Time to Counsel Hurt Southside Kids

Chester Williams

One aspect of the crime situation not regularly discussed is the traumatic impact on the youngest citizens – whether they are perpetrator, victim, or innocent bystander. The former Southside commander believes that in whichever capacity, there must be engagement with the Ministry of Human Development to obtain counseling and similar services for those traumatized by violence and trapped in a vicious generational cycle.

Chester Williams, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations)

“We will also be looking at joining forces with other stakeholders. I spoke to Miss [Judith] Alpuche just a while ago; she’s the C.E.O. in the Ministry of Human Development. And we need to see how we can maximize on her ministry, because they can play a very important role in terms of how we interact with the public, and persons who are going through some degree of poverty, probably to put them on a BOOST program or help the parents send the kids to school, these sorts of things, because again education is a factor. We have too many children who are out of school that needs to be in school. So I want to see how we can collaborate with them to see how we can get those kids back in school, and as well as to provide counseling for children who have become victims of gun violence, either directly or indirectly. Directly, in the sense that they themselves has been shot; or indirectly, in the sense that someone close to them has been shot, because sometimes these kids are witness to these heinous acts. They do not go through counseling, they grow up with this hate and anger, and remained traumatized, and they cannot wait to reach a certain age that they themselves can pick up a gun and go and take revenge. So we need to see how we can do something to be able to help our young people who have become victims to these sort of incidents, and also indirectly in the sense that maybe a crime occurred within their vicinity that they may have witnessed or heard of and that too can create trauma to a child, so we must do what we can to be able to assist them.”