Cops intervene as Maskall fiasco continues
It is with great regret that I must inform viewers that for the second straight morning I travelled to the village of Maskall…not to report on a murder, robbery or natural disaster…but just more immaturity and petty politics by grownups who should know better.
Granville Garnett, Village Councillor
?Sir me dah the councillor and I am not going to write nothing to the chairman because he was present when we have it in meetings. So what we will want again??
Policeman
?That?s why you have a vice chairman.?
Granville Garnett
?The vice chairman was here. So all of we deh there. So he noh even necessary fuh be in it, according to his movement. He the behave rude. When he done, he talk about he want respect; he want honour. And we noh honour people, we respect people. We honour God.?
Patrick Jones, Reporting
Villagers of Maskall are spitting angry, as this morning the Chairman Selvyn Graham turned up the pressure on the Belize Rural Institute for Tourism Enhancement.
When the students showed up for classes at the community centre today, they were met by armed policemen brought in from as far as Ladyville to prevent them from repeating Thursday?s incident when they broke off the lock.
Village treasurer Desiree Lanza Gibson says what the chairman is doing is ridiculous, as the council already agreed that BRITE could use the building for their training course.
Desiree Lanza Gibson, Village Treasurer
?It?s a community centre. The centre is not for the chairman; it?s for the community. So then if the community can?t go in the centre then it?s useless to have the centre.?
Patrick Jones
?Now you are preparing to enter that, are you prepared to face the consequences, if you get arrested??
Desiree Lanza Gibson
?Well if I get arrested I hope my father sees this and he comes to bail me or whoever. But I am willing to do that for my community and for the villagers. I just hope they know what I?m doing.?
And Gibson proved she is a woman of her words, taking the key from the Vice Chairman and opening the door. But the tour guide class did not get started, as the police soon collected Gibson, the Vice Chairman and two councillors, and the standoff shifted to the grounds of the police station.
While the village council officers and police met inside, in the yard outside, the students waited, a police woman took video pictures, and the backup cops waited in their vehicle. The prospective tour guides told News 5 they could not understand why grown ups were behaving like children.
Anselma Reid, Santana Resident
?I feel disappointed because every day we have to ride from Santana to Maskall and how it?s raining right now, we have to come in the rain, then change off, then when you reach here–it?s like?it?s just disappointed.?
Patrick Jones
?What do you think they should do now??
Anselma Reid
?Well I noh see the reason why the police have to get involved and a whole pile a thing because the community centre is for the community right??
Patrick Jones
?Do you see any sense in what is going on here??
William Ramirez, Bomba Resident
?No sir, no sense at all. I think the community centre is for the community, everyone in the village, you know, that?s all I want to say.?
Farah Casanova, Corozalito Resident
?Well I would like for them to open the centre and just let us finish off. We only have one more week to go. We should just continue and just finish off what we have to do.?
Enrique Alamilla, Maskall Resident
?I just think it?s ridiculous, you know, for them to lock up the community centre and know we want go dah school and get wah education. They have a song for them bally, ?Them too bad mind?. Serious thing; all them the do, di think bout themselves, them noh the try help the community because them the lock we out and plus lock we out of knowledge.?
Patrick Jones
The drama that played out here at the Maskall police station started after officer brought in four members of the village council including the treasurer who took matters into her own hand and opened the lock, given the twenty-five students access to the building to continue their classes. After a short period inside the police station, councillor Garnett stormed out saying it was making no sense.
Granville Garnett
?We try to find out from them what is the reason for this thing. The big man inside there tell me that the chairman need wah letter. And I am telling them that we never ever received wah letter from nobody fuh use the centre. That?s a community centre; it?s for the villagers. We noh the use it for any other sport, or anything else or any political thing. We are not involved with that you see. Now the police tell us, we can?t use it until we get in contact with Miss Plunkett. That?s why I come out, because I tell them that we will have a meeting tomorrow with the villagers and something have to happen. We can?t tolerate this kind a stupidness.?
Officer in Charge of the Ladyville police station, Inspector Albert Kelly says the police are just following orders.
Inspector Albert Kelly, O.C., Ladyville
?What happened is that we had received a report from the Chairman, Mr. Graham, who is in charge of the village that he had secured the centre and somebody went and broke off the lock off of the centre so that they can have access to it to use without his permission. As a result of that, that?s why we came out, we spoke to the people concerned to go through the process, the proper process, informing or requesting permission to use the centre from the chairman. That was not done, they broke off the lock, put on another one and that?s what they used to open the place this morning. So that?s the reason why we had to intervene, took away the keys and secure back the place until the proper thing is being done, and if proper permission is received, then we have no problem.?
But the vice chairman emerged from the brief meeting with the police puzzled after he was stripped of the keys to community building by Inspector Kelly. Oscar Lopez says it makes no sense when the village council is supposed to be autonomous.
Oscar Lopez, Vice Chairman
?About a month ago we had an officer meeting and we told Mr. Graham that BRITE was going to use the community centre we have it in our minutes. And I don?t know what is the problem. The officers agreed that yes BRITE can go ahead and use the community and now I don?t know what is the problem.?
And neither do we.
All I can ask is for someone with any influence in this matter to please step up to the plate, as this is getting embarrassing.
