ComPol’s Meet and Greet Hopes to Prevent Retaliation from Rocky Road

On Tuesday afternoon, Commissioner of Police Chester Williams visited the community where he met with relatives of Benjamin Hyde Senior. While the ComPol has gone on record to categorically state that he no longer negotiates with criminal elements, the bad blood in that neighborhood prompted an outreach.  According to the top cop, all efforts have been made to dissuade Hyde’s grieving family and their associate’s from avenging his death.

Chester Williams

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“Certainly, we need to look at situations as they as they may emanate.  While yes, I have said that I am not going to meet with them at the magnitude I did before, the current situation involving the shooting death of the father on Father’s Day, Mr. Benjamin Hyde, is one that as the Commissioner of Police and even as a society on a whole, we cannot be insensitive about… Certainly the loss of a loved one, particularly a father figure, is going to rip any family apart and may also cause a person to think violently.  And so, what I did yesterday was primarily to reach out to the group in the Rocky Road area and explain to them what our position is.  It was not to pet and powder nobody but to let them understand, while we understand your grief, we’re going to leave you to grief in piece, but if it is that you’re going to grieve, it must be in piece.  If you grieve and try to perpetuate violence, we will come at you and you may not be able to attend the funeral of your father.  So you make that decision now, whether you want to attend the funeral or not.  Because if it is that we were to learn that a gunshot is fired in the area and it comes from their camp, game over.  Because they have to understand, to go out and avenge what had happened is not going to return the dead.”