7 News Belize

Cops On Keeping The Truce Going
posted (April 26, 2017)

Williams also gave us an update about the remarkable state of peace that has prevailed in the city for 17 days now. Since all the major Belize City gang's gathered for a peace march two and a half weeks ago, there have been no shootings or gang related murders in the city.  Williams, who is leading the effort on the police end, spoke to the media about how the BPD plans to preserve the peace in the City...

Reporter
“Can you just talk to us a little bit more about the actual truce itself, you know, are there any concerns in the maintenance of it?â€￾

ACP Chester Williams- OC, Eastern Division South  
“Well yes, it is challenging. After all, we are dealing with young men who have anger and hate against each other to some extent; they have been hurt. So whenever you trying to mend fence between persons who have been hurt, whether they are gang members or ordinary persons of society, it is always difficult. And so there is always that challenge but we try to be the mentors to be able to guide these young men to understand that, while yes, you may have personal differences, you still do have many things between yourselves that you have in common. And we try to encourage them to focus on those things that they have in common rather than those things that they have not in common, and that seems to be working. I must say that Jawrie, the young man that came in with Ms. Finnegan, he has been excellent in putting out the message to the young men, him having lived that life, he is in a better position to let them understand that: you know, if I was living that life and here I am now, I have changed I have been found, the so can you. So that itself is a motivation to them to show that, you know, yes you might look at life and think that all is lost but all is not lost. Once there is life there is hope and we try to encourage them that you are still alive, you have life, be grateful to God and try to have hope and faith and things will work out. And they have been receptive to the message and they are working with us day in and day out. And we are grateful to where we are today and we hope that the peace between these guys continues moving forward. I must say, the community has been very helpful. And at the end of the day as the police, we try to be the leading force behind these things because one of our mandates is the maintenance of law and order and it can only be achieved when we get the trust and confidence of the public, and I must say that we have been getting that. And so, the feedback from the public has been very very helpful to us and we’ll continue to see how we can foster that relationship to make it better.â€￾

Reporter
“Are you hopeful that the peace that you’ve established with the gangs will prevail?â€￾

ACP Chester Williams
“I am an optimist. I believe that it will continue. On Monday night there was a event on the complex basketball court where they had a basketball game between BLC, which is Backa-Land, PIV and Ghost Town, and you know that these are three rival groups. Nonetheless, they came together on Monday with Jawie and Ms. Finnegan and they had the basketball tournament on the complex basketball court. When that was done they retired to the area where Brandon Smith lived and they had a get together there again, together, all of them. And I must say that it was a wonderful sight to see all of them converge in one area, speaking with each other, you know, drinking together. And when it was done they all retired to their respective areas. So, that is again a good sign to show that these young men are coming together with a view to see how they can put aside their differences for the better good of our society.â€￾

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