State of Emergency will not be ‘indefinite,’ says commissioner as tribunals begin for detainees

Published by BBNTEAM at August 10, 2024

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Posted: Saturday, August 10, 2024. 6:45 am CST.

By Aaron Humes: In the coming weeks, tribunals to determine the validity of detention of the scores held since June 24 under the extended State of Emergency will begin, according to Commissioner of Police Chester Williams.

Those are provided for in the Constitution as it relates to proclamations extended after 30 days, as this one has been.

With a State of Emergency related to crime called at least once per year since 2019, some have wondered whether Belize will enter a period where such proclamations will be extended indefinitely. The Commissioner shut down those suggestions, saying the SOE is and remains a last-resort avenue: “I am not advocating for indefinite SOE, as we have said on numerous occasions, that the SOE must always be used sparingly and as an act of last resort. It is not something we do proudly, but at the end of the day, when we see that these young men are going at each other, extincting each other, and the law enforcement effort is not yielding the results that we want because of the fact that they take every opportunity they get to go at each other, then the only measure that we can take to put a pass on their action and to see how we can get them in a setting to have intervention sessions and different programs with them is through the SOE.”

The Commissioner added that for all the complaints by family members, having them alive and relatively safe is infinitely preferable to a longer stretch in prison or in the graveyard: “I am sure that many parents of these young men would be happy come the end of the year when they can still say they have their son with them. Had it not been for this SOE, many of them would not be able to say that. So as much as some may see it as an undesirable tool that the police use, it is a useful one, and the law-abiding people for the most part do support it and even the parents or loved ones of some of these same troubled youths do support it because it is the only way that they can get the help that they need.”

The current SOE runs until September 24.

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