River Valley rivalry – cops strategize to stop village confrontations

Posted: Wednesday, April 10, 2024. 5:25 pm CST.

By Aaron Humes: With multiple brawls, at least one murder, and one attempted murder in the last few weeks, Police attention has been drawn to an area not used to public conflict – the Belize River Valley stretching from Burrell Boom to Bermudian Landing.

An unspecified rivalry between three villages has led to a cop, Sergeant Walton Banner, being accused by his own of obstructing fellow officers during their attempt to detain a suspect involved in a stabbing incident at the Horse Race in Burrell Boom Village on Easter Monday. That suspect, Julian Austin Reynolds, was armed and allegedly involved in injuring another person and was being detained by police when Sergeant Banner allegedly intervened. During the fight, BDF soldier Clint Stevenson was stabbed.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police, explained that “We have the ongoing rivalry in the Belize River Valley area involving three villages, or the villagers from three villages. That is Lemonal, Bermudian Landing, and Double Head Cabbage. [Several] persons were detained over the weekend and the police [investigated] to ascertain the extent of these individuals’ involvement in the ongoing rivalry. A number of persons will be charged for varying degrees of offenses.”

Interventions began on Sunday between villagers from Lemonal and Double Head which detailed exactly how the “beef” started and what can be done to resolve it. However, some of the key players from Lemonal were absent, so the sessions resume on Thursday in Ladyville.

However, the Commissioner decried reports of continued instigation on social media: “While we try to do this, we still see that a number of persons from Lemonal continue to go on social media and are instigating violence. I don’t think that is going to add, it’s going to make the situation any better. And in some cases, we’re seeing where the violence is being pushed by women. And in some cases, mothers of these young men who are involved in [this ongoing feud]. Now, as parents, I would want to think that you would be more responsible and, uh, would try to guide your child or your children to act civil and not to be involved in these types of activities. But when we see that parents are involved to the extent of riling up the children to behave in an uncivil way, then it makes you wonder what kind of parent they are.”

And he accepted Departmental fault for not properly intervening, due in part to officers stationed in the villages getting too close to the troublemakers: “Many of the failures in the area also had to do with policing. Poor level of policing coming from the police officers in the rural area. And so as a part of the plan moving forward, there certainly needs to be an adjustment in the police officers’ deployment within rural Belize [District]. Many of the officers there are from the same villages where these problems are coming from and so they’re too acquainted with the players and are unable to execute their duties the way they should.”

Additional patrols are in place and police are carefully searching out the troublemakers, particularly from Lemonal.

Advertise with the mоѕt vіѕіtеd nеwѕ ѕіtе іn Belize ~ We offer fully customizable and flexible digital marketing packages. Your content is delivered instantly to thousands of users in Belize and abroad! Contact us at mаrkеtіng@brеаkіngbеlіzеnеwѕ.соm or call us at 501-612-0315.

© 2024, BreakingBelizeNews.com. Content is copyrighted and requires written permission for reprinting in online or print media. Theft of content without permission/payment is punishable by law.