7 News Belize

COMPOL Wants Countrywide Kids Curfew
posted (September 16, 2019)
So, while the Assistant Police Commissioner Myvette was guarded in his comments, his boss, Commissioner Chester Williams, was a bit more forthcoming.

As we told you, there is the suspicion that Christopher Chi met his end due to his alleged involvement in the peddling of illicit drugs. Commissioner Williams told us today that the department will be agitating for the children's curfew in Belize City to be expanded to other parts of the country. Here's how he explained why:

Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"It is not only distressing for the police, but for the entire community. When a life is lost it is a concern to all, and yes, as the police, we have the responsibility of ensuring that we investigate with a view to finding the perpetrators of these crimes. But, it goes back to what I've always been harping on, the issue of children who are not being treated like children. We have too many young people roaming our streets day and night, committing crimes. And it is time that parenting is looked at more seriously. Parents need to find a way to know more about what their children are doing, who their child is with, and if it is that the child is a child of school age, that the child is in school. I know Mr. Myvette said that they have not ascertained a motive for Orange Walk, but we believe that that has some drug implications. And again, we have a number of young persons who are peddling drugs. They're doing it for the older folks, again, due to poor parenting supervision. Sometimes, maybe parents allow it because they benefit from the income, but they must understand that the negative effect of what the child is doing surely out-weighs the beneficial effect. So, it is something that they need to look seriously at. From a policing standpoint, we continue to enforce the curfew law in Belize City, and we want to advocate that the law be extended to cover the entire country. That way, we'll be able to hold parents, not only in Belize City, but across the country, accountable for what their child or children are doing. Separate from that, we continue to look at our policing operational plans, especially for Belize City, and it is going well. And we're seeing that some of the problems are popping up out district, but I need to mention that it is not the balloon effect. In the sense that, it is not people from Belize City, who are going out-district, committing these crimes. But rather, these crimes are being committed by local residents of these respective areas."

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