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On last week Friday’s newscast, we took you into the neighbourhoods of Yabra and East Canal where officers from GSU allegedly put a beat down on several men at Wax House and the Long Barracks at the Corner of Ceasar Ridge and Faber's Roads. 

That’s after the Southside Commander, Assistant Police Commissioner Chester Williams, promised only 2 days earlier that his strategy for dealing with the spike in crime would exclude this type of behaviour. 

As we reported, the GSU Commander, Superintendent Mark Flowers, told us that he provided officers from his Unit to the Eastern Division South for an operation they were conducting. He told us that he did not know exactly what that operation was, and he also stated categorically that he does not condone this type of abusive behaviour. 

So, since these GSU officers were reportedly working for Eastern Division South, what prompted these beat downs? We asked Williams about it at today’s weekly meet-and-greet sessions. Here’s what he had to say about it:

Daniel Ortiz
"Do you know anything of any operations launched in this your jurisdiction?"

ACP Chester Williams - OC, Eastern Division South
"What I will say is that from my standpoint I do not tolerate or condone police brutality and from the commissioner’s standpoint he as well does not tolerate or condone police brutality. I saw the news as was reported on that night in question and certain persons spoke to me on Facebook about what they experienced allegedly at the hands of the GSU and I had said to them to come in to the police station and make the complaint, I will look into the matter and so far only two persons have come in. No other person have come in to make any complaint so those two complaints that we received we are dealing with them, we are investigating the matter and other than that if there is no complaint that comes in then there is nothing we can do. But I am not aware of the situation other than what I saw on the news."

Daniel Ortiz
"Did you or anybody from Eastern Division South conduct any operations with the use of the GSU?"

ACP Chester Williams - OC, Eastern Division South
"And this is where you went wrong Daniel Ortiz. You see the media always look for things to glorify to over sensationalise issues. The same way you took the time to have spoken to Mark Flowers on that day, you all could have speak to me before the matter was heard but you all went and aired the matter without speaking to me. Now here you are coming to me for explanation at this junction. I am not aware of what was said to you by Mr. Flowers, I think in the news report that I heard you said in the report that Mr. Flowers said that they were conducting an operation on Southside that is what I heard. I did not hear anything to the effect to say that he had loaned his officers to another commander, I did not hear that part of the report. And it is customary that due to the nature of Southside Belize City that the GSU conduct regular operations on Southside Belize City and those operations are geared at eliminating, dismantling gang activities on Southside Belize City. So to answer your question, I am not aware of what you are saying but what I can tell you it is not my belief, it is not within the scope of my style of policing to be out there to brutalize people because I believe that when we go out and brutalize people it makes matter worse, it does not assist the situation." 

We understand that the 10 men from the Wax House incident are in the process of preparing their lawsuit against the GSU for last week Thursday’s incident.