ComPol: Belize City has gang flare-ups, not increased gun violence

Clearly Belize City, because of its demographics with the various gang zones, is the most murderous municipality in the country. And the incidents of late have again put the Lake Independence area particularly under close police watch. But Commissioner Williams said he’s not going to refer to the recent flare-ups in the old capital as an increase in gun violence, per se, since Belize City is unique in that regard.

Chester Williams

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“By now we have all come to understand the dynamics of Belize City – that we do have occasions when we’d see a flare-up and then the police would mobilize and do what needs to be done in collaboration with the other agencies which are a part of the multi-sectoral task force. So it does occur from time to time and we see that, after we address the issues, there is a lull and we begin to feel comfortable. Belize City is so complex to the extent that you see gang flare-ups in a particular area and then we go in to address that particular area, emphasizing our efforts in that area and then we see another flare-up in another area. It’s just how Belize City is, particularly south side Belize City has a potential for gang flare-ups at any given time, it’s so volatile that it takes one stupid person to do something stupid and then we have a gang flare-up. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing that took place in the St Martin’s area over the weekend. While they were there socializing, we had the persons who went there and fired at them. Thankfully it was not fatal. And now we see that there is a gang flare-up in the Martin’s area which has been pretty quiet for quite some time.”