Be Loving And Cease Killing; Eastern Division Organize March Through the City
Edward Broaster
The police has been making their media rounds for the past two weeks leading up to this Friday’s BLACK March in Belize City. BLACK, is the acronym for Be Loving And Cease Killing. It is an initiative to bring together the youths from the different areas and the communities to stop the killing and violence in the Old Capital. The march will start from the Yarborough Green and head toward hotspots and gang territories before ending at the Battlefield Park where a rally will be held. There have been several anti-crime initiatives such as vigils and peace walks, but what makes this one different? Senior Superintendent Edward Broaster says that the initiative is an extension of community-based policing in the eastern division.
Sr. Supt. Edward Broaster, Deputy Officer Commanding, Eastern Division
“BLACK is a complete program that will see different projects coming out of it. in particular, we have the music wars, which is writing and recording songs that we will be initiating pretty soon. As a matter of fact, we have young people who have creatively made the music, “Me Noh Fight No War For No Man This Year;” they will be performing that song tomorrow at the Battlefield Park at the mini rally that we will be having. After that, we will be having music competitions among the different groups with business and private sector involvement so that we can give the music industry in Belize a knee jerk for them to come up with positive anti-violent, anti-crime songs and hopefully engage the music artists in Belize to really step up to another level. We will be making stops in different locations where we will have different pastors praying in each area and the main stop will be at the cemetery where we will pray for all those who have fallen victims to crime and violence in the city. But yes, we will be making stops at the south side, in the Martins, in South Street, in George Street, Jump Street, Pink’s Alley, Victoria Street and Pregnant Alley and those areas, yes. BLACK will be a sustained campaign just as Not In My City; in fact, BLACK is a derivative from Not In My City. These campaigns we know we have to continue the push in the community to ensure that we have the desired result that we are out to achieve. As well, at the same time to that, the Eastern Division Police Detachment has already embarked on training their officers on public relations and delivering professional services to the community because we realize that as police officers, if we are not professional in delivering our services, no matter what class or race or creed you are from, that will inhibit the relations between the police and the community. And we realize that improving the relations with the community and the police is a great way for us to start to bring the community together with the police in achieving the reduction of violence and crime in the city.”
Aside from the officers that will participate in the march, Senior Superintendent Broaster says that the police will ensure that security will be provided for those participating in the BLACK March. The march starts at seven-thirty a.m. sharp. While T-shirts will be available for sale, participants as well as those not attending the march are asked to wear black or white in solidarity with the Police Department.
