But, good cop or bad, like we said, the Corporal has raised an issue of public interest. And, the Human Rights Commission of Belize is among the most interested. That group has been pressing police on this for sometime now - and finally, with this exposure, they have agreed to work together with police to upgrade the detention cell to minimum standards:
Jules Vasquez- Reporter
"What was your visceral reaction when you saw those photos?"
Kevin Arthurs, Human Rights Commission of Belize
"I was repulsed, that's the first response. But there is a very practical approach to this as well. The maintenance of these facilities takes a certain amount of management and it takes a certain amount of vigilance. And we know that the police department is distracted with other things. I'm not letting them off the hook but truly it's a thing where we have to work on some corporation. We are having two conversations, myself and Compol. One conversation that we are having, hopefully throughout the course of today, is to see how we can work on certain issues that he has raised with me. And then next week he has invited the human rights commission to a meeting in Belmopan where we will discuss wider issues. He has specific things that he wants to work on, and he has named two of them. One is continued sensitization with the training of police officers because you have to start at the beginning with them. And other suggestions that we might have on moving forward to help the human rights issue. Listen, Human Rights and law enforcement are on the same side. Anyone who goes to say that they are not, simply does not understand what we should expect from each other."
Jules Vasquez
"When people feel that you can't get a conviction at court, 'that man is going to get out of jail,' so people like, on an implicit level, that you punish them ina pisshouse, forgive the word."
Kevin Arthurs, Human Rights Commission of Belize
"Surely there is a sadistic and very malicious way that we can look at things but there are certain things that tell us what kind of society we are. Hitler societies certainly had certain ideals which we do not share after the second world war and because of those things we pass certain rules as common people throughout the world. One of those things was the universal declaration of human rights. And so, I am a 100% sure that Belize is not one of those societies that hold that we should treat anyone who is human like an animal?"
Williams said today that he will try and meet with Arthurs this week.
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