The Police Department is expressing dissatisfaction with the recent fining of 4 men who pleaded guilty to being members of gangs. On May 14th, Jeffery Buller, Akeem Augustine, Ulide Allen and Tevin James Cacho appeared in Magistrate’s Court where they were charged for being members of the Bak-A-Land Crips. They were remanded to custody until May 17th when they were promised disclosure. Upon their reappearance and after reviewing their disclosure the men opted to plea guilty as a result they were all fined 3 thousand dollars.
While the conviction seems to be a success for the Police Department, Commander of Operations, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Edward Broaster expressed dissatisfaction with the fine. During a press conference held on Tuesday May 28, Broaster stated that, “we’ve been doing some diligent work in investigating and charging members involved in gang activities and last week we had 4 individuals who changed their plea to guilty after receiving their disclosure. However, the amount of time and effort and monies that we’ve been putting into these investigations, we are looking at ways in which those fines can be used to recuperating those monies. Three thousand dollars is a little bit too low in our estimation. And we believe that the work we’ve done in enhancing citizen security we’ve been getting these gang members off the street. We certainly hope that those fines can be increased.”
Broaster says that the fines are negating the extensive work that is put into investigating and putting the files together. And their anti-gang work is now being intensified, so much so that a new gang has been identified in Belize City. Broaster would go no further than to name the gang as the ‘New Southside Killers,’ and to say that they are just a group of young men who think they are invincible. Broaster stated however that they have put strategies in place to mitigate this group.
Adding to what Broaster stated, Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams stated that shortly there will be a new set of young men who will be “paraded before the court” on charges of being members of a gang.
While the police crack down on gangs, there is also a sustained focus on defusing tensions between these very gangs and Broaster pointed out that on the direction of the Commissioner, the Conscious Youth Development Program has been boosted with personnel. A primary focus of this organization is increased mediation. “While we do not have a tool to measure the success of mediation efforts we are convinced that mediation does work,” stated Broaster. He noted that at the moment there are many, “rival groups who are dormant and not doing crime in the city.” It is for this reason that more mediation is needed said the ACP. “Revenge and animosity and hate and grievances for crimes committed against each other still lingers,” he added.
Another component to mediation according to Broaster, is the mental problems that the young men are going through. “We need to get professional psychologists to really deal with the mental issue and related problems that comes with violence amongst young people and that is the portion that is missing,” said Broaster.
