Police Commissioner not meeting with gang members – sends warning instead

Published by BBNTEAM at January 24, 2022

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Posted: Monday, January 24, 2022. 5:20 pm CST.

By BBN Staff: After a sudden surge of gang violence that left several people dead last week, the Leadership Intervention Unit (LIU) of the Belize Police Department held an intervention meeting with known gang leaders over the weekend. The Commissioner of Police Chester Williams, however, said he refused to attend. Williams, who has been known to facilitate and attend intervention meetings in the past, has been increasing his focus on cracking down on gang activity in recent times.

“I was invited to that meeting and I told them that I was not going to attend the meeting because I had no intention of meeting with them. I simply told LIU to inform the gang members that if it is they continue with their problems that I will know what to do to address their issues,” Williams said.

He went on to say that he was told the gang leaders gave certain commitments to police and that he is waiting to see the outcomes of those commitments come to pass. Last week, five men were shot and killed, four of them in Belize City and one in Burrell Boom village. Notably, three of those fatal shootings happened on Friday.

In December 2020, after a state of emergency was declared due to a flare up in gang violence, Williams warned that continued threatening of the citizenry would find gang members feeling “the wrath of the police.” And in March of 2021 Williams said “І hаvе ѕаіd tо thеm іn thе mеdіаtіоn thаt thіѕ іѕ thе lаѕt tаlk, іf іt соntіnuеѕ, wе’rе nоt gоіng tо ѕіt dоwn аnd tаlk аnуmоrе. Ѕоmеthіng nееdѕ tо bе dоnе.”

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