what put the child care advocates on guard, and so, we asked Williams if he was able to bring them around today:

ACP Chester Williams, Pushing on with curfew
"The meeting I must say was a productive and we have a pre-meeting this meeting this morning as well with the Minister of Human Development Mr. Anthony "Boots" Martinez, who was very instrumental in the meeting this morning in terms of assisting us with some new ideas that we can inject into the program that we are trying to do in terms of ensuring the safety of our children in Belize City."

Jules Vasquez
"So where are we right now with this curfew? Is everyone on board?"

ACP Chester Williams, Pushing on with curfew
"Yes, all the stakeholders are on board and we will continue what we have been doing in terms of when we meet a child on street after 9pm at night, the child will be taken into the care of the police and, listen carefully, not detained, but will be taken into the care of the police and we have a room that we have designated to this program where the child would be kept until the morning time when we can get the social and the parent in. But when it comes to female child, we will be taking those female children to their homes and we will have the parent bring them in the next day morning, so that we can deal with the matter along with social."

Jules Vasquez
"Practical question: the children or child are taken in at night, not detained, taken in. You are introducing them sir to a police station. How will you insulate them from the fact that you child are being held at a police station. A place where there are bad men. They only hold bad men here. You are being held here for your own good, because of your bad parents. How would you insulate that space to make it not contaminated with all the vices which surround a police station?"

ACP Chester Williams, Pushing on with curfew
"Practical answer to a practical question: at the police station all kind of people comes. The young, the old, the able, and the disabled - everybody comes to a police station. A police station is not a place where only criminal goes. You are at a police station right now Jules and I trust and hope that you are a law abiding citizen. Right. And, like I have always said that these children when they are brought in, they will be kept totally away from the cell block population. They will have no contact with the cell block population. They will be taken care of. We have a child friendly police department here in Eastern Division South."

Jules Vasquez
"You are joking."

ACP Chester Williams, Pushing on with curfew
"No. Let me finish. we have a child friendly police department here and say so and I will prove to you since I assume command of Eastern Division South, when many people out on the streets have been clamoring for us to give up on the young people, because of the gang violence and so forth, I stood my ground and I said no. I am not going to give up on them. I am going to give them a chance. I sit in mediation with them. I have family day with them. I bring them out along with their families. I interact with them. I am currently, through the efforts of some our corporate citizen, renovating a park on West Street. I will invite you next week to the launch of that park to let you see how much we have done and will continue to do for the children of Southside Belize City."

Jules Vasquez
"But those things are happening so to speak outta road. In a police station sir, all types of actions occur, which are not fit for children and you and I know that the police officers, thought good and honest they may be, are pluck from the same communities where these feared gang people are plucked from. These are not people who are equip to take care of children."

ACP Chester Williams, Pushing on with curfew
"Jules, you are making an assessment without any supporting facts."

Jules Vasquez
"Is there caring for children in the police academy? There is none sir. They don't trained them to do that."

ACP Chester Williams, Pushing on with curfew
"Jules, are you a parent?"

Jules Vasquez
"I am indeed."

ACP Chester Williams, Pushing on with curfew
"Do you take classes to be a parent?"

Jules Vasquez
"No sir."

ACP Chester Williams, Pushing on with curfew
"Do you go to the police training academy to learn to take care of your children?"

Jules Vasquez
"Sir."

ACP Chester Williams, Pushing on with curfew
"Do you, yes or no Jules?"

Jules Vasquez
"Sir."

ACP Chester Williams, Pushing on with curfew
"Parenting can occur naturally. Police officers are parents too and they care for their children at home and it is in that same vain that we are going to care for those children that we bring here. I will tell you that the place where they will be kept will be well suited for them to be kept. It has TV, fan, mattress that they can rest on. In some cases it might even be better than what they have at home. We will be feeding them until the social worker and the parent come in and we will try to get them in as early as possible in the morning, that we can deal with these people, these children so that they can go home."

At today's meeting we saw representatives from the Department of Social Services, and CYDP. We didn't see any UNICEF Rep., but we are told through back channels that they are not fans of the Williams plan. Tune in tomorrow to hear what Williams has to say about UNICEF.